Marketers And Advertisers: Women Are Driving The Purchasing Bus, Get Used To It

“Women control the majority of purchasing decisions in a household and their influence is growing.” That’s just one of the many key findings from a Nielsen Study which showed that women the world over are in control of purchasing decisions which should serve as a wake up call to business to consumer (B2C) marketers and advertisers across the globe. 

The study, titled Women of Tomorrow: A Study of Women Around the World, provides insight into how current and future generations of female consumers shop and use media differently and presents many cases where marketers have a “massive opportunity to better connect women with the products they buy and the media technologies they use to make a positive impact both in their lives and in the bottom line.” The study also provides even more proof as to the importance of creating and integrated marketing and advertising message.

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Online Ad Targeting Is Pretty Much Like Dating

It turns out that it’s pretty simple to understand what women want. All you have to do is ask them. Of course, you have to be listening and willing to put it into practice. Having been married for nearly 9 years, I’m no genius at dating; but there are some parallels here that even my feeble brain can pull out.

In March of this year, behavioral targeting company Q Interactive did just that when they surveyed 1,800 female Internet users about the practice of targeted advertising. It turns out that women are actually okay with it – to the extent that they view it positively and actually want more of it.

When faced with an online ad that was closely aligned with their interests or activities, only 11% thought it was “weird,” while nearly 66% thought it was “cool.” Admittedly, this is when faced with ads from trusted brands. There’s no indication how the respondents felt when such targeted happened from untrusted or unknown brands, however.

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