While this might come as a surprise to some men, most women know that our gender doesn’t crave the cheapest, and deepest discounted prices. In fact, selling something “cheap” to women who have worked hard to create an abundant personal and professional life is an insult.

“Sure”, you may be thinking: “How about Zara, their clothes are cheap and their stores are always full of women.”

Good point. The difference between Zara and any retailer that screams “save, save, save,” is that magical factor VFM: Value For Money. Women’s radars are constantly on alert for VFM and we apply a few simple principles across all areas of our lives to ensure that we are always hitting the mark.

Back to Zara. This retail brand arrived like a celebrity in 2009 and women couldn’t get enough. I personally know women who took a day off work to stand in a queue outside the store and tweet about that experience alone.

Zara is a global brand that recognises that women, who are the worlds primary purchasers of everything, want to be treated first with respect and then with understanding. So, they stock products that are well-made, stylish and fun to wear. Then they merchandise their stores to display this effort and then they price them to  reflect what women want most when they shop: VFM.

Meanwhile, have a look at how US retailer JC Penney got it badly wrong with women when it recently tried out a new hile this may come gimmick way with gimmicks. Their new campaign contained no dialogue, only female consumers screaming “Nooooo!,” at  signs and advertisements announcing price reductions. “No more getting up early for door buster deals!” they shouted in spots starring comedian Ellen DeGeneres. “No more slashed prices!” But most importantly, especially to, “No more coupons”.

Apparantly, Penneys’ new CEO Ron Johnson, believed his customers were annoyed with clipping to save and he, looking through his mono-cultural lens, decided to take the retailer cold turkey on coupons. Unfortunately, Johnson didn’t read this blog and, just one quarter into the new strategy, sales dropped; JCPenney reported a $163 million loss in the first 90 days of the year and executives at the company were forced to link the coupon strategy to a 10% drop in customer traffic.

They didn’t realize how “into” coupons their customers really were, COO Mike Kramer told US media and Johnson was shocked at their commitment to the “little scraps of paper.”

Observers have commented that Johnson and his team overlooked one critical component in the decision to eliminate coupons from Penney’s marketing strategy: the female consumers who make more than 67% of mall purchases each year.

Immediately after the campaign began airing, these customers began voicing their concern.

“I am complaining about the obnoxious television commercial aired announcing your new pricing campaign,” wrote a shopper on consumeraffairs.com. “It has to be one of the most irritating, annoying commercials ever created for television. If you think this will make anyone shop at your stores, you are mistaken.”

Many others spoke out on JCPenney’s fan page on Facebook with no response until this week’s earnings announcement.

Johnson and his advisors certainly didn’t evaluate the VFM factor. Move up Move down

Well-documented research shows that women find coupons, sales promotion codes and other time-sensitive incentives to be not just relevant, but essential for delivering VFM

A recent study by Burst Media entitled “What Mom Likes Online” found that moms in particular are more than willing to click to get coupons– 45% of moms age 18-34 and 55% moms age 35-54 make it part of their daily routine.

Even Faith Popcorn, a consumer trend strategist and CEO of BrainReserve in Manhattan  has a take on this, “Taking coupons away from a couponer is like taking vodka away from an alcoholic.” She stresses that at this particular moment in time, savings are important to every consumer, from the richest to the poorest, especially where coupons are concerned.

Far from annoyed with couponing, she says that the US has become a nation obsessed. “Everybody’s hooked on the things,” she says. “You just can’t make a move like that without asking people first—and he couldn’t have asked.”

Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com, knows the importance of coupons to female consumers: 71% of users on the site are women and he’s quick to point out that whether she’s the one who presents them at the cash register or not, she’s the key influencer in the vast majority of household purchasing decisions. “She’s influencing if not dictating every major purchase,” he said.

Coupons are a powerful tool for reaching these household influencers and convincing them to try new products.  Boal confirms: “When there’s competition in a market, the retailer that delivers a coupon for both e-commerce transactions and in-store purchases tends to get a higher share of the customer wallet.”

But for JCPenney, admitting that the coupon strategy was short-sighted may not be enough to fix their very-public faux pas. “I’m offended that your COO wants to ‘wean me off’ those ‘scraps of paper,’” writes one customer on the store’s Facebook wall. “Those scraps of paper are what allow me to feed my family.” She adds that she plans to take her home goods purchases to competitor Kohl’s “since they (like me) ? coupons.”

Popcorn, who is the author of a book titled “Eveolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women,” says that Johnson and company are going to have to do some serious damage control to win back angry customers. One of the principals she discusses in her book is the importance of branding with your consumer rather than to her. “what they failed to do was to ask their customers what they wanted. They just went ahead and did it—and now they’re feeling the repercussions of that.”

“He’s got to give them stuff; he’s got to be couponing to the max,” she says. “He may consider coupons annoying bribes, but he’s got to know that they’re bribes that work.” They may be distasteful to his upper-class male sensibilities, but to atone Johnson first has to realize that, when it comes to keeping customers, his tastes aren’t the ones that matter.

Last week I introduced you to the PANKS, those women who live outside the world of traditional motherhood that will be celebrated on Sunday. Now, you need to start thinking about the women who are also tired of carrying a label that may have worked for their mothers or grandmothers, but is no good for them.

Meet the Professional Mums or Pro Mums, an emerging category of women with a high level of spending power and influence who are also writing their own rule books.

Amanda Caroll is a professional Mum who believes that the traditional badge of Single Mum needs to be kicked to the kerb. Why?

“In my humble opinion, it carries baggage. Negative baggage” says Amanda.

“It seems to imply that you are alone, but I don’t feel alone. I am grateful to my network of friends and family that surround me supporting me during this season of my life.

I have an amazing Nanny and friend that my kids love. It takes a pretty special person to show up at someone’s house at 6am…and greet the kids when they wake up, feed the breakfast, and get them dressed for the day. She is special!

So, I don’t feel “single”.  I feel more intentional in my motherhood than I ever have before.  I embrace it and take it seriously.”

If you think that Amanda is just a working mother having a bad day, think again. She is a professional communicator with her own US radio show as well as being a professional speaker where she encourages women to approach motherhood as a profession.

To put Amanda’s work into a local perspective, have a look at these statistics from a seminal Report by the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (AWCCI)

According to the Report.  the number of women who run their own businesses has doubled since 2007.

Yes,  doubled!!

These women are comprised of a variety of demographics but you can  believe that many of them will be PRO Mums.

The research, which was open only to women business owners also found that:

• 78% of women left their positions at middle to upper level management level to start their business

• 33% employ staff

• 27% have an annual turnover of more than $250,000

• 42% started their business with less than $5,000

• 51% now need capital to grow their business

These are the women walking into your stores today, deciding what products they need for their business and their personal life and what they want more than anything is for you and your sales team to take them seriously.

It’s Mother’s Day soon and it seems every business in the world wants a slice of that lucrative ‘Mum’ market. But the segment of women who do not have children is growing and they have a sizeable spending muscle, according to Melanie Notkin, founder and CEO of SavvyAuntie.com.

Notkin has coined the name PANKs (Professional Aunts No Kids) and created an onlinecommunity to provide a place for aunts to share their passion and love for their nieces and nephews. According to Notkin, membership is now in the thousands and continuing to boom and some big companies are listening.

In a recent blog on www.she-conomy.com, US based Notkin talked about the catalyst that encouraged her to launch PANKS and how male marketers can start to engage.

“This is the time of year when I feel invisible.

Mother’s Day is approaching and my inbox is already dripping with Mother’s Day messaging. And in a few weeks, on that Sunday marked with brunches and beautiful bobbles for mom, I’ll be wished a Happy Mother’s Day too.

Only I’m not a mother. (I do wish I were.)

At 42, I’m part of the new generation of women who could choose to wait for love (like in my case), could choose to love someone of the same gender, could choose not to have children (for whatever valid reason) or could be suffering from a biological issue which challenges fertility (not uncommon as women have their first child later than ever before.)

And it’s a pretty powerful generation. The US Census reports that 46% of American women are not mothers. And that’s just through age 44. For all we know, there are more non-moms than moms in America today.

Yet the assumption is that we’re all moms.  Often the labels “woman” and “mom” are interchanged so as to attribute data for women to moms. For instance, if 85% of household purchases are made by women, marketers target moms. Well in my household, 100% of purchasing decisions are made by me.

Which is why this time of year can make millions of women feel invisible. For marketers to disenfranchise nearly 50% of women is unfortunate. Especially since just about every woman has a child in her life who she loves and adores. Whether we are Aunties by Relation, Aunties by Choice, Godmothers… or just a woman who sprinkles magic to all the children she knows, and/or children around the world (think Oprah!) we’re aunts. And we have the discretionary income and time relative to moms to spend on the children in our lives, and on ourselves.

I’ve dubbed this new segment of modern American women: PANKs® (Professional Aunts No Kids), and it’s growing year after year.  In 1976 only 35% of American women didn’t have children.

Just last month, The White House Report:Women in America stated the following:

• More women than in the past  have never had a child.
• In 2008, about 18 percent of  women age 40–44 have never had a child, almost double that in 1976 (10 percent).
• There has been a steep rise in      the share of women age 25–29 who have not had a child, rising from 31  percent in 1976 to about 46% in 2008.
• And we’re childless, longer:
  - The likelihood of a woman having her first child at age 30 or older      increased roughly six-fold from about 4 percent of all first-time mothers
  in the 1970s to 24 percent in 2007.
  - 14 percent of first-time moms are age 35 or older.

But still, marketers selling fragrance and flowers on Mother’s Day will throw a wide net trying to catch all those who may be buying gifts for their mother, flooding our inboxes, mail, media and in-store messaging  with “Happy Mother’s Day!” as if all women are moms.

What’s so bad about wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day? Or sending me “Dear Mom” emails?

Marketers are turning off women who are not mothers, cannot be mothers, and have chosen not to be mothers. Not only is it an ineffective use of marketing dollars, it’s pushing away valuable consumer dollars.

Last year, Sears did a fantastic job including all women in their Mother’s Day campaign. Its  :30 second national spot was called “Other Mother’s Day” and it featured all the women in a child’s life, like the child’s aunt and mom’s best friend.

It was a genius commercial that was inclusive, stood out, and made me reconsider Sears as a place to spend my consumer dollars- on Mother’s Day and every day. And I’m not the only one. Here’s some feedback Sears received for their spot:

“I just wanted to say how touched I was by your “Other Moms” Mother’s Day commercial. As a cool aunt to my sister’s kids and the one who lets her best friend’s kids do anything, it was nice to be remembered. I’m proud to be a loyal Sears customer. I’ll be by to pick up a new dishwasher in a few weeks                         Thanks!”

Robert Raible, Sears Vice President of Integrated Marketing, realized he was onto something big when he told me this: “We acknowledge the women like the segment term you’ve taught us, ‘PANKs’ who are not mothers. We’re going to want to continue to be meaningful to this segment too and they will absolutely continue to be important whether we choose to talk to them directly like in this Mother’s Day spot or in other ways. Now that we’ve tapped into it with success, we’re looking for more opportunities.”

Sears and brands like PepsiCo, Hallmark and Disney have already invested in this segment through Savvy Auntie.  This is a great guide for Australian companies who need to do a better job of targeting the nearly 50% of women who are not mothers. Certainly there’s a real opportunity here to win loyal consumers.

It’s now five years since I launched www.connectedwomen.net.au, Australia’s first website that talked to women about consumer electronics technology. In 2007, I was greeted by many howls of derision from traditional male executives within the CE industry who thought it was amusing that a site such as ConnectedWomen would even be contemplated.

I was even told by the marketing manager of a large Korean company, that it would never succeed because all the decisions about CE products were made by the (male) Asian factory managers and they didn’t believe that women were interested in technology.

Then, there was the boardroom meeting I attended at a Japanese company in Sydney’s western suburbs where once again, the male centric team could only respond to my presentation on ConnectedWomen with underming jokes.

Those were the days! Today, the ConnectedWomen site is the fastest growing property in the Connected Digital Media online portfolio and we are on the cusp of launching it into the Asian market, following the successful launch in New Zealand late last year.

I am taking this direction because it makes good business sense. Not only is the women’s economy bigger than the economies of India and China combined, women control over 85% of all consumer purchasing across every brand category. Women also represent the majority of the online market. Any entrepreneur ignores these facts at their peril.

So, if you are willing to put your corporate toe in the women’s world, I just came across this great initiative to help you better connect with women. On May 2, the only radio program in Australia dedicated to discussing, profiling and encouraging the business woman.

Presented by Amanda Rose and Hazel Theocharous, ‘The Business Woman’ will broadcast every Wednesday 12pm-2pm on Alive 90.5FM. According to Rose and Theocharous, the Business Woman is specifically targeted for those serious about success and provides a wonderful opportunity for male marketers hesitant about entering the women’s market to begin to understand it better.

The content will focus on educating women about what works and what doesn’t work and being open and objective about all the issues a businesswoman faces on her way to the top.

Of course, you can also read more about ‘The Business Woman’ and other great female entrepreneurs on www.connectedwomen.net.au.

I know a lot of guys would like to get inside a womans’ mind ( I often have trouble getting into my own from time to time) so if you are up for it study this fact:

A woman’s brain has four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres as that of a man’s.

In fact tell that to your wife tonight and watch her smile.

And then come back to the office and ask yourself “how can I use this essential fact to make more profit for my company (and at the same time, make the world a better place).”

Below is a roadmap to guide you through the process of learning how female brain connection should affect the marketing of your business:

1.  The exponential increase in connection means that women take in that many times the number of signals through the brain.  Now that’s a challenge for you, because it also means the filter she has in place to reject all of the world’s frippery is taciturn, like a curmudgeonly little troll standing between you and her “take action” button.  The words you use in your advertising and the experience you create in your store have to be remarkable enough to penetrate that filter and plant themselves in the reward behavior area of her brain.

2.  All of those incoming signals are hurtling down the express lane of a superhighway into her right brain – the home of emotional memory, intuition, and experience.  She’s not only reading your advertising or web copy; she’s attaching feelings to it.  One critical word can make the difference between driving her to flip the page or compelling her to pick up the phone and find out where your store is located.

3.  Studies show that because of this brain wiring, women actually have a heightened sense of pain.  She’s constantly comparing her current situation to folders in the right-brain file drawer of experience; not only does she pull up a memory, she re-enacts the feelings connected with it.

And her emotional memory is so strong, she doesn’t even have to had the experience herself – all she has to do is hear the story from a friend or family member, and she stores it as thought it were her own.

So when you are sitting in your next sales and marketing meeting or briefing your advertising agency, tort out these fact and check to see if they are advanced as you in understanding women. If not, it’s definitely time for a change.

Want to be provocative in the office? Then start focusing on women in the organization.

That’s according to John H. “Jack” Zenger of Zenger Folkman,  who is considered a world expert in the field of leadership development. When Zenger and a colleague wrote about this in a recent blog , it generated an overwhelming amount of comment.

Why?

Zenger said that the message of the blog was simple.  His data from thousands of 360 degree feedback instruments showed that the women managers and executives were perceived as being more effective than their male counterparts on ¾ of the competencies that we measure.

Although the differences weren’t huge, they were statistically significant.  Of the 16 competencies in the standard leadership competency model, women scored significantly higher on 12 of them.  On only one did men receive statistically significantly higher scores?  That one exception was “strategic thinking.”

It appears that women excelled at taking initiative, displaying honesty and integrity,  problem solving, driving for results, taking initiative, communicating powerfully, inspiring and motivating others, building relationships, developing others, collaboration and teamwork, and championing change.  Men were approximately equal at technical expertise, innovation and connecting their group to the outside world.

Women received higher scores

When Zenger compared the most senior leaders in organizations, the women received higher scores from their manager, their peers and their direct reports than did their male counterparts.  The same was true of lower levels as further down the organization structure.

In light of this, it remains an extraordinary fact that women are significantly under-represented in managerial positions.  In senior-level positions, women occupy approximately 15% of them.  Yet when placed in those positions, women are given high scores from those around them.

The data suggests that by adding more women the overall effectiveness of the leadership team would go up.  Organizations go outside to recruit effective leaders when in many cases; they may well have internal people who could rise to fill the position that is vacant.

Gender doesn’t guarantee a terrific leader

In Zenger’s research, when looking at the best leaders (those rated at the top 10 percent) both male and female leaders appear. The same for the worst leaders (those at the bottom 10%): gender does not guarantee that you will be a terrific leader.

But when looking at the percentage of male and females who were rated the highest and the lowest, females have a lower percentage of the worst and a higher percentage of the best.  The percentages are based on the total number of men and women in the study. This analysis involved over 4500 leaders from a wide variety of industries.  It included data from leaders North America, Europe, South America and the Pacific Rim countries.

Zenger’s research suggests that companies would do well to invest even more development in their women and then insure that they are given strong consideration for every leadership vacancy that occurs.

In preparation for my weekly blog, I search local and global sources for inspiration and guidance,. Yet ultimately, most topics come back to the same premise: Women are the most powerful consumers in the world, while being the most underrepresented in the boardroom.

My friend, Jen Dalitz www.jendalitz.com is the founder and SheEO of sphinxx and Australia’s thought leader on gender balance.
Jen is obsessed with getting more women into leadership roles, in our workplaces and communities. This week she posted another insightful article on this issue and I have taken the liberty of re-posting an edited version this week.

The original post came from Aileen Lee, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where she focuses on investing in consumer internet ventures.

Why your next board member should be a woman

Good questions have been asked lately of tech companies without gender diversity on their boards of directors. While women comprise 51% of the population, they make up only 15.7% of Fortune 500 boards of directors, less than 10% of California tech company boards, and 9.1% of Silicon Valley boards.

Why should we care?

For one, women are the power users of many products and it’s just smart business to have an understanding of key customers around the table. Could you imagine a game company without any gamers on the leadership team or board?

If you’re not aware, studies also show companies with gender diversity at the top drive better financial performance on multiple measures – for example, 36% better stock price growth and 46% better return on equity. And, studies show the more women, the better the results. This is likely because teams with more females demonstrate higher collective intelligence and better problem solving ability. So it’s probably not a coincidence the world’s most admired companies have more women on their boards than the average company.

There is a group of public companies that gets these insights – they are quietly adding some of the smartest women in Silicon Valley to their boards of directors. And most are not making much noise about it, perhaps they want to benefit from their savvy while their competitors are asleep at the wheel.
I was impressed by a move by AutoNation, the country’s largest auto retailer (US$4.6B market cap). They did an extensive search and last year added Alison Rosenthal to their board – an off-the-F500-radar-screen, Brown and Stanford educated, early Facebook team member who led FB’s core BD activities for 5 years in social, growth, international and mobile.

Why add a 30-something female to a male board with an average age of 58? Mike Maroone, AutoNation’s President and COO explained, “We looked at our board [and realized] it’s male dominated, while women make over 50% of the purchasing decisions in our business. And, the travel, music and news industries have been transformed by digital. We’re trying to transform the auto business and connect with the thinking of the digital generation, and we need this level of insight at the board level.”

AutoNation is not alone in identifying next gen talent that adds diversity of gender, thought, age and experience to the boardroom, long the domain of (male) titans of big business, law and finance.

LinkedIn (US$9.1B) was ahead of the curve when they added longtime Netflix CMO Leslie Kilgore to the board in 2010. And in the past year, TripAdvisor (US$4.1B market cap) added former Google International exec Sukhinder Singh Cassidy to the board of directors; HomeAway (US$2.1B) added Google Ads head Susan Wojcicki; LuluLemon (US$9.3B) added FB local-and-mobile exec Emily White; Starbucks ($36.5B) added 29-year-old Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay Social and author of The Facebook Era; and Scripps Networks Interactive (US$6.9B) just announced the addition of Gina Bianchini, CEO/founder of Mighty Software.
Of this, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says, “Some boards may look for candidates already on other boards, or CEOs of other companies. In the case of Leslie’s seat, we were looking to add someone with specific expertise, CEO or non-CEO, to complement our board – and the results from broadening our consideration set have been outstanding.”

Christine Day, CEO of LuluLemon, offered similar sentiments. “We wanted a board member who understands how our target guest thinks, is a leader in the world of digital innovation and social, and understands steep growth. Emily is part of a new generation that is going to change the game.”

Ebay (US$45.1B market cap) also recently added Facebook product marketing exec Katie Mitic to their board. Of this, CEO John Donohoe told me, “We were looking to add people who understand the web of the future and our consumer (50% of whom are women), and who are product and tech savvy. Katie is a 12 out of 10 on these. And, we have a strong commitment to attracting, developing and retaining female leaders. There’s also a cultural impact outside of the boardroom – it’s inspiring to our team members and community to see someone like Katie on our board.”

By adding new blood to the boardroom, these companies are getting a four-fer, or more: 1) gender diversity, and in most cases, age diversity around the table; 2) better understanding of core customers; 3) Social-Mobile-Local expertise and insight into digital platforms like Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Twitter, Path, Square, Flipboard and Pinterest that are fundamentally changing business; and 4) hyper growth and rapid innovation DNA.

These factors are driving a trend to change board composition. And from what I’ve heard from CEOs, the smartest companies will continue to diversify their boards rather than “checking a box.” Initiatives like 20by2020 will also help.

There’s an opportunity to make your board, and your company, smarter by adding diversity, especially of gender. And if you’re at a smaller company, there’s a greater likelihood that your board lacks diversity – and that’s an opportunity to seize, especially if your company counts on females as key users. Savvy companies are quietly changing up their boards of directors and teams, and this is giving them better collective intelligence, more community admiration, and better financial results.

Thanks Aileen.

Sure, that’s a quote from the famous David Ogilvy, but in the week that celebrates International Women’s Day, it’s timely to hear from two women who are not complaining but doing something about making advertising gender intelligent.

After working at big companies like Ammirati Puris Lintas, Kristi Faulkner and Sandy Sabean saw a need in the market for an agency that brings a uniquely female perspective. Clients agreed and now marketers like Citibank Women & Co., TD Ameritrade, Post Cereals and Bag Borrow or Steal enlisting the 12-person shop.

Badged Womenkind the new agency will make its national debut in May on AMC’s upcoming ad competition reality show, The Pitch. Hear what  Faulkner and Sabean have to say about breaking new ground.

Michael Silverstein, senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group, and  author of the groundbreaking book, Women Want More, will speak at the 8th Annual M2W– The Marketing To Women Conference, April 24 and 25, in Chicago.

According to Silverstein, “A quiet economic and social revolution is taking place.”

“There may be no violence in the streets, but there is upheaval in the workplace, turmoil in the home, radical change in the marketplace, and a struggle for influence in government and society as a whole. It is a revolution of, by, and for women – driven by a desire for more: for ongoing education, better ways to nurture themselves and their families, increased success as executives and entrepreneurs, higher earnings, and for better ways to manage and leverage their accumulated wealth.”

“It is a revolution of dissatisfaction where women are using their checkbooks to vote ‘no’ on large sectors of the economy, including financial services, consumer electronics, consumer durables, and healthcare. They are saying: ‘You don’t understand me,’ ‘There are too many demands on my time,’ ‘I have an overwhelming share of household chores and a full-time job,’ ‘Help me or I’ll find another provider.’”

Nan McCann, M2W producer claims that study after study has shown that women are the dominant drivers of our consumer economy. “They account for US$7 trillion of annual spending in the US, and over US$20 trillion globally.”

M2W is annually attended by Fortune 1000 senior brand marketing executives and their agencies. Registration includes Harley-Davidson, Bayer, Aetna, ESPN, Kraft Foods, Ford, GM, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Diageo, Walgreens, Wells Fargo, NBA, WebMD, Burton, Ampersand AD, L’Oreal, ConAgra and Whirlpool.

They attend,” McCann says, “because they recognize the importance of reaching women – who control 85% of all consumer purchasing in virtually every product category.”

The M2W Conference is a component within Women Mean Business! Week and its associated events, April 23 – 27, 2012, in Chicago. The week is an executive education effort anchored by the expansion of two marketing conferences, the eighth Annual M2W– The Marketing To Women Conference, and the third M2WHW– The Marketing Health & Wellness To Women Conference. It is designed to inform business leaders about the global economic and cultural impact of women. In addition to the two conferences, the week’s activities include the Global Kickoff Luncheon, M2W’s Global Brand Panel and Global Agency Panel pre-conference sessions, and a mid-week fundraiser.

One of the highlights of the week will be the play ‘Defending the Caveman’ Broadway’s hit comedy about the sexes www.cavemania.com.

Defending the Caveman depicts the ways men and women relate to each other. Without taking sides, this insightful comedy discusses the ongoing battle for understanding between the sexes. Caveman was written by comedian Rob Becker over a three year period during which he made an informal study of psychology, sociology, and prehistory.

Claire Moffat will also participate in the M2W conference as a delegate on the Global Agency Panel.

As we all gain an education watching Venus and Mars battle it out for the top seat in Parliament House, it would be helpful to remember that even in the insular world of politics, men and women think and act differently.

Take a note from Dr. Bob Deustch, a cognitive anthropologist, who has distilled these differences into four words: “WOMEN CYCLE, MEN CONSUMATE.”

So what does it mean for marketers (of products, politics or people?).

According to Dr Deustch, women mull things over, they picture the relationship between things, and conceptualize the long-term patterns. Women desire evolution, experience, and good relationships.

Men, on the other hand, want “it” done right now and they tend to align themselves with the here-and-now. Men tend to desire achievement, action, and power.

Given this interpretation, it is remarkable that companies are still employing teams of men to market to  women.

“…the two genders have different ways of perceiving causality, time, and power.Therefore, you can’t market to women the same way that you would market to a man,” Deustch says. Below is his guide to getting it right.

Seven key principles to consider when desiring to market to women:

1.       Pattern: Women don’t just focus on a point. They are more likely to understand and appreciate the initial idea that gives way to a short moment in time.

2.       Authenticity: Women look past immediate appearance to calculate other factors such as history or persona. They also recognize that “universal principles underlie particularities.” Keyword: transparency. Women are likely to dive deeper and find out where you’re coming from. Save her the trouble and tell her. If you make a mistake, be honest about it and fix it. Home Depot and their use of Twitter is a great example of this.

3.       Quality: Not just quantity (size). For women, bigger and/or more is not always better. A steady build will get you farther than one impulsive response. Otherwise, go deeper. Have a conversation with the women your are targeting and find out what they like. Don’t just throw a pink blanket over your product and expect women to come running.

4.       Connectedness: Not just individuals. Women are more likely to see that we are all bound together and they appreciate the idea of community. Hello, the whole premise of social media!

5.       Society: Not just markets! Markets are just numbers and women are not just numbers! Women are people, people who have a multitude of feelings and intentions. Don’t assume that because there are “X” number of women, you have the ability to sell “X” number of products and that they can be reached with the same message. Just as men and women are different, women in various groups have differing thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

6.       Quality of Life: Not just accumulation. Marketers must recognize that there are individuals wants and musts that make up the needs that facilitate the buying of “things.” Don’t just tell a women she needs something, tell her why she needs it and how it will improve her life

7.       Reasonableness: Not extremism or absolutism. Recognize that there are always gray areas. Very few issues are black and white. Exaggerations to either side of an issue covers up the nuances and subtleties that women are adept at recognizing. Ever heard the phrase, “a woman’s intuition”? Women can pick up subtle messages, there is little use in strong arming your message.

The essence of this message is simple: if companies want to connect with women to the degree that they buy their products and become brand advocates they must be willing to build relationships. While this may be a challenge for many gender focused businesses, the fact that women make 85% of all consumer purchases, makes it essential, not an option.