Comments

Fantastic - This is right on the ball. I love the part about not worrying about alienating male customers. This male customer is already alienated by dumb jock marketing and business practices. You can only make things better!

For me the sad part is that it has taken an active campaign (i.e. to specifically market to women) to get business to wake up and do what they should have been doing all along which is to listen to customers (male or female)

Posted by PaulH at October 10, 2005 3:27 PM

Like Paul I find it really irritating that it has taken this push to positively target women so that companies wake up to how to really treat customers. There is still a long way to go here in England. Some companies still act as though customers are a mere inconvenience to them enjoying a quiet life. I am still staggered for instance that I have to chase, chase and chase again to get things done in traditional companies. On the other hand ‘new kids on the block’ such as Amazon and Play.com realise the customer is number one and the service is fantastic. I do not ‘feel’ like a burden to these companies - I am made to feel special. On the other hand the more traditional organisation often makes me feel like I am disturbing their tranquility and complaining for no reason. I have never understood why customers are not treated as really special people -regardless of their gender. If it takes positive discrimination and campaigns to target women then so be it – I welcome any method of improving customer experience.

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 11, 2005 1:45 AM

the book Underdog Marketing by Lawler points out marketing to women (Executive Women) was an example for creating a differential advantage ....perhaps this mass thought of marketing to women as Tom (passionately points out) is just part of the slow adoption curve of thought which we all know is in play. However, the marketing xboxes to moms may have more to do with marketing to them so they will not get sticker shock when the new 360's are on the top of the holdiday season gift requests (so that is more about influencing the purse strings not conversion of an untapped market).

Posted by Bert Blevins at October 11, 2005 2:54 PM

Re Microsoft on a related and interesting dimension, I read a while back that the lion's share of their systems coders are male, and a majority of their interface designers/coders are women--which makes some sense.

Posted by tom peters at October 11, 2005 4:06 PM

Thanks to BT Hathaway for the link on the Times article. I've put in my research files to follow up on. In my book, I have a section on women gamers. It's hard to believe that the industry still doesn't get women when a majority of gamers are women over 40, according to some surveys. Moreover, this isn't just about getting mom to say yes to buying the box...it's about realizing that mom might just want to play the games as well. It's too easy to stereotype moms as simply the gatekeepers to the family. McDonald's played that game for a long time and ended up losing out ...until they realized that if they offered women something to eat along with the Happy Meals for their children, they might just be on to something.

Posted by Fara Warner at October 12, 2005 4:58 PM

I'm unsure if it is a male female thing or just lousy customer service that happens all too often - to my observations anyway. Seems to be a dirth of CS people who sort things by their own convenience and needs - for instance in Lowes some CS will take you right to the item you ask about; whereas major appliance sales try to spend minimal time answering detailed questions!

The radical change with women consumers seems to be the USA is a consumer society deeply in debt and about 60% clinically obese - too much consumption lead by women.

Posted by Sean at October 13, 2005 8:07 AM

Fara makes some excellent points about many industries, including financial services, in her book. Another example of a financial service company that has targeted women with great success is MassMutual. Their strategies were multifold. Ad campaigns and seminars were produced to appeal to women titled “Never Kissed a Frog, Never Had To” and “Pearls of Wisdom.” As a result, MassMutual has captured the loyalty and support of key women influencers in local communities across the country through the Women's Advisory Boards my company has set up for them. These Boards tackle financial literacy and many other community outreach programs that are important to women. In the process they've made substantial gains in marketing to women and recruiting them as employees.

Posted by Gerry Myers at October 21, 2005 1:03 PM