dispatches from the new world of work

Reading Assignment!
Action Assignment!

Memorize this equation:

W > 2(C + I)

Put the damned equation on posters all over the damned walls and halls of every damned office.
Put the equation on everybody's Desktop.
Etc.
Etc.

Translation, my passion of the last 15 years: The "women's market" is over twice as big as the Chinese and Indian markets combined. And, on average, you aren't doing a damn thing about it—and that even holds if you think you do in fact "get it" and are "on it."

My 1.5 decade passion has been most recently re-enforced by a feature in the September Harvard Business Review, by Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre:

"The Female Economy: As a market, women represent a bigger opportunity than China and India combined; so why are companies doing such a poor job of serving them?"

It begins:

"Women now drive the world economy. Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. ... In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than twice as big, in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer. And yet many companies do just that, even ones that are confident they have a winning strategy when it comes to women."

Soooooooooo?????????
When???????
Please!!!!!!!
Damn it!!!!!!!!
(I beg you!!!!!!)
(Again!!!!!!)

Tom Peters posted this on 09/08/09.

Comments

Tom,

Women have always controlled world economies. They know how to shop, they know how to market, and many of them know exactly what they want...that's why men act so stupid around them.

However, what is it that men really want? How do men make decisions to purchase and what marketing tools are appealing to that segment of the population. All of this women stuff about market share is somewhat trivial. I always involve my wife in major purchases and shopping for the kids; she, on the other hand, doesn't involve me, which is fine.

Why don't you look at this from the other end of a spectrum and see what's important to men, other than beer and s*x of course? [Ed. This comment has been edited to replace a more vulgar term]

Now that more men are entering the ranks of unemployment and shopping, you should be somewhat more interested in that "significant" cultural change.

Posted by The Joker at September 8, 2009 7:19 PM

Tom,
The heart of the problem,as near as I can figure out, is that women may be doing most of the buying, but men are still doing most of the 'selling'. And women don't like to buy, the way men like to sell.

It goes back to Dale Carnegie's heavily co-opted phrase - 'People hate being sold, but they love to buy' - with the women I know, this is true x100,000,000!

Posted by Jason at September 8, 2009 7:44 PM

I've tried to get this over to my bosses on several occasions. I run a store here in the UK and the powers that be can't understand why I merchandise the women's products at the front of the store rather than at the back.

I've tried pointing out that it's the women who make most of the buying decisions in the store and that other retailers such as Marks & Spencer, BHS and Tesco place their women's clothing either at the front of the store or at the start of their clothing departments. It makes no difference and I suspect when I get back from the holiday I'm on at the moment that the men's stuff will be back at the front of the store...

I've also seen such things from a different perspective when out and about. About fifteen years ago a guy in a hardware store spent five minutes talking at me about the type of cable I needed to wire up a cooker hob. It was great to see the look on his face when I said 'I'm not a qualified electrician, but she is...'. My partner at the time had to wait until we left the store before she burst out laughing...

I did see this again though a few years later when looking at and SUV - my partner on this occasion was a sales rep for a medical company and she was looking for a new company car. Once again the guy couldn't get his head around this concept...

Posted by Keith Rickaby at September 9, 2009 4:37 AM

And yet every clothes or main store I go to is clearly laid out with women in mind (i.e. completely illogically!)- shopping as a man is so frustrating........

Posted by PaulH at September 9, 2009 8:11 AM

No COMMENTS from women???????

Posted by tom peters at September 10, 2009 8:13 AM