Marketing to Women

thePoint
June 23, 2005

Looking for a market with big opportunity and low competition that's riding an uptrend? Then "cherchez la femme" or "seek out the woman" and you'll be on the fast track to sales growth, market-share dominance, and profit improvement, Martha Barletta tells Bank Marketing News.

"Women should be the primary target, but most banks don't know that," says Barletta, author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment. Women are vitally important to a financial institution's marketing plan because they're the:

• Keepers of the household checkbook
• Holders of the primary credit card
• Fastest-growing segment of home buyers
• Purchasers of two out of three new cars
• Controllers of the finances in 53% of U.S. households
• Majority (51%) of the U.S. population
• Achievers of 57% of the college degrees
• Decision-makers concerning 80% of household purchases

"The simple fact is that women are now deeply integrated into the workplace, are more educated on average than men, and often earn as much or more than men,” says Barletta. The result is the power of the purse that comes from earning.”

So don't try to label them as a niche market. Women are not a small specialty category. Review their population numbers and awesome consumer power and then, Barletta says, "get this initiative out of the 'specialty markets' group and rename it something like 'monster opportunities group.'"

If you want to create marketing messages that resonate with the largest share of the consumer population, you've got to start paying attention to what women want. Most bank advertising assumes that women have the same aspirations as men. They don't. Use the same marketing strategies for both and you risk missing the greater mark.

What Works with Women

"One key area of improvement is on the outbound marketing done by financial institutions," says Barletta. "All that direct mail looks remarkably alike, and is a waste of time because people have to be really engaged to play that game." What works are the right list, the right creative, and the right offer.

1. You have to mail to the right person. That would be the woman of the household, considering she handles the checkbook.

2. Improve the look of direct mail pieces. Women are more interested in people than statistics and features. Putting people on the outside of the mailer means it will more likely be opened and read.

3. Simplify the communication of the product. Women are not just busy, they're time starved. They've taken on a role in the workplace, and the home front hasn't changed as much or as fast.

"What retailers don't appreciate is that even women who don't work outside the home still have tight schedules," explains Barletta. "There are appointments, sports practice, music lessons, and day care. You hold up a woman by 10 minutes, and you're creating irritation. She's not going to spend the time reading the bullet points."

Don't waste space with maps promoting branches and addresses. She only cares about the one closest to home. Instead, devote print space to what makes the customer's life easier.

Leave out the endless lists of facts and figures and focus on the elements of commonality with other customers. Women appreciate a story-telling approach more than a straight-product pitch.

Financial institutions have been offering "universal appeal" premiums since day one and the market is saturated. Try a more female-friendly premium, such as the cowgirl purse recently offered by a Texas bank.

Also, offer the account that has the most value. While free checking is nice, it may not be appropriate.

"Instead of selling stuff to people who don't want it, focus on selling what's perfect for her," says Barletta. "Her" being that time-starved, multi-tasking, action figure. "Free" is not nearly as important as "It can solve a lot of my problems."

Gender-culture sensitivity should cut across all parts of the business, and can easily be applied to training materials. A large percentage of people who work in a financial institution, especially the front line, are women, but most bank training materials are not aligned with gender.

As a salesperson, Vanessa Freytag claims she'd "take this market all day long."

"The woman's market is growing exponentially, we're not at the peak," says the president of W-Insight Inc. in Cincinnati, and former national director of Bank One's Woman Entrepreneur Initiative. "But the financial services industry hasn't fully awakened to the opportunity."

Freytag admits there's still a lot of confusion on where to begin. A common first step is to assign the women in the bank the job of selling to women. But research has shown that women don't care about the gender of the adviser.

A survey of 743 women with at least $3 million in investable assets done by Hannah Shaw Grove and Russ Alan Prince resulted in the report "Women of Wealth." Of note were the top things considered important when talking to an adviser. The number one answer, by 90% of respondents, was "chemistry." Number two was "knowing that the adviser is hooked on the woman's goals." Gender was an issue for less than 10% of respondents.

"Not having a lot of female employees doesn't mean you're hindered from going after this market," counters Freytag. "Anyone who is a consultative sales person will do well because mostly you hear women complain that advisers are not listening. They're trying to tell her what to do, not advise her."

When focusing on the women's market, your first task is to hone in on the category of women you want to target, whether on the business or consumer side. The Center for Women's Business Research finds that one in 11 adult women today is an entrepreneur, and one in seven employees works for a woman-owned business. The growth in numbers of affluent women has predominantly come from those who have stalled or run their own business. Within the women-business-owners' category are subsets, such as new owners, established owners with over $1 million in revenue, or those with more than 10 employees.

The consumer side also has many possible breakouts. Alfluent women are often defined by levels of assets and income, but there are still several subsets in terms of approach. Some women have created their own wealth, while others married or inherited wealth. Each has different needs.

It's also very common to look at life stages, which can trigger financial needs. But Freytag warns, "Be cautious about making presumptions. The boomer generation broke the mold when it comes to being able to look at age categories."

It's no longer as simple as dividing up financial needs on a generational basis. For one, women are waiting to have children, which means they're not done with college costs until their mid-to-late 50s. That has a dramatic impact on retirement planning. It also alters women's needs with respect to financial advisers.

This article was prepared by the staff at the Point for Credit Union Research and Advice and is published online at http://thepoint.cuna.org/. Reprinted with permission.