By David Jenkin
Research compiled by The Terri and Sandy Solution, a New York-based agency, in 2014, indicated that while women make 85 percent of all consumer purchases (representing a sum of over US$7 trillion), 91 percent say that advertisers don’t understand them.
Women have buying power Unpacking the findings, Gabe Rosenberg
writes for
Contently.com: “The disconnect comes, arguably, from a misunderstanding of modern gender roles.” A breakdown of spending figures by gender points to where that disconnect occurs.
The data, aggregated from numerous surveys, revealed that women purchase 50 percent of traditionally male products such as consumer electronics and home improvement. Women reportedly account for 80 percent of all sports apparel spending and control 60 percent of all money spent on men’s clothing. In the home, women control 70 percent of household spending, influencing (directly or indirectly) 91 percent of new home purchases and 90 percent of new car purchases, representing 65 percent of direct new car purchases themselves. They control 94 percent of interior decorating buying decisions, 92 percent of all holiday trip buying decisions, and control a total of 89 percent of financial decisions.
Rosenberg explains; “The lesson here is that brands should smarten up about women. Women are viewing ads, reading and watching content, and making purchase decisions. And what brands think are ‘men’s’ products are, in reality, anybody’s products. But brands aren’t selling them that way.”
Women don’t fit in boxes The prevalence of male advertising agency creative directors has caused a ‘top-down’ problem with conception and design, Rosenberg writes, but the central problem lies in realising the nuances and expansive definition of who American women and men are. “The heart of the matter is that brands, marketers, and advertisers all need to be in conversation with women about what they buy, what they respond to, and what will encourage them to be loyal to a brand.”
Lusanda Worsley, founder and managing director of
Empire Innovations Agency, feels that The Terri and Sandy Solution’s findings do reflect a problem that extends to Africa and other parts of the world and will likely be around for some time yet. This she attributes to a common lack of communication and understanding between brands and their consumers.
“You cannot categorise ‘us’ into one box and think that is okay,” she says; “You are dealing with generations that are vastly different yet some that are extremely close in age. The traditional roles between a man and a woman have reversed in some instances. A lot of brands and agencies need to realise this, accept it, and dive deeper into the psyche of the consumer they are targeting to understand the ‘why’ in order to figure out ‘who’ their consumers truly are, and ‘what’ they really need to do for them.”
Solution: do the research Makhetsi Phakoa of
ProActive Brand Activation believes that brands in South Africa are generally better. She says of her perspective: “In terms of implementing consumer campaigns for brands, for every activation that we do, we perform in-depth research into the targeted consumer market and this ensures that the campaign is relevant to them, women included. When the targeted consumer is strictly female, we research this market segment to gain the relevant insights into how they want the brand to engage with them, when and how.”
It is possible that similar surveys of female consumers in South Africa would yield very different results, if indeed local marketers are generally more in tune with their audience. There is reason to believe that would be the case, owing to the fact that South Africa’s vast cultural diversity necessitates an appreciation for a similarly vast range of different lifestyles and values.
However, there are some notable examples to the contrary and one in particular that stands out owing to the huge amount of negative media attention it attracted. It was for a National Women’s Day campaign in 2015 that a pen manufacturer in South African told women they should be looking like girls and thinking like men.
Do you think South African marketers understand women? Tell us in the comments below.