Selling To Venus

 Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth.

– MassMutual Financial Group–2007

Wealthy boomer women are the marquee players in our country’s culture and commerce. They are educated, have a high income, and make 95 percent of the purchase decisions for their households.

– Karen Vogel, The Women’s Congress and co-founder and president of New Generation Event Solutions

Once the college bills are out of the way and children launch their own households, the discretionary spending power of 50-plus women soars. They spend 2.5 times what the average person spends. Women are the primary buyers for computers, cars, banking, financial services and a lot of other big-ticket categories.

– Marti Barletta, Primetime

Women represent the majority of the online market

• 22% shop online at least once a day

• 92% pass along information about deals or finds to others

• 171: average number of contacts in their e-mail or mobile lists

• 76% want to be part of a special or select panel

• 58% would toss a TV if they had to get rid of one digital device (only 11% would ditch their laptops)

• 51% are moms

Source: Mindshare/Ogilvy & Mather

Women process information and make purchasing decisions differently than men:

• 59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers;
• 66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers;
• 74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers;
• 84% feel misunderstood by investment marketers
• 91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don’t understand them
• 70% of new businesses are started by women
• The average black woman spends 3 times as much on beauty products compared with the average woman
• Women influence $90 billion dollars worth of consumer electronic purchases in 2007
• 61% of women influence household consumer electronic buying decisions
• Nearly 50% of women say they want more green choices
• 37% are more likely to pay attention to brands that are committed to environmental causes.
• 25% of all products in a woman’s shopping cart nowadays are environmentally friendly.When women are aware you support women owned businesses
• 79% would try your product or service
• 80% would solidify their brand loyalty
• 51% would give a company a second chance if a product or service missed the mark the first time
• Women make more than 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions
• Consulting firm A.T. Kearney estimates that women determine 80% of consumption, purchase 60% of all cars and own 40% of all stocks
• 57% of women gardened within the last year
• 55% of women spent time reading literature within the last year
• Single women are becoming a more influential category versus 10 years ago
• In 1998, only 69% of women between 18 and 24 were involved in home electronics purchases. By 2008, that number has grown to 91%, in part driven by the prevalence of personal electronics such as cell phones and computers
• Over the past 10 years, the number of women 25-34 who were single or living with a significant other increased 8% to 38%
• And they are more educated: the percentage of women who had an undergraduate or graduate degree increased, from 28% to 41%, over those 10 years.

Women make more online purchases (61 percent) than men do and account for nearly $6 out of every $10 (58 percent) spent online.

As you might expect, women effortlessly rule in apparel and accessories (71 percent of dollars spent) as well as toys and hobbies (67 percent of dollars).

“Our research helps illustrate just how massive an opportunity exists for marketing to women and the advantage of developing technology and products that speak to their needs and improve their lives,” said Linda Abraham, comScore’s chief marketing officer, when the report was released.

For instance, women use their phones to “tweet” and “friend” 10 percent more than men do and, on average, send and receive 30 percent more monthly text messages, according to Nielsen 2010 data. Worldwide, comScore found that women average 5.5 hours per month on social networking sites, compared to men’s four hours.

~ Global ComScore Report

Female-focused subject lines and text generate much higher CTRs (click-through rates) than generic messaging, reports Heather Bonura, director of brand strategy at Listrak, a Lititz, Pennsylvania-based email marketing firm.

For instance, a Listrak woman-friendly email campaign for footwear maker Birkenstock Central generated a remarkable 9.09 percent conversion rate, compared to its previous 3.63 percent average.

~ Listrak