Ladies, Oh How They Love the Internet

Interesting session on marketing to women. The panel had a few substitutions. Here was the final line-up:

• Moderator: Toby Elkin, Executive Editor, Mediapost, who recently wrote an Online Minute on the subject of Women Online
  
• Todd Anderman, SVP of Sales, American Greetings Interactive
  
• Michelle Edelman, Dir of Strategic Planning, Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago
  
• Jeanie Caggiano, Leo Burnett
  
• Neil Perry, independent marketing consultant to clients including McDonald’s

One highlight that makes this blog post worthwhile is news of this study from Yahoo, “Real Women, Digital World: The Untold Story of Women and the Web” (download PDF). I haven’t had a chance to read the study yet, but some other highlights from the panel include the following observations:

• Don’t forget to consider advertising on game sites. Women play more games online than men (just different kinds) and spend more time at it.
  
• Many marketers “tend towards inertia, based on what has worked for them in the past,” noted Edelman. Her point: much advertising tends to be aimed at white males just because that’s what it has been aimed at before, while different demographic segments, including women as well as ethnic segments, may be a powerful way for brands to gain share in new sectors. As an example, she noted that Craftsman was recently amazed and delighted to discover that some women use power tools, too!
  
• Caggiano noted that women hate being marketed to, but love being helped. One reason so many women are happy to conduct business online is that “it’s hard to feel stupid on the Internet,” noting that many women are self-conscious revealing what they don’t know when shopping in person for categories such as electronics, cars and so on.
  
• Women love relationships (duh), including those they make online both with marketers and particularly with communities
  
• Women are focused on getting things done online. They want to get in an out of a site, accomplishing specific tasks, as quickly and efficiently as possible. They have little patience with the flashy non-essentials.
  
• One challenge consumer packaged goods have in the real world is that consumers face too many choices on the shelves. Online is a great way for CPG marketers to break through the clutter to consumers (and most consumers of CPGs are women), getting them to spend the extra few seconds engaging with the value propositions of a brand that can make the difference when they are later confronted with a decision at the shelves.

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