The Online Female Consumer
What makes women online different from men? First of all, there's more of them: 97 million females vs. 91 million males, and distaff dominance will continue till at least 2011, reported Kate Thorp of Real Girls Media Network.
A few more stats: 66 percent of females are online vs. 64 percent of males, and the percentage of women 18-34 who blogged at least once a week rose from 25 to 30 percent in the last year. "The Internet is now the most vital medum in women's lives," Thorp reported, trailing only work, sleep, and family time.
Unfortunately, though, this handful of relatively common and certainly Google-able data points amounted to most of the meat and potatoes in a session that was otherwise lean on food for thought.
To be fair, Thorp was plagued by technical issues. (It seldom serves the presentation experience well to have audience members screaming browser instructions at the person behind the podium.) However, far too much time was spent talking about women and online video (they watch news, music and movie previews) and the Dove campaign (is there anyone who hasn't seen the Dove campaign?).
After 35 minutes of laying the groundwork and dealing with a cranky laptop, Thorp finally arrived at the core of the session as she introduced three "real online consumers" who were there to give some insight into what women do online. However, I couldn't help but be nagged by the fact that while these three power users were real, they were far from typical. How many of the 97 million women online actually shop for literally everything online, to the point where they wind up rediscovering the in-person retail experience while vacationing in India?
The first audience question came 56 minutes into the hour-long session, which would have been better served by far less groundwork and far more Q and A. To take the three power users' collective word for it, though: women hate ads, never click on banners,
In response to a question about coupon sites, one of the "real online consumers" remarked that she didn't bother with them. After all, it's just four bucks, so who cares? My guess is a far greater percentage of those 97 million Web users than this session would indicate -- and those women are a huge percentage of the audience ad:tech marketers are looking to reach.
So how should marketers reach women online? Thorp had a five-point plan for breaking through the clutter: start with better communication, develop a relationship, be valuable to her, deliver on brand promises and create a brand advocate.
Easier said than done, of course, and pretty much common knowledge among the ad:tech audience (or at least it should be). The session would have been far more valuable, though, if it focused less on what everyone knows needs to be done and more on how to actually do it.
