It's A Woman's World!

I told my wife that this week’s column was about a muscular black man, sitting on a white horse wearing nothing but a towel... By the time you read this, my wife will have purchased seven hundred copies of this newspaper.

Seriously though, I want to take a moment to applaud the latest Old Spice commercial from south of the border, courtesy of advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy.

The commercial features a handsome, muscle-clad spokesman, dressed in a bath towel who, in one continuous camera shot, goes from standing in a shower to walking on a boat to sitting on a horse. The spokesman proudly reminds us that while our ‘man’ may not actually be the spokesman, our ‘man’ could at least smell like the spokesman, if he used Old Spice after shave.

One problem. I don’t have a ‘man’. My wife does though.

Wait a minute! Is it possible that Wieden & Kennedy are actually selling a man’s after shave by targeting women?

That’s crazy! But then again, in a world where Kate Gosselin can be featured as a Celebrity on ‘Dancing With the Stars’, anything’s possible.

Actually, there is method to Wieden & Kennedy’s madness.

A recent study conducted in the United States suggests that women are the key decision makers for 81% of all purchases. Another study conducted here in Canada suggests women are responsible for up to 90% of all purchases.

What does this mean?

That men have it 9% better in the United States.

It also means that advertisers need to wake up and recognize it’s a woman’s world when it comes to buying products and services, even the turbo powered, body-odoured, beer-swilling, guy ones.

What Wieden & Kennedy recognize is that, while men may conduct many of the transactions, it’s actually women who have the greatest influence over purchasing decisions, even the purchasing of their ‘man’s’ after shave.

So, Mr. 18 Volt Lithium Powered, Hi Torque Impact Driver Sales Guy, how do you advertise to women? First off, it helps to understand some of the basic scientific differences between men and women.

For example, scientific studies prove women can read facial expressions and body language better than men.

The same studies show the corpus callosum fibres connecting the left and right sides of the brain are more developed in women, contributing to a women’s heightened sense of intuition. Some believe this means women are more responsive to contextual and intuitive marketing than men.

A University of Wisconsin survey concluded that women collect and retain 70% more detail than men.
What does it all mean?

It means that those 1950s commercials depicting women as naive homemakers, caring more about their spaghetti sauce than their finances, may have worked fifty years ago. Today, however, women play a different role. Partly because they are smarter, more independent, and ambitious. Partly because they’ve perfected the art of making spaghetti sauce.

Today’s women have university degrees, control household finances, have successful careers, and have even learned how to run the TV remote control. Maybe they haven’t figured out how to watch seven shows at once, but it’s only a matter of time!

In the end, when it comes to marketing, it’s a women’s world. The winner of the marketing battle is the advertiser who competes on the woman’s side of the battlefield, even if the battle is selling to men.

Win the women, win the war. Just ask my wife... That is, just as soon as she gets back from the store with my new bottle of Old Spice.