May 18, 2011

So Is She Losing Her Edge?  

On April 23rd The Wall Street Journal published an article questioning the buying power of women to the extent that historically has been widely quoted, meaning that she controls 85% of all purchasing decisions. So in May 2011 WomenCertified® commissioned a national survey conducted by MedeliaMonitor: The Voice of Women in America, that revealed that over 65% of women claim to have the sole influence over household and/or consumer purchases. Moreover, women claim that in a married household, men have the sole influence in only 2% of the purchasing decisions. 

This study reinforces a variety of surveys conducted by firms such as the Boston Consulting Group that women are the primary household influencer for household and consumer purchases as well as healthcare decisions.  In fact, the percentage of women that state they are the primary influencer for purchases within their household have ranged from over 60% to a high exceeding 80%. 

The fact is: Women are now more important in making purchase decisions than ever before and are in fact, the most important consumer for businesses to target. 

According to the survey data (conducted nationally to over 4,000 women aged 25-64); this dominance of household purchase decisions carries over to most product categories including:

Additionally, in a study conducted by Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest international advertising and marketing agencies, women account for 85% of all consumer purchases.  The message is straightforward: Women have become the most important consumer insofar as purchase decisions….and this calls for a very different mode to marketing and targeting the buyer.

And what about the auto numbers? Women say they make the sole decision 30% of the time and influence 82% of all auto purchases for the household. Surprised? I’m told every day by sales professionals at dealerships that “if we aren’t selling to the woman, we ain’t getting the sale” OR “A Happy Wife is a Happy Life”. Tell me more!  I’ll share them in my monthly blogs and we’ll explore this Mars/Venus thing in more depth.