Women make most purchasing decisions but feel misunderstood by advertisers. While women dominate social media usage and online shopping, 91% feel advertisers don't understand them. To communicate effectively with women online, advertisers must market directly to women, understand differences between men and women, avoid stereotyping women by age, and focus on messages that are entertaining, useful, and honest rather than patronizing. Women spread product information more than men through their extensive social networks, so engaging with them online is important.

1. Men tweet from Mars, Women blog
from Venus
How online advertisers can
communicate more effectively with
women

3. 85% of all purchase decisions are
made by women
• 91% New homes
• 66% PCs
• 92% Holidays
• 80% Healthcare
• 65% New cars
• 89% Bank accounts
• 93% Food
• 93 % OTC pharmaceuticals

4. 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
• 76% want to be part of a
special or select panel
• 58% would ditch the TV if
they had to get rid of one digital
device (only 11% would bin
their laptops)

5. Social life on Venus
• Biggest users of social networking
spend 30% more time on them than men
• More women use Facebook - drive 62%
messages, updates and comments and
71% of fan activity
• More Facebook friends than men
and spend more time on the site
• Catch on quicker – early adopters of
posting to walls, adding photos and joining
groups - much more so than men
Comscore survey

6. How does this affect us?
Women search for what they want and need and look for
reasons to buy or not to buy within their networks.
So we need to engage with
Them here …get to know
them and let them get to
know us.

7. BUT …
91% of women think
advertisers don’t understand
them (Neilson survey, 2011)

8. What not to do
• Do not fail to market directly to women
• Do not think women think the same as men
• Do not attempt to pigeon-hole women by age
• Do not underestimate the power of the mature woman
• Do not forget the FUN

9. Market directly to women
• Take the time to understand them
• Avoid stereotypical messages that could do
more harm than good

10. Don’t make it pink

11. Women think differently to men
Understanding the differences
in men and women, opens up
better communication and
messaging and ultimately sales.
Refusing to see the differences
leads messages that don’t resonate.

12. Don’t pigeonhole women by age
• Not age – but life-stage
• Women are different from each other
• They change according to where they
are in life
• A 40-year might have a toddler at home,
a child in college or may have never
married or had children at all
• What connects with the situation of one
won’t speak to the others

13. Don’t underestimate the mature woman
They have more money
than anyone, they control
the spending and they
have a LOT of living left
to do
They’re not just in the
market for incontinence
pads

14. She’s worth it, but don’t tell her
When women find a product or service
meets their needs, they will shout
about it
Don’t tell her she “deserves it.” or
she’s “worth it”
Try:
You’re smart.
You can handle this.
You can make the right decisions.

15. What women want
• Entertaining, funny, charming, clever
• Useful, relevant, understandable
• The truth, honesty, authentic, no spin
• Real people, not fakes or paid celebs
• Brands that listen, engage, respond
Mumsnet survey

17. What they don’t want
• Lies, spin, exaggeration – “90% of women loved it”
• Patronising – women in kitchens talking about food, yogurt, nappies, periods…
• Paid actors pretending they love and use the product when you know they don’t
• Ads that patronise men, portraying men as oafs
• Sexy ads that are either smutty (male toilet humour) or detached
• Irritating ads – We Buy Any Car, Go Compare, Halifax

19. Old Spice

20. Dove

21. Repositioning KoS’s female brand

22. pink

23. Helps women know
it’s for them
pink
Pretty
flowers
Pink
(Pink wash Women like
turns 91% of words like this
women off!)

24. From functional …

25. To fun

27. Need to understand women online too.

28. Women spread the
word more.
10x more than
men.

29. Social organising…sharing…promotions

30. And finally …