What women want? Old question, many think it is too hard to give an answer. Well, it isn’t. In this article we will write about principles in marketing to women.

Marketing is all about fulfilling needs. That’s why marketers have to know the answer on what women want. The most important thing that every woman wants is security. They want to have a man they can lean on; to be secure in their love relationship; to be secure that they will make the right decision in buying a certain product. You have to persuade them in your offer, whether it is a traditional or online business. This doesn’t mean that you will hire some person who will be over-enthusiastic in describing new products like in teleshop ads. It is a fast selling processing, and women like thorough selling processes. They like marketing and persuading in a subtle way. They want to hear everything about your product. So, tell them all and educate them. Don’t sell them a product, sell them a dream, so they can imagine how your product will make their lives easier or happier.

Example for good marketing can be seen in Avon Cosmetics catalogues. They are experts in describing lipsticks, perfumes and everything else that they have to offer. They select every sentence very well. Even if you are a man, when you read those descriptions you start imaging that you already have that new perfume or shower-gel. They even put a fragrance scent on pages so woman can test them even before they order it. Other cosmetic companies like Nivea or Johnson & Johnson also have great ads targeted to women. Do you remember that beautiful J&J ad for the shampoo with a guy and his baby? Girls watching this ad start dreaming about her prince and their baby. Advertising that is women-centric has themes like family, couple in love, joy, laugh, successful woman that can handle everything…

Marketing to women is very important because women have the biggest influence in the buying process. On the Women’s Business Research Centre web site (http://www.womensbusinessresearch.org/) you can find out that 10.6 million firms are at least 50% owned by a woman or women and that nearly half of all privately-held companies are at least 50% owned by woman or women. Studies show that more than 80% women are the primary shoppers for their families.

It can be direct purchasing or “only” influencing. Even in buying cars, women are key player. They don’t have to buy a car, but usually they will give the final word that will prevail in the buying process. Men like cars, but normal men like their wives more that their cars so the most important thing will be that her wives be happy with the choice, too. That’s why many automobile makers design cars that are categorized as “woman cars”. Ads for “woman cars” are focused on safety and not on the speed, not to be too big but to have enough space for all family members, family aspect is very important.

Forrester Research called their research about marketing to women “Men Are From CNET, Women Are From iVillage”. This is similar comparison like in that bestseller book about Mars and Venus. They made a good choice, CNET is more focused to men because of their technology reviews and iVillage is the real women oriented web site. If you visit www.ivillage.com you will see what we are talking about. Excellent colour combination, mild colours that evoke the feeling in their childhood and make you enjoy in your stay there. Just look on the content. It is mostly content related to beauty, love & sex, family and parenting. There are women that like business and career more than above mentioned topics but I think that they are in minority. It is in the woman to be a good mother, wife and to focus on her beauty.

We have already said that it is very important to give details about your products when marketing to women. Women want to be sure that they made a good choice. They are very cautious in buying especially if they are not familiar with your company. That’s why it is good to offer free samples, to enable them to try before they buy. This is often used by cosmetic companies but it can be used almost in every business. If you sell software it is highly recommended to offer a free trial version. It is harder to make the first sale to women, but after that if they are satisfied they will be your loyal customers.

They are usually much better with money than men and they can spend hours in shopping and comparing prices on different places. That’s why price comparison sites like Shopping.com and Epinions.com are very popular among women. It is not only the case in buying goods for households it is similar like when they are running a business. Usually, women spend less and growing their companies slow but steadily. Remember, safety is much more important to women than speed.

In order to persuade them it is highly recommended to make a testimonial section for your products from your happy customers. We already said that they like to read opinions of other people. It is not only that they like to read, they like to talk - a lot. They are excellent in spreading a good (but also a bad) thing about your company and products. That’s why it is good to have an email newsletter that will offer them value-added content and to ask them to forward it to people who might be interested in it.

You can see that with the right marketing to women you can improve your business results and it doesn’t take much time to do that. Just a different approach. Just put yourself in their shoes. Make sure to choose the right one, because you know how much they like shoes and how many they have ones.