Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy – and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market (1st edition)

Citation

Dangel, L. (2005), "Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy – and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market (1st edition)", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 291-292. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760510611761

There is no question that women buy. Don't Think Pink explains what drives their buying decisions, and how businesses can capitalize on this enormous (and growing) market. The book also offers practical segmentation strategies for approaching this market.

“Purchases by women now total trillions of dollars annually, accounting for 85% of all consumer expenditures. Reaching women should be considered the number one priority for most businesses” (book cover). Women's purchasing power is not new to most consumer businesses. Women have long held the purse strings for these decisions. Furthermore, as their own earning power grows, so increases their purchasing power.

However, many marketers miss the concept that women are not a homogeneous segment. Learned and Johnson, cofounders of ReachWomen, a firm specializing in advising clients on the behavior of women as consumers, show that businesses that approach this enormous buying power without applying additional segmentation analysis are missing out on a huge opportunity. They call this thinking “pink thinking”. They show why slightly tweaking existing male‐oriented products or marketing efforts will no longer serve this market and why pastel packaging is not the answer.

Although gender specific, much of what is covered in Don't Think Pink is just good marketing. It is a “useful reminder and re‐training manual for marketing to any of the customer bases in your industry” (p. viii). Understanding the types or profiles of your customers (in this case, women) is key – it includes paying attention to more than the obvious, but additionally looking at things like their technology confidence levels, and ultimately, learning to reach them transparently. What makes this book valuable is the number of specific case studies and examples that bring these segmentation concepts to life for anyone trying to reach the women's market.

“Brain training”, Chapter 1, is a primer on how not to think “pink” and tailor your message to meet women's needs without labeling the product or service exclusively for women. This “transparent marketing” is further discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. While much of what the authors suggest is just good marketing: “narrow your focus, understand the customer community intimately, build customer feedback into your process, focus on your product's context, understand your brand and be authentic” (Chapter 3 subheads) the authors show how to apply these concepts.

Their segmentation starts by looking at some commonalities, such as women wanting to see “real women and relatable scenarios”, and “more fully developed personalities” and that women respond to a “multi sensory” approach (Chapter 3).

Subsequent chapters do a great job of slicing and dicing this more general view into appropriate segments and suggest what marketing approaches work in each of these more targeted segments. They look at segmenting by age identification and use Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomer and Mature as groupings. Valuable insights are provided on buying filters for each of these segments, and suggestions are given on how to reflect one's brand and connect with one's customers. For Gen Y: “Remove payment barriers and provide multiple and flexible options” (p. 93). Gen Xers: “don't expect to do as well as their parents” (p. 96). Regarding Baby Boomers: “These women could easily be the most stressed out group in America … with a concern for their own health and a willingness to spend time and money on their personal needs” (p. 101). Mature travelers are “the fastest growing group of consumers in this industry” (p. 110) There is lots of good supporting research provided for their observations and suggestions.

Another segment strategy the authors recommend is life stages (which may not map to age) such as: single women, business women, and moms. “Market to multi taskers. Time pressures, an issue for all women, for moms especially, marketing approaches should be developed and delivered in ways that lend themselves to being received while women are engaged in other tasks” (p. 131). Like any good complex market segmentation analysis, Learned and Johnson suggest marketers “combine the cross‐generational role factors with common generational truths” (p. 138) in making the right branding decisions.

“Cultural influencers – the buying filters of the emerging majority” are examined in Chapter 7. “The women of these emerging majorities are looking for brands that view them as a significant part of the future of the US consumer market and already reflect the mix of their many cultures in the goods, services and marketing messages they deliver” (p. 139). “Learning curves and life stages – relationship building opportunities” in Chapter 8 covers the “other windows of ‘brand openness’ in customers’ lives [that] are lucrative opportunities for companies to capture the attention of first‐time buyers and shift dollars away from the competition” (p. 155).

A whole chapter is devoted to “The internet savvy women – connecting with her online” (Chapter 9). The authors suggest that women and men switch roles when shopping online. The “costliest mistakes in reaching women online” and the “nine essentials for enhancing the online customer experience” (p. 182) are helpful checklists. In Chapter 10, “Online research”, the authors advocate “using e‐marketing to see women clearly”. They recommend the internet as a “great place to watch, listen and learn more about women as consumers” (p. 187) and they tell how to use the internet to do this.

The book's final tip is to “Enlist women as your marketing partners – an alliance for brand success” (Chapter 11). Again this is not a new concept, but Learned and Johnson tell how to apply this strategy specifically to the women's market.

The Afterward wraps the book up with “Investing in a transparent future”. “The path to successful transparent marketing to women is based on a thorough understand of their buying behavior, insightful and innovative segmentation and the enlisting of women as your marketing partners” (p. 211) … And after reading this book, I can agree that this path is not pink and probably never was.

Don't Think Pink will be helpful to any marketing professional who wants a quick primer on how to better develop products, services and marketing strategies that truly resonate with female buyers.