Six Reasons Why Women Are the Most Important Audience for Changing the World

By Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.. Posted June 2, 2008.

The following is an excerpt from Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen's new book, The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World -- And How to Reach Them (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2007).

The Home Depot of today is a lot different than it was ten years ago. The stores feel less cluttered and more airy. Everything, from light fixtures to carpet samples, is more stylish and varied. Home décor departments have been expanded. The company's ad campaigns and catalogues, which used to simply showcase products, now feature more people. In its first six months, a new store feature, "Do-It-Herself" workshops, drew 40,000 women.

Stonyfield Farm grew from being a seven-cow organic farming school in the early '80s into a company with $250 million in annual sales. Every cup of Stonyfield yogurt bears a personal message from the CEO and founder Gary Hirshberg. Turn the lid over and you'll find tips on how to make the world a better place. Stonyfield was ahead of the curve when it came to products that had special appeal to moms, like Yo-Baby yogurt and calcium-fortified yogurt. All of this has been critical to the company's surge as the fastest-growing yogurt company in the world.

The success of these companies is representative of a sea change in the business world in the past 10 years as business leaders have come to recognize women as much more than an "emerging" or niche market. Today, women represent the largest and most important consumer market there is.

How did this happen? It began with demographic changes among women themselves in their roles at work and at home. Today, women make 83 percent of all consumer purchases -- everything from breakfast cereal to big-ticket items like cars and personal computers -- for themselves and for their families. They are also responsible for 80 percent of all health care-related decisions for their households.

Wising up to the power of the purse and its ripple effects in the marketplace, smart companies began putting female customers first by thinking creatively and critically about what they want. They shaped the consumer experience to appeal to women from the minute they walk into the store or click on the company Web site, all they way through the point of purchase.

As marketing gurus Tom Peters and Marti Barletta put it, there is "a widespread recognition among business leaders of the blazingly obvious ... that women are where the money is."

Yet the non-profit and political sectors have been slower to pick up on this demographic revolution. Not only do women have the power to profoundly influence the world of consumer goods, they also have the power to rouse and accelerate our ability to do good -- provided we know to unleash that power.

Women: A Non-Profit's Best Friend

A few years ago our colleagues at Fenton were working to rebrand Infact, a venerable non-profit organization that burst on the scene more than three decades ago with a successful worldwide boycott of Nestlé. The food giant was aggressively marketing its brand of baby formula to mothers in developing countries. The only problem was, the formula for making the formula -- add water and stir -- was hurting and, in some cases, killing infants because some local water supplies were too polluted for their young stomachs.

The organization had since developed a formidable track record of forcing major corporations, including Big Tobacco, to the table to reform their abusive business practices. As part of the rebranding process, we asked them who their target audience was. They replied, "women." Specifically women in their 40s to 60s, because they made up the group's core funding base and were also their most loyal and active members.

This isn't true for all non-profits, of course, but it is for a surprising number of them, including ones that work on issues that are not considered traditional "women's issues." The progressive online group, MoveOn.org, for example, has more than three million members; the average donor profile is a woman in her mid-40s. Women give, and what they give can help make the backbone of an organization.

So as Infact was rethinking their name (they are known today as Corporate Accountability International), our colleagues made sure their new and improved identity system spoke to their base. Part of this involved shaping their message and their mission -- fighting bad-guy corporations -- so neither strayed too far from the "why" driving their work. Their organization tagline today is, "Challenging Abuse. Protecting People."

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Lisa Witter is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Fenton Communications. She head the firm's practice in women's issues and global affairs. She is a political and social commentator and blogger.

Lisa Chen, Senior Vice President at Fenton Communications, is the firm's head editor and writer. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other leading dailies.

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