Devoted to small businesses and those who run them

Granted October is a time when we're surrounded by pink thanks to Breast Cancer Awareness Month (check out Workerette.com for some fantastic goodies and tips for lowering risks of breast cancer, by the way!), but the pink I'm thinking of is good ol' Barbie pink.

In other words, do you think that marketing your products or services to women will work if you just throw on some rose-colored glasses, offer up a product line with pink handles or accents, and women will flock to it?  If so, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Or tying the wrong color ribbon on it, at least.

According to Don't Think Pink by Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned, if you're targeting "women" as one big market without looking at generational difference, confidence in technology, cultural influences, and other factors, you aren't making the most of the female market.

Instead of just telling women that your service is "for them", they say, you should tell them about what is important to them.  Tell them what you can do for them.  Tell them why your product is effective. 

Sound like a bunch of marketing gibberish?  You might want to pick up a copy and learn how to identify the traits of your target market and figure out how you can use them to better market to women, who apparently make or influence more than 80 percent of consumer purchases in the USA alone.  (Can you say TRILLIONS of dollars spent?  Don't you want some of them spent with your company?)

Those of you who are female entrepreneurs aren't off the hook.  While you may have an in with your own crowd or better insight into your generation's wants and needs, it's well worth your while to figure out what those of your grandmother and mother's generations are looking for, or the girls who are up and coming.  Remember, we don't want a customer that only comes for a day.  We want a client that will keep coming back, and will raise her daughters and granddaughters to trust our products and services as well.  Brand loyalty, that's what we want, right?  Learn how to earn it! 

I was fascinated by this book, and I am, obviously, a woman.  It's interesting to sit down and compare their findings and directions to ourselves and our friends, honestly, because even as consumers, having this information will help you make better buying decisions.  After all, if you know what you really want or need, and how companies are marketing to you, you can better sort through the "marketing" to the facts and make a decision.