Female buying power keeps rising, but many businesses look patronising when marketing brands to women. Why are they missing out on a golden opportunity?

It's always been a bit of a joke that women love to shop, but it's no longer a laughing matter. Rising numbers of female millionaires and procurement managers as well as higher incomes and life expectancy mean that women are an attractive business opportunity.

"Over the past 40 years the economic influence of women has risen rapidly," says Collette Dunkley, founder of XandY Communications, which helps companies build female market share. "Women are now responsible for 80 per cent of consumer purchase decisions."

Targeting products and marketing campaigns at females is nothing new—businesses have been doing this for decades. But Dunkley believes many are missing out on a huge sector because they do not understand how to communicate with women in a way that appeals to them. "Many businesses use obsolete practice and theory that was developed when men were the main decision-makers at both the supply and demand end of the marketplace," she says. "For example, 86 per cent of women say they hate the experience of buying financial products, mobile phones and cars, yet many businesses are still applying the basic premises of marketing."

Philippa Roberts, joint founder of marketing agency Pretty Little Head, agrees. She says women are often misunderstood by those trying to attract them, and in many markets they are a missed opportunity altogether. "The female market is more valuable and influential than ever before, particularly in sectors that have traditionally been seen as male-oriented such as the automotive industry, financial services and technology—but we are seeing a clumsiness to meet female needs in these categories," she says.

Pretty Little Head, which has recently been advising the Conservative party on how to increase its appeal to women, was set up by Roberts and her business partner, Jane Cunningham, after a "terrible" meeting in which a male creative director suggested the way to make a product more appealing to women was simply to re-do the print material in pink.

"We realised how little people who develop brands actually understand what makes women tick," says Roberts. "When we came to examine the issue more generally we realised that little study had been done on marketing to women. At the same time, there were interesting developments in the academic world about how men and women make decisions that could be usefully applied in marketing."

Dunkley has spent more than six years researching gender science differences. She says that the male and female brains, which differ in size, structure and functionality, mean that men and women behave differently in the way they communicate, shop, think and make decisions. They require a different customer experience. "Women like to shop around-they spend longer making a purchasing decision than men," says Dunkley. "The most important thing for women is the human interface with the company, and the relationship with the salesperson is much more important for a woman. For men, a salesperson is a facilitator—they just want the information. For a woman, if sales staff are patronising she won't buy from them."

Dunkley explains that women are more sensitive to the shopping experience. "Their sensory receptors are five times higher than men's," she says. "For example, the other day my husband and I went to a fantastic restaurant, but I told my husband I didn't want to go back there again. Why? Because the loos were nasty. If the loos are nasty, what is the kitchen like?"

Roberts agrees: "Men make decisions in a much more systematic way-they prioritise fact and feature and competitive advantage over feeling. Men follow a more linear model when they buy—they follow the classic tenets of marketing that reflects men's decision-making."

For women, the process is much less linear and many more factors come into play. "There is much more feeling—sensory and aesthetic factors alongside rhyme and reason," says Roberts. "Women are much more influenced by companies and brands they feel close to."

Dunkley believes companies need to change the way they market, communicate and sell. "Women are influenced in different ways to men so the marketing mix should be completely different," she says. "Women like to research more and are less likely to be influenced by advertisements. Subtler and more authentic ways of marketing appeal to women, such as public relations and word of mouth. It's not about factory PR anymore," she says, citing the success of cleansing brand Dove's campaign for real beauty, which featured women of all shapes and sizes in their underwear.

According to Dunkley, women generate seven times more referrals for products than men so she says businesses need to develop word-of-mouth campaigns by building emotion into the customer experience. This can be achieved by training salespeople to listen and empathise, or doing something to create memory. "If, for example, you sell coffee tables, why not include a complimentary scented candle-women will remember it and tell their friends," she says.

In the same vein, call centres need to rethink techniques when they sell to women. "The typical way for a salesperson to sell is fairly linear and scripted," says Dunkley. "But women do not think in yes/no answers—they draw in the emotional as well as the rational. They go away and think about the answers and build more information into them. The salesperson needs to look at a woman's lifestyle first and then tell her how the right product fits into that. With men, the salesperson can talk more about the product. With women, it needs to be more of a conversation instead of a fixed script. You also need to spend longer on the phone with women. But many call centres have a fixed time to spend with each customer. This needs to change."

A number of more enlightened businesses are starting to change the way they market brands to women, but Dunkley reckons UK companies are less advanced than those in the  US. "The feedback I get from lots of women is that they don't like the whole customer experience," she explains. "Businesses need to benchmark against those companies that women think are good—they have to raise the bar."

Roberts says it will pay for organisations to skill-up to attract women. "Women will own more primal wealth than men by 2020. They will no longer be the secondary market but the primary one. Before it may have been a 'nice to do' but now it is a 'need to do'."

Driving a good deal for women
When insurance company More Than realised half of its customers for a car cover product were women, it approached XandY Communications for advice. "We saw our female customers as an important target market and we questioned whether our standard car insurance product was suitable for them," says Keith Maxwell, core products manager at More Than. "We decided to go out and talk to women to get a better understanding of their wants and needs, which meant we were able to develop a motor insurance proposition specifically for them."

The result was a product that offered improved safety and security as well as clean facilities for women and children. "If someone breaks down we have a mobile phone locator so we can get to them quickly. We make sure that recovery agents have a child's toy in their cab. If the car has been involved in an accident and there are child seats in the car, we will automatically replace them whether or not they are damaged," Maxwell explains.

More Than created a repair network that doesn't patronise, or use jargon, has clean facilities and offers cups of tea. "It's about little things like that. It's not just about putting a product on the market with pink packaging, it's about the product life cycle," says Maxwell.

Call centre staff learned to sell differently to men and women—to connect with female customers by linking their lifestyle to the product. Although the insurance has been sold for only a year, results are encouraging. "The conversion rates we are seeing in our call centres are over 30 per cent higher than for our standard products," says Maxwell. "This is a combination of the product design and the call centre training. It just shows the benefits you can get when you interact with women in a way that appeals to them."

Finance and the wealthy female
With a third of its clients women and the number rising, private bank Coutts launched an initiative in 2006 to raise awareness of its brand among high-net-worth females.

"There was a recognition that an increasing number of female clients were coming to Coutts, and there was research to show the future of wealth was going to be through women," says Claire Symonds, editor of the initiative's website, Coutts Woman.

The bank held events to find out what women wanted to make sure its services were relevant and that it was engaging with all types of clients, from top businesswomen and wealthy divorcees to heiresses and clients' wives, who often influence where money is spent.

 "One of the key issues facing women is the lack of time-they have to juggle many commitments including family life," says Kate Turner, head of specialist private banking at Coutts. "But by understanding their individual requirements, we can offer a range of tailored services to make their financial management as smooth as possible."

The initiative is supported by female-oriented events—from business lunches and networking opportunities to a Stella McCartney fashion show in Paris—as well as Coutts Woman, which contains content such as features on alternative investments, top travel destinations and post-natal depression. The bank also places a strong emphasis on financial education for women and offers courses covering topics from investment management through to financial planning.

Symonds says the campaign is also about repositioning the brand slightly. "Coutts has a long history and reputation, and some people felt it was a very male brand," she explains. "We want to make sure that it is relevant to women and we get very positive feedback. It's a continuous development for us and we aim to make it relevant to all types of people we want to work with."