May 03, 2000
Interview

Faith Popcorn on Marketing to Women

SUMMARY: This week, we had the chance to interview futurist and marketing maven, Faith Popcorn, about her new book \"EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women.\"
Q: What key trends will influence the way marketers target women on the Web?

A: The way women think and behave is impacting business, causing a marketing shift away from a hierarchical model toward a relational one. My uber-truth is that "Women Don't Buy Brands, They Join Them."

The number of women business owners increases every day (in America, women-owned businesses employ 27.5 million people - more than the Fortune 500 combined in this country - and they generate $3.6 trillion in annual revenues) - obviously a tremendous target market.

Women look for a relationship with a brand - an emotional connection. If companies and marketers can forge AND nurture that relationship with the gatekeeper, they will succeed.

Q: What type of campaigns online and offline work best when trying to reach women?

A:
* Women don't want to be marketed at or solicited. They want noninvasive, peripheral selling
* They want your company to be there when they need you (24 hours a day)
* They want to feel connected to your brand emotionally
* They want to help shape the brand
* They want to know everything about the company
* They want you to anticipate their wants and needs
* They want you to recognize she's leading 99 Lives

Q: In EVEolution, you state that women control 80% of household spending. How will that affect ecommerce marketing campaigns and strategies?

A: Hopefully, online marketers will commit to deeply understanding the wants and needs of the female consumer. They'll embrace the Eight Truths of EVEolution and align their strategies, outreach and campaigns to them. Their bottom line will thank them.

Here are Faith Popcorn's "Eight Truths of EVEolution" against which she says marketers and businesses should benchmark their existing practices:

1. Connecting your female consumers to each other connects them to your brand.

2. If you're marketing to one of her lives, you're missing all the others.

3. If she has to ask, it's too late.

4. Market to her peripheral vision and she will see you in a whole new light.

5. Walk, run, go to her, secure her loyalty forever.

6. This generation of women consumers will lead you to the next.

7. Co-parenting is the best way to raise a brand.

8. Everything matters.

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