Will Women Save the Economy?

Maybe.  According to the World Bank, the earning power of women around the world is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014 - a $5 trillion rise from current levels.

Seems like great news right?  Unfortunately, companies seem unable to actually tap into this market.  According to a study from Boston Consulting Group, women feel under served at best by companies.  And many just feel ignored.

"The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink," said Michael Silverstein, a partner at BCG.

No kidding.  Which of us isn't sick of this idea that women want their products to look like Barbie  vomited on it?

Where did this idea of "shrink it and pink it" (via Jezebel) even come from?

If "girl" stuff is pink, why isn't "boy" stuff blue?  It's one thing to paint a nursery blue for a little boy or pink for a little girl, but don't we all grow out of that after we're, I dunno... two years old?  

This makes me think back to an interview I read with Alyssa Milano about her clothing line for female sports fans.

"I have had Dodgers season tickets for four years. Every game I attended, I would rush into the team shop and look to see if there was anything new and cute to buy. I would look for something that would fit my body and that wasn't pink!"

How ridiculous is it that there was this entire market out there that no one was even bothering to tap, just because sports marketers arbitrarily decided that the only sports fans out there were guys and the girlfriends they dragged along with them who would only wear a hat supporting the team if it was pink?  Did they even bother to look in the stands?

As a huge sports fan, I always absolutely hated the idea that wearing something in pink was supporting my team... Unless one of the team colors is pink, you aren't supporting the team.

The deeper issue here is the fact that this whole concept that women will buy something because it's pink is just lazy.  It's clear that there wasn't any market research being done.  There has been very few attempts to understand what sort of products that women want to buy, what sort of needs women have that aren't being filled.  

Instead, everything is based on a few asinine assumptions:
1. Women like things to be dainty (the small and pink theme...see pink blackberrys, pink sports apparel, pink netbooks, etc.)
2. Women are always on a diet (see the delightfully degrading Only in a Women's World campaign for Baked Lays)
3. Women are afraid of technology and math (see infamous "math is hard" talking Barbie, insulting Della website from Dell ("Once you get beyond how cute they are, you'll find that netbooks can do a lot more than check your e-mail."  oh golly gee... really?))

That means women's products are routinely: small, pink, and low fat.

Part of this comes from the odd idea that things like potato chips, cell phones and laptops have to have a "regular" (read: for males) version and another version for females.  

Does there really need to be a separate website for women who want laptops?  Do they really want such different things from their laptops than the average male does?  To me, it seems like there is more likely to be a division based on how one wants to use their laptop or how technically savvy one is (male or female).  Perhaps a company like dell would be better served with a general site for consumers who mainly use their computer for word processing, email and surfing the web and another site for higher powered computers or something like that... rather that wasting time and resources telling women that a computer can be used to check email.  Frankly, any women who doesn't know that probably isn't going to find her way to the Dell website anyway.

The irony here is that there are plenty of products that can benefit from having a "female version" either a female-centric product or female-centric advertising.  The problem is that most of them aren't being created or the market isn't being tapped as well as it could.  

The best example here goes back to the Alyssa Milano clothing line.  

From her MLB interview: "The silhouettes were equally as important because I wanted women to feel good in the pieces. As a woman, I find it's more important that I feel good in what I wear than the actual styles. So I went through great lengths to make sure all the styles were flattering and catered to a woman's body shape. For instance, my tank tops all have shelf bras attached because I always had a hard time figuring out what to wear under the fan apparel tanks that were available to us. My hoodies have double zippers so we won't have any bulges while sitting in the stands rooting for our teams."

For those who missed it, the reason women need different clothes than men is not because we like pink more than men... it's because we're shaped differently.  You know, the boobs and hips and all.

It also behooves companies to market to women to try to counteract the hundreds of years of stereotypes that taint a lot of products and services.  "The BCG survey of 12,000 women in 40 regions around the world found that financial services -- such as providing ibanking, investment and insurance products and advice -- are worst at connecting with female consumers."  This can be as easy as putting more women in commercials for banking (without talking down to them) or advertising in women's magazines.  

Why not take the effort to find out what women want and cater to their actual needs... rather than the ones you've decided that they have?  Especially considering that women worldwide control $20 trillion in annual consumer spending... a number that is projected to grow to $28 trillion in 2014.

Seems like a good idea to tap this market before someone else does.  Just a thought.