Male Marketers: When Women Talk, Other Women Listen.
How important is word of mouth to your brand? If you are selling to women, it’s everything.
According to Lauren Zalaznick, President of NBC Universal’s Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, “Women talk about brands incessantly — about 92 times in the course of a week and research shows that 96% of women will recommend a product to a friend if she likes it.”
But how does this translate to the bottom line? Studies conducted by The Keller Faye Group, word of mouth specialists, reveal that 62% of women felt what they heard from others was credible and believable, and 51% said they would purchase something based on a conversation.
Guys, that is not just a whole lot of talk.
To better understand the impact that this data has on brands when merged with online marketing efforts, Women at NBCU have recently unveiled a Brand Power Index. This comprehensive monthly report analyzes women’s word of mouth behavior for 500 companies based on three layers of information:
1) online search data from ComScore
2) social media buzz data from New Media Strategies
3) person-to-person conversations tracked by the Keller Faye Group
The first monthly report released in late September revealed the top 25 brands that are most important to women. A few of the interesting highlights reveal:
Three of the seven product categories represented in the top 25 brands are traditionally thought of as male-dominated areas.
• technology
• automotive
• finance
Brands that leveraged social media for promotions were some of the biggest movers in their standings from July to August. For example, Gap, which moved from #44 to #17
Brands participating in “cause” initiatives were among the biggest gainers for the month of August. For example, Olive Garden with its “Pasta for Pennies” campaign moved from #145 to #92.
Bottom line: When women talk, other women listen – and buy.
Top 25 Brands most important to Women in August 2010:
1. Wal-Mart
2. Target
3. Verizon
4. EBay
5. AT&T
6. Coca-Cola
7. Bank of America
8. Ford
9. Amazon.com
10. Pepsi
11. McDonalds
12. Sprint
13. Dell Computers
14. HP
15. Dish Network
16. Comcast
17. Gap
18. Toyota
19. Sears
20. Netflix
21. Kohl’s
22. iPhone
23. Microsoft
24. Wells Fargo
25. Home Depot
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Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising, Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by Email
Filed under: Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing 2.0, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Targeting Women, Women and social media, Women and the Internet
Hi,
Very interesting article and agree entirely that WOM for women is VERY important. It’s slightly weird reading for a bunch of UK girls though especially the list.
I guess the demographic would be good to know insomuch that in our circle we wouldn’t recognise the brands on the list (other than the iPhone) as being 25 of the ‘most important’. They just wouldn’t figure in conversation. Would love to know how they were measured.
Really love the site and the thought provoking articles.
Very disturbed to read the stats on the page i.e. only 3% of advertising agency creative directors are women!
Thought the days of Mad Men were over (or only, at least, fictional TV characters) 😉
Have a great day.
Louise
I can absolutely attest to this, especially as a Gen-Yer. I’m much more likely to have a conversation online with a friend about a product or service and buy while IN the conversation than buying a product/service after watching a commercial or seeing an ad online.
[…] I was comparing September’s “Women at NBCU’s Brand Power Index” with last month’s scores, it felt a bit like watching the BCS countdown last night. Even though I was trying to figure out […]
Trying to attract women to our store. We are a full line fine jeweler but engagement rings are our speciality.