Marketing to Women: 4 Companies Doing it Right!

As we gear up for Mother’s Day and are besieged in the run-up by a flurry of ads targeting women and specifically, Moms, let us take a minute to consider what all this marketing geared towards women actually means.

Let’s ponder if there is indeed a trillion dollar market waiting to be had out there.

The answer is a resounding YES.

According to she-conomy.com, women account for 85% of all consumer purchases from groceries and home improvements to automobiles and health care.

And when it comes to the enormity of global buying power of women, figures like $20 trillion globally and $7 trillion in the United States alone are thrown around.

Some companies like Target Corporation, Proctor & Gamble, and Walmart, among others, are already hip to the idea and have continued to keep the focus on the ladies.

Here’s a rundown of which companies have spotted this pot of gold under the rainbow and moved quickly to capture it.

1. Target Corporation

When it comes to understanding what women want, Target seems to have hit the bullseye (Hah!).

Everything about this store is geared towards a chic and savvy shopping experience for its female customers, or Guests as Target likes to call them.

They’ve already had a blockbuster start to this year, with their sold-out collaboration with designer Lilly Pulitzer.

Fans of the collection lined up outside stores starting 5 am and the racks were picked clean within seconds.

It’s not just designer collaborations like these and earlier with Missoni, that help Target connect instantly with their female customer base, but you can also see it in the layout of the stores or even their Mom friendly height of their Gondola shelves.

 

2. Unilever and Dove

Remember, this video that went viral earlier this year? No open hawking of soaps or shampoos here, the Choose Beautiful video connects on an emotional level with women and addresses issues of self-esteem and beauty.

Dove’s polarizing yet phenomenally successful Movement for Self-Esteem, has reportedly helped propel Dove sales from $2.5 billion to $4 billion in the last 10 years alone, according to Fortune.com.

 

3. Proctor & Gamble

P&G is one of the many Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies that seems to be hitting the right notes with its female base.

It had a fantastic campaign using two very powerful icons – Mothers and the Olympics and Pantene’s Not Sorry Video encourages women to stop apologizing so much.

4. Walmart

The majority of Walmart’s 248 million customers are women, according to Sarah Thorn, senior director ofFederall Government Relations at Wal-mart Stores, Inc.

So, when they rolled out an initiative to empower girls and women over the last couple of years, it wasn’t just the right thing to do but also smart business, as the Clinton Global Initiative points out.

The company aims to source $20 billion from women-owned businesses for the U.S and hopes that economically empowering women will, in turn, lead them to invest the resources back in their families and communities.

Which company do you think is doing a great job marketing to women? Tweet me @YWomen with your thoughts.