By Lisa Salazar (@Lihsa)
A UK study, Elastic Generation: The Female Edit, offers some refreshing insight into a woman’s perspective on advertising.
Conducted by J Walter Thompson Intelligence, 248 UK women aged 53-72 were surveyed. For comparison, 276 UK men were surveyed, as well.
Marketing to women
Identifying this group of females as the “elastic generation”, the report comes to this pivotal conclusion:
The two words women choose to describe advertising aimed at them? ‘Patronising’ and ‘stereotyped’. As a result, 72% say they pay no heed to advertising. Nine out of ten say they would just like to be treated as a person, not a stereotype. Elastic Generation, p. 3.
I would surmise that this general feeling floats all the way across the pond.
Women’s buying power
Today’s women are more independent than ever, with as much, if not more buying power than their male spouses, partners and exes.
As the world is roughly fifty percent women, this is an obvious missed opportunity by marketers. And in legal marketing, 36% of US lawyers are female. American Bar Association, “A Current Glance of Women in the Law,” 2017, p. 2.
In fact, UK’s Office for National Statistics reports that members of the Elastic Generation are the top spenders in food, clothing, household goods and services, new cars; travel and dining. And for legal marketing purposes, let’s throw in legal services as 25% of Fortune 500 GCs are female.
Again, I would suggest that this carries all the way over to the US.
Understand women’s real buying interests
Women’s interests are not limited to spa days, fashion shows and cooking classes–not that most women wouldn’t turn these invitations down. But women have much broader interests than this.
No one, men or women, like to be pigeon-holed into pre-defined categories.
As a woman who loves the law, who loves tech, and with a broad array of interests, I want marketers to respect my choices. When my choices are respected, that’s when I start paying attention.