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Overcoming the Challenge of Marketing to Women

To win over female consumers, companies from banks and financial-service providers to tool and auto makers are paying special attention to women's needs.

Banks, hardware stores and carmakers are doing more and more to woo female customers. They want to know what women really want.

Everyone knows women dream about men who will lay the world at their feet. So, the odds should have been in favor of Kevin Devine and his “Women’s World” fund. The manager of the VMR investment fund wanted to attract female investors with an equity fund designed specially for women.

He went to some length in choosing the stocks: Devine’s feminine portfolio wound up including stocks of fashion companies, such as Escada and Dior, but also of Procter & Gamble, the company that produces Pampers. The investment charmer even considered including stocks of cosmetics company L’Oréal. But women rebuffed the clever financial manager and he soon had to drop his “Women’s World” fund for lack of interest.

“Women refuse to be put into a corner,” says Kathrin Lumma of consulting firm ZEB. The specific needs of female investors aren’t the result of a female preference for pink prospectuses and scented paper, in her expert opinion. Rather, interruptions in women’s careers mean that women need greater flexibility in financial planning and investing, as well as individualized financial advice.

That women earn money and don’t just spend it on shoes – but also on stocks, cars or drills – is an insight currently making the rounds at banks and financial service providers, as well as hardware stores and carmakers.

German insurance company Aspecta is using its “Frauen.invest” life insurance plan to reach its female target group, and Citibank is offering “Small Loans for Big Girls.” Germany’s Commerzbank has been attracting customers with its advisory service “Money – made by women.” The bank conducted a study and found that, for 94 percent of all women, financial independence is the most important goal in their life planning – more important than the wish for children or a lifelong partnership with a man.