“Once companies wake up to the potential of the female economy, they will find a whole new range of commercial opportunities in women’s social concerns.” -- Harvard Business Review
Targeting and misdirection
We see examples of The Male-Led Economy™ every day. The “The Female Economy” previously mentioned is one of hundreds if not thousands of reports generated with the intent of informing marketers how to target women as consumers.
Corporate marketers then use the information they receive about how to target women and make investments in women’s groups, women’s causes and positive reports about women – making sure their corporate name and products are prominently presented.
Examples of headlines which might misdirect: Headline:
Truth:
“Women’s businesses growing at record breaking pace.”
Headline:
“Walmart Reports Record Increase in Business with Minority- and Women- Owned Suppliers.”
27 Headline:
“Women’s Business Initiative from OPEN®
:
Powering Your Growth. Supporting Your Success.”
The number of women’s businesses has grown tremendously. However our revenues remain very small. Even though the number of women- owned firms grew 42.3 percent between 1997 and 2006, our combined average annual sales grew only 4.4 percent resulting in a drop of 38 percent in annual revenues.
Truth: Yes, Walmart’s spend with women increased. But, Walmart still does less than two percent of their annual spending with minority- and women-owned firms.
Truth:
“Over the past six months, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citi and Wells Fargo have raised interest rates for new small- business credit cards offered on the Internet roughly six times faster than rate increases on consumer credit card offers. On average, interest rates for small-business cards were 13.7% higher in April than last October, while rates for consumer cards, on average, were just 2.4% higher.”28
Women-Led. Progress for All.
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