FLOWER POWER:
Companies can learn from women’s ability to delight in intangibles, and create market value for themselves.
Researchers have quoted figures on how adept women are at buying. Martha Barletta, author of ‘Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment’ says American women have sole or joint ownership of 87% homes, buy 61% of major homeimprovement products, 66% of home computers, and 80% of all health-care services. More women carry credit cards than men, and they start 70% of all new businesses.
When India’s economic reforms have resulted in manifold increase of purchasing power, can an Indian woman be any less a shopper? Perhaps the largely masculine world of business needs to take a deep hard look at the subtle subliminal dimension of women to profit from it. There are nine attributes of women that are unarticulated answers to business success.
Nurturing:
Motherhood magnifies women’s caring nature. Business can similarly learn to nurture consumers and shareholders to prevent them from going to others.
Lover of intangibles:
Women appreciate the intangible. When a welcome bouquet is presented to a woman at any function, she takes it home, but a man often carelessly leaves it behind. Creating the intangible in business will help get good talent, retain employees, clinch better value from external partners, and get better share value and market capitalisation. The result is intangible goodwill.
Patience:
Patience does not mean slowing business down. It is internalising all aspects to have better control over them. Carrying a baby for nine months displays extraordinary patience. Women enjoy childbirth in spite of physical pain as they have control over the genesis of new life. Similarly, even an active and speedy organisation needs extreme patience to better understand the latent trend and the market’s microtone dimensions.
Aesthetics:
Women beautify themselves in every civilisation. This aesthetic palette is important for organisations. Sculpting aesthetics in any product or service can become its key differentiator. Aesthetics must address the entire value chain, beginning from back office activities to the front.
Women pay ritualistic attention to personal grooming. They spend generously on intimate wear that’s not publicly seen. An organisation that’s maintained like sophisticated women’s lingerie can inculcate aesthetics in work culture and improve its productivity and quality.
Unlimited orgasm:
Women’s orgasm is unlimited and subliminal, whereas men’s sexual pleasure is a physical climax and momentary. An organisation’s delivery should relate to the continuous pleasure consumers can experience. Psychologically and in the social context there can be several lows like health problem, and work and family stress. To overcome such woes, people spend to celebrate social occasions like festivals and anniversaries.
Women have another characteristic, which is buying outrageously to cheer themselves up. Such a purchase can transform into extreme excitement and can happen anytime. An organisation should endeavour to provoke this unlimited orgasmic character to get the best out of employees or partners. Consumers can be excited with a deliverable so orgasmic they never stop buying it.
Subtlety:
Subtlety is a very feminine characteristic. In the clutter of today’s media, screaming advertisements may get jerky sales. Brands can become slaves to advertising if consumers see no subtle value in the product. An organisation has many subtle human aspects. These could be the difference in intellectual capability, leadership method and the strength of teamwork, creating passion for a common operational goal or a single consistent message flow to all. They must be managed with subtlety and sensitivity.
Exuberance:
Women are exuberant by nature. Nobody can challenge the implicit knowledge and stamina women have to create a difference for themselves. An organisation or brand needs exuberance as its focus to increase its salience. Subtlety and exuberance are two faces on the same coin. To use them in your business, you need to find the right tradeoff.
Networking:
Women excel at maintaining longtime relationships among family and friends. Women create, nurture and enjoy networks with no ulterior motive. Men on the other hand network only if they need something. Networking is relevant in business. A vendor could be your consumer, a consumer or employee could be your shareholder. Emulate women’s dexterity in networking. Stay on top of your stakeholder’s mind.
Mystique:
A woman protects her inherent mystique which gives her the power to control her destiny. A brand that loses mystique becomes generic; its continuous usage in the consumer’s hand can make it monotonous; or habit could paralyse it. Arrival of new market offerings can make the brand even more mind numbing. A brand must protect its mystique to intensify its power. Delicate, subtle and unstated desires hide behind a woman’s logical mind. Multiple dimensions including subconscious ones are factored into their choice. And none of them can be driven by statistics. But before women become its consumers, an organisation needs to understand them and deploy their inherent qualities into its culture. The nine temperaments of women are connected to the consumer’s psychological aspect, organisational culture and handling of partners. They are indispensable for today’s organisation.
The author is an international growth strategy consultant
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