For example, the desire to buy from companies that make the world a better place was once viewed as a quality that mattered mostly to women. Not anymore: values-based marketing is mainstream and transcends both gender and generation. Now consider all the app-based businesses that are so successful they’ve become household names: many of them mimic the responsibilities once viewed as women’s domain, from grocery shopping and delivery to meal preparation, errand-running and “taxi-driver Mom.
Since 1970, most of the increase in U.S. household income has come from women’s labor force participation. Women not only have the buying power, they have the influence. As the majority of primary caregivers for children and the elderly, women spend significant time and money buying on behalf of others. They are the gateway to the people in their households as well as their social and business networks. Women are also great drivers of word-of-mouth publicity and social sharing online.
The perspectives and voices of the world’s dominant consumers are often missing in action at the senior levels of everything from R&D to product design, strategy, sales, marketing and STEM jobs, not to mention executive teams, corporate boards, venture capital companies, private equity firms, business books and business textbooks.