ON THE SHELF: New books of note

American Demographics, May 1, 2004 by Lisa Johnson, Andrea Learned

Byline: Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned

The starting place for this primer on how to court the moving-target female consumer is an assumption that marketers get off on the wrong foot to begin with. From outright sexism to off-putting patronizing behavior to intellectual insults, consumer goods and services marketers of all sizes mistake women for stereotypes as they "think pink" their way through strategy and tactics. The authors, Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned, founders of marketing consultancy Reach Woman, bring research, aggregative observation and extensive secondary sourcing to bear on how to get smarter about today's female consumers - who they indicate have direct responsibility for more than 80 percent of consumer buying decisions in the $7 trillion-plus consumer spending economy. Eleven chapters, ranging from "Brain Training - How Not to Think Pink" to "Shaping the Generations" to "Enlisting Women as Your Marketing Partners" scan across data points, psychographic insights and bullet-pointed recommendations on how to be smarter, more empathetic and more effective in efforts to market to women. Johnson and Learned cite an abundance of case examples to illustrate their analysis of the challenges and opportunities in the women's consumer market.