Women on the Market

Mengapa Wanita?

 

Percayakah anda, bahwa sebagian besar keputusan pembelian berada di tangan kaum wanita (ibu rumah tangga, teman dekat)? Fakta mengenai kekuatan pasar ini, seyogyanya menjadikan wanita berperan aktif sebagai pengelola pasar. Bukan malah menyediakan diri menjadi obyek komersial.

 

Sejatinya, sudah sangat lama marketer punya kesadaran untuk mengolah potensi pasar perempuan. Sepeda onthel yang banyak digunakan beberapa decade silam sudah memperkenalkan varian yang memperhatikan kebutuhan wanita. Di daerah Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur dan sekitarnya, waktu itu dikenal istilah “pit wedok” alias sepeda perempuan untuk menyebut onthel yang tidak memakai ‘planthangan’ atau besi staal di kerangkanya. Pada jenis ini, kerangka sepeda juga dibentuk melengkung lembut sehingga memudahkan penggunanya melangkah sekalipun sedang mengenakan rok.

 

Di segmen anak-anak, populer juga sepeda mini dengan desain feminin. Di atas spatbor bagian depan biasanya dipasang keranjang yang fungsional untuk menaruh tas, sayuran dan sebagainya.  Belum lama, Polygon juga meluncurkan produk sepeda yang didekasikan untuk kaum wanita. Kendati produksinya tidak terlalu besar (hanya 5%), sudah jelas bahwa mereka   melihat ada potensi khusus di sini.  Industri sepeda  yang digambarkan pada tulisan ini hanyalah satu contoh yang memperlihatkan,  betapa pasar wanita tidak akan habis digali dari masa ke masa.

Ada   pendapat bahwa wanita di zaman sekarang adalah konsumen terbaik. Bagaimana tidak.  Mereka adalah segmen  terkaya dan paling berpengaruh di antara segmen lainnya. Dari besarannya saja, jumlah mereka mencapai sekitar 50% dari total penduduk dunia.  Dan percayakah anda, bahwa sebagian besar keputusan pembelian berada di tangan kaum wanita (ibu rumah tangga, teman wanita)? 

Dalam ilmu pemasaran, wanita memiliki peran yang sangat penting.  Kaum ibu punya peranan strategis dalam keluarga, terutama  terkait keputusan pembelian. Jika suami atau anak membeli sesuatu hanya untuk dirinya sendiri, seorang ibu tidak bisa begitu.  Mereka adalah decision maker untuk pembelian produk-produk bagi keperluan anggota keluarga lainnya.

Dalam The Anatomy of New Wave Culture,  konsultan senior Hermawan Kartajaya memaparkan bahwa women merupakan satu dari tiga  subcultures terpenting yang harus dikuasai pemasar selain youth dan netizen. Dalam pembahasan tersebut diperlihatkan bagaimana women dianggap lebih mendominasi, memiliki peranan  yang lebih aktif dan semakin didengar sehingga mampu menggeser men. Hal ini dijelaskan melalui pergeseran penentuan setiap keputusan –terutama untuk keluarga – yang sebelumnya diperankan oleh segmen pria- yang ternyata sekarang bergeser kepada kaum wanita.

Selama ini ada idiom bahwa  wanita suka bergosip. Kendati awalnya berkonotasi negative, menurut Hermawan, justru pada factor inilah  wanita punya kekuatan untuk menyebarkan suatu isu termasuk produk-produk yang mereka konsumsi. Kekuatan wanita yang lain adalah mereka akan berusaha untuk memperjuangkan pendapatnya. Karena itu, ketika harus mengurus keluarga, kaum pria cenderung lebih sering mengalah kepada wanita. Sehingga sekalipun kaum pria sering mengaku menjadi kepala rumah tangga, kaum wanita akan tetap menjadi ‘family care taker’ karena sifatnya yang multitasking.  

Kaum wanita selalu ingat “family and friends” ketika berbelanja, sedang pria hanya ingat pada diri sendiri. Karena itu, Hermawan juga menamakan kaum wanita sebagai orang yang “managing the market“. Artinya, kaum wanita-lah yang sebenarnya mengelola (me-manage) pembelian produk dan jasa dipasar. Tidak tergantung apakah itu uang sendiri atau uang kaum pria-nya.

Hasil riset dari MarkPlus memaparkan insight penting berikut ini. Bahwa seorang wanita umumnya juga membelikan barang/jasa untuk keperluan pasangannya (47,7%), untuk kebutuhan orang tuanya (47,6%), anak-anaknya (34,5%), saudara laki-laki/perempuannya (20,9%), saudara sepupunya (7,0%), serta teman-temannya (5,6%). Secara lebih spesifik, hasil survey juga menunjukkan bahwa 84,2% dari kalangan wanita menjadi pengelola keuangan pasangannya. Karena itu sangat logis jika wanita diposisikan sebagai kunci untuk memenangkan market share.  

(tulisan ini sudah dipublikasikan dalam Majalah MIX-Marketing Communications edisi April 2012)

 

Women Shopping by Joee Watson

Fakta tentang pasar wanita

dikutip dari  www.she–conomy.com/report/marketing-to-women-quick-facts

* Boomer Women and Affluence – One huge, affluent segment wields more spending clout than any other: Baby-Boomer women. Born between 1946 and 1964, these women represent a portion of the buying public no marketer can afford to ignore. With successful careers, investments made during the “boom” years, and inheritances from parents or husbands, they are more financially empowered than any previous generation of women. –Mary Brown, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—The Baby-Boomer Woman

 

• Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth. –MassMutual Financial Group–2007

 

• Fifty-plus American women are the healthiest, wealthiest and most active generation of women in history. – Demographics by Mark Miller

 

• Of the 743 women of wealth interviewed with at least $3 million in investable assets, 61.2% accumulated their fortunes through corporate employment, their own or a family business or a professional practice. Only 38.8% of the women had married into or inherited their money. – Women of Wealth, 2004, by Russ Alan Prince and Hannah Shaw Grove

 

• High-net-worth women account for 39% of the country’s top wealth earners; 2.5 million of them have combined assets of $4.2 trillion. More than 1.3 million women professionals and executives earn in excess of $100,000 annually. 43% of Americans with more than $500,000 in assets are female – MassMutual Financial Group–2007

 

• Over the next decade, women will control two thirds of consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history. Estimates range from $12 to $40 trillion. Many Boomer women will experience a double inheritance windfall, from both parents and husband. The Boomer woman is a consumer that luxury brands want to resonate with. – Claire Behar, Senior Partner and Director, New Business Development, Fleishman-Hillard New York

 

• The more mature luxury consumer places the highest priority in making memories and experiences. They don’t buy things to have more things; they want the experience to go along with it. Luxury consumers expect superior quality and are extremely discerning. – Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing

 

• The 55 to 75 year-old female has seen her role change from homemaker to purchaser of security, convenience and luxury items. –Barbara Kleger, president of 55+ Consulting

 

• Wealthy boomer women are the marquee players in our country’s culture and commerce. They are educated, have a high income, and make 95 percent of the purchase decisions for their households. – Karen Vogel, The Women’s Congress and co-founder and president of New Generation Event Solutions

 

• Once the college bills are out of the way and children launch their own households, the discretionary spending power of 50-plus women soars. They spend 2.5 times what the average person spends. Women are the primary buyers for computers, cars, banking, financial services and a lot of other big-ticket categories. – Marti Barletta, Primetime Women

 

• The Baby Boomer Generation has more money, leisure time and technology than any other generation in history. They can not only stay in touch with family and friends but actually continue to pursue their careers while traveling. Thanks to Wi-Fi, satellite Internet hookups, e-mail and cell phones, baby boomers can continue running businesses from RV’s from just about anywhere in the United States. – Baby-Boomer Magazine.com

 

• Affluent women juggle demands of career and family, are concerned about the environment and are discriminating shoppers. – The Affluent Market in the U.S., Dr. Robert Brown and Ms. Ruth Washton

 

• The number of wealthy women investors in the U.S. is growing at a faster rate than that of men. In a two-year period, the number of wealthy women in the U.S. grew 68%, while the number of men grew only 36%. – The Spectrem Group

 

• Affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the Internet during an average month. About half are now considered heavy users of the Internet, while heavy use of radio, television, newspapers and direct mail has declined within this group. – Ten Marketing Trends to Watch, Kim T. Gordon, Entrepreneur.com

 

STATISTICS

Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care:

*91% of New Homes

*66% PCs

*92% Vacations

*80% Healthcare

*65% New Cars

*89% Bank Accounts

*93% Food

*93 % OTC PharmaceuticalsAmerican women spend about $5 trillion annually…

 *Over half the U.S. GDP

 

Women represent the majority of the online market

Digital Divas By The Numbers

• 22% shop online at least once a day

 • 92% pass along information about deals or finds to others

 • 171: average number of contacts in their e-mail or mobile lists

 • 76% want to be part of a special or select panel

 • 58% would toss a TV if they had to get rid of one digital device (only 11% would ditch their laptops)

 • 51% are moms

Source: Mindshare/Ogilvy & Mather

 

Women process information and make purchasing decisions differently than men:

·         59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers;

·         66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers;

·         74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers;

·         84% feel misunderstood by investment marketers

·         91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don’t understand them

·         70% of new businesses are started by women

·         The average black woman spends 3 times as much on beauty products compared with the average woman

·         Women influence $90 billion dollars worth of consumer electronic purchases in 2007

·         61% of women influence household consumer electronic buying decisions

·         Nearly 50% of women say they want more green choices

·         37% are more likely to pay attention to brands that are committed to environmental causes.

·         25% of all products in a woman’s shopping cart nowadays are environmentally friendly.When women are aware you support women owned businesses

·         79% would try your product or service

·         80% would solidify their brand loyalty

·         51% would give a company a second chance if a product or service missed the mark the first time

·         Women make more than 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions

·         Consulting firm A.T. Kearney estimates that women determine 80% of consumption, purchase 60% of all cars and own 40% of all stocks

·         57% of women gardened within the last year

·         55% of women spent time reading literature within the last year

·         Single women are becoming a more influential category versus 10 years ago

·         In 1998, only 69% of women between 18 and 24 were involved in home electronics purchases. By 2008, that number has grown to 91%, in part driven by the prevalence of personal electronics such as cell phones and computers

·         Over the past 10 years, the number of women 25-34 who were single or living with a significant other increased 8% to 38%

·         And they are more educated: the percentage of women who had an undergraduate or graduate degree increased, from 28% to 41%, over those 10 years.

·         She’s Got Game! Women And Sports: WOMEN MAKE UP:

·         47.2 % of major league soccer fans

·         46.5% of MLB fans

·         43.2% of NFL fans

·         40.8% of fans at NHL games

·         37% of NBA fans

·         Women purchase 46% of official NFL merchandise

·         Women spent 80% of all sport apparel dollars and controlled 60% of all money spent on men’s clothing

·         Women comprise about one-third (34%) of the adult audience for ESPN sport event programs

 

In older groups, women make up a larger percentage of the audience:

·         31% are women 18-34

·         32 % are women 35-54

·         40% are women 55+

 

Women in Motorsports

·         74% of male respondents and 62% of female respondents agreed that “women racers bring fans out to the games.”

·         40% of female respondents and 21% of male respondents stated that they would be “more” or “much more” likely to follow motorsport races if more females were involved.

·         40% of the 6.6 million people attending Winston Cup races each year are women