The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers-Women - Hardcover

Warner, Fara

3.23

22 ratings by Goodreads

9780131855199: The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers-Women

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0131855190 ISBN 13: 9780131855199

Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 2005

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Women now drive some 80% of all buying decisions. By 2010, they'll account for half of America's private wealth: $13 trillion dollars. A few remarkable companies have learned how to refocus on women -- and, in so doing, have achieved truly stunning results. In The Power of the Purse, top journalist Fara Warner takes you behind the scenes at those companies, revealing how they did it -- and how you can, too. Unlike previous books on marketing to women, this one doesn't settle for generalities: it offers in-depth, start-to-finish case studies. Discover how McDonald's turned around its business by recognizing women as full-fledged consumers, not just 'Moms.' Learn how Kodak's digital camera business soared from fourth to first by recognizing women's importance as family 'memory makers'. See how P G built Swiffer into a cultural revolution, and how the diamond industry did the same for right-hand rings. Watch Bratz topple Barbie, Torrid create its enormously successful plus-size stores for teenagers, and Avon connect with a radically new generation of women. From Nike to Home Depot, each story is unique -- but in every case, these companies put women at the center of their strategies, and listened intently to what real women consumers were telling them. It's not about 'painting your products pink': it's about transforming the way you think about women. Do that, and you'll create products that sell better to everyone.

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From the Back Cover:

"Warner moves beyond theory and offers meaty case studies that should wake up any sane person—including males(!)—to the world's #1, largely untapped marketplace opportunity. There is no longer the faintest excuse for not marching quick time toward full-bore implementation."
—Tom Peters, bestselling author of In Search of Excellence, Re-Imagine!, and many other management classics
"The Power of the Purse combines insight with practical applications from the world's biggest brands on how to reach the economic force called 'women.' Most notable are the ten questions Warner suggests marketers ask themselves as a way to reinvent their brands, products, and services. The answers to these questions should put this book at the top of your reading list."
—Jack Trout, bestselling author of Positioning, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and many other marketing classics
"Women will tell you what they think when you ask them. Fara Warner lays out how easy asking can be, and how taking action on that insight can be the difference between success and failure."
—Michelle Cervantez, vice president of marketing, Mercedes-Benz USA
"Women represent the most complex, fragmented, and misunderstood consumer segment to target today. More than 80 percent of buying decisions are made by women. This book offers marketers refreshing and compelling insights into how to connect with women and tap into a tremendous market."
—Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO of Vivaldi Partners and co-author of Brand Leadership
"Anyone trying to gain market share in a consumer products business will find The Power of the Purse a big "Aha!" delivering insight and inspiration. Fara Warner has recognized and documented an important demographic shift- individuals and family members are choosing to play to their strengths instead of following outdated traditional gender roles. The roles don't change- executive, homemaker, breadwinner, caregiver, athlete, cook, shopper, historian, financial manager, do-it-yourselfer, and so on. What has changed, which this book proves using examples that hit home, is that the roles are evolving to be gender-neutral. Smart marketing requires challenging, long-standing assumptions about who does the cooking and cleaning, who brings home the bacon, and what motivates them to buy. As this book shows, those who figure that out have a big opportunity to gain market share from those who don't."
—Donna Horton Novitsky, venture partner for Mohr, Davidow Ventures, and global entrepreneurial marketing lecturer, Stanford University
The Power of the Purse is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how today's smartest companies are discovering the immense power of women consumers—and using it to achieve break-through results.
Women's access to money and power has transformed the way they approach brands, businesses, products, and services. Women now influence the vast majority of purchasing decisions—and every year, they gain direct control over trillions in new wealth. This is a little-understood market of unprecedented size and scope- one that few companies truly know how to reach. Empty slogans and superficial changes won't work. This book shows you what will.
Nothing theoretical, nothing political- this book is built around nearly a dozen extraordinary business successes. You'll learn the real stories behind McDonald's Premium Salads, Procter & Gamble's Swiffer, Hot Topic's Torrid stores...behind the turnarounds at The Home Depot, Avon, and Kodak...and behind the cultural revolution of DeBeers' right-hand diamond ring.
As business journalist Fara Warner illuminates what these companies learned, she offers a blueprint for discovering what your women customers want, how to give it to them—and how to reap the rewards.
How McDonald's discovered the woman inside the mom
From Happy Meals to Premium Salads, and beyond
The Home Depot's "Power Partners" and "Do-It-Herselfers"
Not just influencers- women wield the power saw
The right-hand ring- shattering the myth of the "White Knight"
Don't wait for a man- a declaration of independence and recognition of economic might
From fourth to first- How Kodak rebuilt its digital camera business around women
Beyond technology- helping the family "memory makers"
No more blonde icons- a new sensibility about beauty
Making Avon relevant to new generations of women
Making your products more relevant to everyone
Why understanding women helps you create products that sell better to men, too
� Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Author:

Fara Warner is currently a contributing writer to Fast Company. She has written extensively for The New York Times, Time Inc. Custom Publishing, and other national publications. Warner worked for three years as The Wall Street Journal's correspondent in Asia writing about advertising, marketing, media, and consumer trends; then moved to the Journal's Detroit bureau, where she specialized in e-commerce and its impact on the automotive industry. As senior writer for Fast Company, she wrote Nike's Women's Movement, an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how Nike transformed the way it sells to, designs for, and communicates with women.

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