The Gender Intelligent Retailer: Discover the Connection Between Women Consumers and Business Growth - Hardcover

Thomas Yaccato, Joanne; McSweeney, Sean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470841028 ISBN 13: 9780470841020

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2011

Synopsis

How companies can create a retail environment that's better for everyone by being better for women Women make up the biggest section of the retail market, yet most retail companies do a poor job of serving and satisfying that core constituency. Many retail enterprises view women as a niche market, but at 52 percent of the population, they're anything but. This book shows why reaching women is imperative to retail success, and how businesses can do it properly. Retail Ecology shows retailers how to build a companywide awareness of what women consumers want and how to deliver it through marketing, operations, store layout, product design and development, and even human resources. Retailers who serve women better serve everyone better. Joanne Thomas Yaccato (Toronto, ON, Canada) is President and founder of The Thomas Yaccato Group, a consulting company that helps companies create products, services, and business strategies for women. Sean McSweeney (Toronto, ON, Canada) is the manager of Mountain Equipment Coop's flagship store in Toronto, Canada.

About this title

About the Author

Joanne Thomas Yaccatois the president and founder of the Toronto-based consulting firm The Thomas Yaccato Group, known as Corporate Canada's Gender Lens. Since 1994, using Gender Intelligence, TYG has worked with companies globally helping them better connect with women consumers. Joanne is the author of three best-selling business books, Balancing Act, Raising Your Business and The 80% Minority. The family, which includes aerospace engineer husband Michael McNeill, 13-year old daughter Kathleen and demon dog Caley, live in King City, Ontario. Sean McSweeney has held a number of management positions in his 10 years as a retail manager with Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). The Toronto store s first gender-based store re-design was his brainchild and he has been instrumental in helping MEC win a number of environmental awards. Sean is a committed bike commuter, rain or shine, and has co-founded a charity event Run with the Sun to raise funds to for the fight against cancer. Sean lives in Toronto with his wife Nicole and their four children Patrick, Connor, Kieran and Maeve.

From the Inside Flap

"Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women."
The Economist, April 2006

Women are incredibly discerning consumers who control 80 percent of the consumer dollar spent in the industrialized world. But the retail sector ranks poorly in its ability to serve and satisfy this major market, with research revealing that women feel they are not taken as seriously as men by the companies they do business with. The fact is that "marketing to women" initiatives will not fix this problem because women can smell a fem-marketing rat a mile away.

The way to reach women effectively is to put their consumer needs at the epicenter of your business strategy, and this is the book that explains why, and how to do it. The holistic or "organic" approach outlined in The Gender Intelligent Retailer proven again and again in the authors' work with numerous organizations shows that if you focus on what women want in a retail experience, you raise the bar for everyone. If you make it women-friendly, you make it everybody friendly.

Gender Intelligence is about creating a company-wide competency around what women consumers are looking for, and reflecting that in every aspect of your business: marketing, advertising, operations, store layout and design, product development, staff training, human resources, etc. This approach is not a short-term, "pink-washing" marketing gimmick that attracts women consumers temporarily, but rather a way of building lasting relationships with your key customers that result in increased market share and customer satisfaction for all customers.

The Gender Intelligent Retailer is full of examples and case studies of companies that have implemented Gender Intelligence and are reaping the benefits, including: The Home Depot, Sobeys, Allstate Insurance, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Government of British Columbia, Bruce Power, Shane Homes, and Petro-Canada.

Becoming a gender intelligent retailer is an effective way to create an environment that women want to visit, spend their money in, and tell all of their friends about an approach that considers the needs of all your customers by focusing on women as the central consumer, and that can improve your results overall.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470841028
• ISBN 13: 9780470841020
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312