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In terms of purchasing, it's a woman's world
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-28 08:52
Some say it's a man's world, but women actually make most purchasing and
entertainment decisions, according to a study that could influence advertisers
and media companies.
A woman checks prices of toys at Toys 'R' Us
in New York, November 25, 2005. Some say it's a man's world, but women
actually make most purchasing and entertainment decisions, according to a
study that could influence advertisers and media companies.
[Reuters] |
It's long been accepted that women
pick out most of the clothes for the family and decide on home furnishings, but
market research firm NPD's study of 51,000 U.S. households showed some
surprising facets of purchasing decisions broken down by gender.
Men defer to women when it comes to choosing movies, restaurants and
television shows, according to the survey, set for release in the next two
weeks.
The data indicated that women also decide where to sit in a movie theater,
where to shop for food and which guests come to the family home.
In fact, the only areas where men said they had any clout involved personal
electronics purchases, the family car and setting household budgets.
The gender differences in purchasing could have implications for advertising,
media and education companies, said NPD chief analyst Marshal Cohen, who
spearheaded the research.
"Anyone who's managing a brand, marketing a product or working for an
advertising agency needs to be conscientious in the shifts in consumer
dynamics," Cohen said.
Women are more than twice as likely to be swayed by magazine advertisements,
but newspaper ads influence men more, the study showed. Also, men will more
often change the channel when a commercial comes on, but women are twice as
likely to leave the room.
"The guy is so involved in the financial decision that (investment
advertisements) need to be in the sports or business pages of a newspaper,"
Cohen said. "And if I'm going to advertise (to men), maybe I'm better off doing
a commercial during the Super Bowl than an advertisement in men's magazines."
Findings like these could help such companies as The Wall Street Journal
publisher Dow Jones & Co., magazine publisher Conde Nast Publications and
media conglomerate Viacom Inc, which runs MTV Networks, target their audiences
more accurately.
Attitudes toward education also showed gender differences. Women are 26
percent more likely to say they want more schooling, a finding that could be of
interest to for-profit educators like Corinthian Colleges Inc.
In picking movies, 20 percent of the study's male respondents said they rely
on women to chose, while 9 percent of women defer to the guys. When considering
where to eat, men will let women choose the restaurant 36 percent of the time,
compared with 17 percent of women letting men decide.
And when watching television, 14 percent of the men in the survey said they'd
let women pick the shows, while 9 percent of the women allow men to chose.
Shopping, too, showed clear differences, Cohen found. Women are a third more
likely to say that shoes affect their image, and they'll have an average 11
pairs in their closet. The average for men is 4.5 pairs.
"Women are more willing to pay more for a product, they are more brand
conscious, but less brand loyal," said Cohen. "And who are you marketing a
bang-bang, shoot-shoot movie to? If the woman is choosing the theater and where
to sit and what to watch on TV, well, you need to think about
that."
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