Women Influencing More Purchase Decisions

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Women, who have long been considered the CEOs of the American household, are exerting more influence than ever before on the purchases they make for themselves, and they’re exerting greater influence over their friends’ purchases as well, according to a new research study from Fleishman-Hillard International and Hearst Magazines.

According to the fourth “Women, Power & Money” study, 54% of American women believe it’s their responsibility to help their friends and family make smart purchase decisions, and a similar number said they regularly influence friends and family to buy or not buy a product or service. When the first study was conducted in 2008, only 31% felt they regularly influenced those decisions.

“A lot of outside forces have magnified their role and how they’ve stepped up and taken the reins of that role,” Nancy Bauer, senior vice president and senior partner at Fleishman-Hillard, tells Marketing Daily. “The recession has really moved women into the role of helping each other.”

And help each other they have. According to the survey, a third of women (33%) have recommended a product or service in the past six months. Only 19% said they recommended that someone should not buy a specific product or service.

“They’re going to talk about good experiences with products and services,” Bauer says. “[She’s] looking for practical solutions. [She] wants to know a product is reliable and that it’s good.”

And most of their influence is coming through social networks. In the past year, the number of brands a woman follows on Facebook has increased 12%. (And 65% of women are a friend or fan of a company, compared with 52% of men.) At the same time, 73% of women use Facebook, compared with 65% in 2010.

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2 comments on "Women Influencing More Purchase Decisions".

1. Patti Minglin from Go Girl Communications
   

   commented on: January 25, 2012 at 10:41 a.m.
   Thank you for sharing this research. In addition to the growing influence women have over the purchase decisions of family and friends, we are noticing with our clients that women are influencing more 'business purchase decisions' as well. With more and more women back in the workforce and taking on leadership roles within companies and brands, marketing to women strategies have expanded beyond just B2C businesses and now need to be a part of B2B marketing discussions.
2. Ted Rubin from Collective Bias / The Rubin Organization
   

   commented on: January 25, 2012 at 4:02 p.m.
   What is happening now — as more women spend more time on more social networking sites for more reasons – is that women’s purchasing power now goes well beyond the purse … into women’s relationships. Consider how important relationships are in social networking, and you see that women and the relationships they bring with them are key to expanding brand visibility and company growth through their powerful Word of Mouth. Build relationships with your women consumers, and you will see exponential returns (Return on Relationship™: ROR or Twitter hashtag #RonR). Before you go any further in implementing your current marketing strategies, ask yourself: What are you doing to connect women with your brand/product/service? What are you doing to make sure women are engaged in all aspects of your product and service cycles? What are you doing to build and nurture relationships with the female consumer, and empower them to spread the word?

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