In meeting with and talking to advisors and executives of financial companies we often hear them say, very earnestly, that they know that women are an important niche market. And in fact they say, they are already actively marketing to women. (Which, to our dismay, as often as not, take the form of a few “pink” female-centric brochures or ads).
Understandably, since we are in the business of helping the financial community better relate to and connect with women, they are taken aback when we say, “actually, that’s wrong – women are NOT a niche market!”
So why on earth would we say that?
Wikipedia defines “a niche market” as the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The logic then follows, that for these companies women are a subset of the male market, upon which they are focused.
Try telling a woman that she is a “subset” and see what happens -- she’ll send you packing pretty quickly.
As long as the financial community views women as a subset (of their real market – that is men) and does little more than occasionally throw a few marketing dollars at the “female issue”, little will change. Women will continue to feel disenfranchised and alienated by the financial community.
The reality is that the majority of financial assets will be under women’s control by 2020, and even today women have veto over the family assets. Treating them nothing more than a subset, ignoring what will soon be half the market, is going to have serious consequences by way of lost business. In fact, women are already looking for alternatives.
Related: Turning a Female Prospect Into a Client
What can you do? Understand that women are not a niche market – they are THE market – and then act accordingly. That means more than paying lip-service by claiming to be “female friendly.” It means rethinking how you do business, it means taking the time to learn how to connect with women and delivering service in a way that is relevant to them.
For more information on how you can learn how to connect with women visit www.strategymarketing.ca