Girls Gone Wired: Digital Women and the Marketers Who Want Them

NEWS FLASH:  The technology gender gap has virtually closed and that the majority of women are hungry, even voracious, for technology.  While men have historically been considered the earliest adopters and heaviest consumers of new technology, this perception does not tell the whole story. The key difference is that women are utilizing new technologies in their own way. In particular, women are most likely to adopt new technology when it is social and relevant—that is, when it seamlessly improves their day-to-day lives.

So, here are a few action steps for marketers so that they enable sincere connections and engagement with their highly desirable female audiences:

1. Use technology solutions to mimic, amplify, augment, or simplify existing behaviors.  Don’t get wrapped up in the gee-whiz of new technology… using tech for tech’s sake.  Women are busy and don’t want or have time to do or learn more.  Instead, focus on how technology can augment, improve, and/or simplify what’s already happening in the analog world.
2. Fully leverage the social nature of women.  Well before the rise of the Internet, women tapped into their real-world social networks to get and make recommendations on what to buy, read, eat, see, and do.  Facebook has amplified those connections to the nth degree.  Women, especially younger ones, are also looking for validation.  Consider ways you can increase your brand’s social currency… How can you create a message that will drive people to socialize around it?  And, how can you tap into the social graph at point-of-purchase, when women tend to call family or friends for opinions?
3. Acknowledge the side effects of technology.  Brands, particularly tech brands, can continue to play up connectivity, social networking, and all the benefits that make digital media so addictive for women.  At the same time, women are tech fatigued, stressed out, overstimulated and also afraid.  Digital technology has created a seismic shift in how humans relate to each other, and they’re afraid of losing closeness with those they care about or missing out on real-world experiences.  Brands whose core message exudes simplicity or human connection will find a well of opportunity.
4. Create experiences designed for simultaneous consumption and engagement.  Women are no longer interacting with media and technology in a focused, linear way.  Rather, they’re chatting on Facebook as they watch TV, texting while flipping through a magazine, gaming on an iPad while listening to music.  Brands should steer attention between one medium and another in a continuous loop, timing secondary content to stream alongside primary content.  Leveraging women’s impulse to multitask can turn a potential negative (distraction and frustration) into a positive (an immersive experience).
5. Continuously ask, “what’s the value exchange?”  Since women are so strapped for time, offer them something of value in return for doing anything above and beyond what they already do.  What do women get in return for viewing, interacting with, contributing to, or amplifying your content or campaign?  Unless there is some sort of value exchange, there’s little reason for a positive action to take place at all.  The fact that women spend more time on fewer sites, and the fact that they are selective with the apps they choose, indicates that they’re generally looking for a more qualitative experience.
6. Make more of the micro-memories.  As the family chroniclers, women have always used cameras to capture memories- birthdays, graduations, weddings.  Now, as smartphone cameras become more turbocharged, a camera is always in her pocket.  And, as photo-sharing apps proliferate, she’s capturing not only the big, but the small: her son’s scowl on a car ride, her daughter’s ice cream-covered face.  While these micro-moments or micro-achievements were rarely chronicled before, today they’re continually recorded and shared in real-time via email, text, or social media.  How can brands better embrace, encourage, and leverage this behavior?
7. Find ways to ease FOMO (fear of missing out).  Social media today fuels fears of missing out, with people feeling that their peers are doing, know about, or possess more than they do.  For mothers, there is FOMO around the lives of other families as well as the lifestyles of childless friends with far more free time (and money?).  For others, social media turns an evening at home into a guilt-ridden night of continually checking Twitter feeds and Facebook status updates.  Marketers can help ease this anxiety by assuring the afflicted that they’re not missing out on much at all.  Brands offering simply pleasures, for example, can convey that stepping back from the fray rather than following the crowd can be a smarter choice.
8. Master mobile compatibility, commerce, messaging and location-based everything.  Right now, most women are still using the mobile phone primarily for its basic communication functions, much like the early days of the Internet when people tapped into a fraction of its full potential.  However, as the availability of wireless broadband expands and the cost of advanced mobile smartphones drops, the device is becoming the preferred hub for digital activity… and, digital natives are leading the way.  The mobile phone is evolving into a woman’s Swiss Army knife, helping her manage all her identities (mom, daughter, boss/employee, wife, friend, sister, etc.) simultaneously.  As a result, brands need to create seamless experiences optimized for mobile and local.
9. Look for opportunities to merge tech with non-tech categories.  As the Hewlett-Packard/Vivienne Tam collaboration demonstrates, synergies and desirability can be gained from the marriage of technology and non-technology brands.  For non-tech brands, the challenge is to figure out how to make their offerings tech-enabled or to find relevant collaborative stories.  For tech brands, the challenge is to identify partnerships that feel organic rather than forced.