Women are finally being recognized for being powerful economic forces, making most of the purchasing decisions for the household. And purchasing power increases with age so purse carriers are finally being recognized as heavy-hitters when making spending decisions. Isn't it time?!! Julie Gilbert, a vp with Best Buy, was quoted in a NYTimes article that “Women are outspending men in our industry $55 billion to $41 billion,” Ms. Gilbert said. “Not only that, they are actually influencing 90 percent of the purchases. It is a new day in consumer electronics.” The article's theme was that businesses are realizing that "they overlook women at their own peril" and are looking to court this "fermale-centric" base.
More magazine was named Magazine of the Year by Ad Age Magazine and in their article, AdAge wrote that Meredith Corp.'s More magazine, "has finally cracked the code for a magazine aimed at 40-plus women that is embraced by both readers and advertisers."
For those who feel that the higher powered pockets of more mature women are neglected by our culture who puts youth on a pedestal, this is good news. The online site More magazine site has room for improvement (their audience is most likely to read the paper copy, not an online version) but as I checked out the online site, Hoyun Kim has an interesting article on The Popgadget Hot List and it had a fun write-up with a link to a company who makes charms from the emoticons. Like this :-) I think the emoticon jewelry might be something moms - or grandmoms - might want to buy for younger kids.
Other members of the Ad Age magazine A-list top 10 are here (pdf) and it was fun to note that New York magazine, one of my newest regular reads, is #4 on the list. More would do well to look at New York magazine's online site for tips on how a good magazine site can function wery well in as an internet medium. Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine covered the growth in newspaper online readership statistics published by the Newspaper Association of America -- and they are surging. I thought it was very apt, as I wrote this post, that the title of the update in changing media trends was "Your Customers are Ahead of You."
I think women have been out front in many ways. They've just not been noticed. Women gain wisdom with age. (That means discretionary power with money, too, and what it can purchase.)
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Is it really news to anyone that women outspend men and influence a large majority of purchases? Surely this is not a new phenomenon, so I don't understand the statement "Isn't it time". When wasn't it time?
Posted by: ra | October 31, 2006 at 05:54 AM