2010: with the scent of a woman

When I see consumer statistics in the United States for 2010 I keep telling myself what a great idea was to launch a publication such as Mujeres&Cia (this article was originally written for Mujeres&Cia, an online publication targeted to women in business). Let’s understand why.

As we approach the end of the year, we normally review what has happened and we try to anticipate how would the future look like. This year we are closing a difficult year and also finishing a decade, so this revision-projection exercise is more important than ever.

2000-2010 has been the most innovative decade I had lived so far; a decade in which as marketing professionals we have been forced to learn something new almost every day and adapt our strategies on product design and marketing communications accordingly. Personally, I loved the challenge!

Many significant changes have taken place during this decade, however from my perspective, the most noteworthy changes came as a consequence of Internet’s broad penetration and the revolution it meant. While in 1990 there were only 9 websites, by 2002 we had 40 million; email became the preferred communication channel with 183 billion messages a day, not to mention Facebook becoming one of the largest countries in the world with 350 million active users. If not yet convinced about what the Internet means to society, just note that in 2006 one in eight couples in the United States met online.

Incredible data, but part of our past. As an expert on marketing and innovation what I really like is to look forward to understand tendencies in order to design and construct our future. So let’s take a peek at some interesting numbers.

2010: the traditional US family is no longer a majority

Married and with two kids? You used to be part of the majority and during the next decade you’ll become a minority, representing only 22% of homes in the United States. The remaining 78% will be composed of couples with no kids, singles, single parents with kids, and families formed by “yours, mines and ours”.

If you are in marketing...this data should be seriously taken into consideration.

2010: more Pink than ever

(Before you continue reading, be advised that what follows is by no means a "feminist" approach. Much to the contrary is only an "opportunistic" approach. Having been advised, now...enjoy the data that follows and let your mind dream of new strategic approaches).

Finally, a piece of information that opens a wide range of questions and opportunities: from the 5,9 trillion dollars spent in the United States, women account for 4,3 and 73% of household expenditures. Meaning, that 2010 will probably be more Pink than ever.

Whether we like it or not, in this world numbers rule our lives and consumer spending data is the most relevant for an economy. Do we need more women in business?

By now, we have enough evidence that women and men perceive the world in a completely different way. Doctor Louann Brizendine, a neurobiologist from UC Berkeley, best selling author of “The Female Brain” and founder of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco demonstrated how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what we value, how we communicate and how we love. Dr. Brizendine said on a media interview “If we pay attention to those differences we will be able to make better decisions about our lives”.

However, if consumer spending is by far “controlled” by women and, on the other hand, there is enough evidence that women and men perceive the world in a different way, then my first question is why the percentage of women in executive office positions is only 13.5 percent and almost 30 percent of companies don’t have women executive officers at all? Wouldn't companies (specially those whose target are women) benefit from having more women on board?

To me, this figures prompt a lot of questions, as for example: what will happen with booming machist economies like India and China; will they grow at the same pace even though they are not giving women an important place in business?

In marketing, will we continue to see a lack of female talent? Are men going to keep designing women shoes and high heels? Are we going to finally find in hotel rooms make-up removers next to shaving creams?

How great is to start a new year and much more a new decade that will definitively have the scent of a woman! Greetings for 2010.