Banking in a woman’s world
According to Financial Experience & Behaviors Among Women, a 2010 Prudential Research Study, 95% of women are financial decision-makers and 84% of married women are either solely or jointly responsible for household financial decisions. Oftentimes, these women are also the primary decision-makers regarding long-term finances. Still, many women lack confidence in their ability to make financial decisions.
How do you market to women?
Women think differently than men. Banks need to keep this in mind when targeting women. It helps to appeal to women’s emotions. Instead of simply advertising lower account fees or specifics about interest rates, focus your message on why these things are important. Make a point of mentioning that loans and proper financing can lead to dream weddings, money that can be used to raise kids and create memories with them, a proper retirement and basically living happily ever after. But also note that within the target of women you must break out those who are in college, single, married, business owners, retired, etc., so that you can properly market to each segment.
Independence must also be stressed. MediaPost recently released survey results that stated women feel like financial ads depict them as being dependent on men. They said that too often women are shown being embraced by men or standing behind them. While women do respond to images of family, they do not wish to be portrayed as being reliant on their husbands. Images shouldn’t focus solely on couples or present an image of hierarchy.
Read more: What Should Financial Planners Sell To Women?
Another thing to keep in mind is that women listen to other women. Have a female spokesperson who engages women and gets them thinking about their financial futures. Also, have a resource (such as a website or social networking site) for women to go to for further information. From here, women will be able to engage in conversation with other women. And once they feel confident in their financial knowledge, they are likely to talk to their friends and relatives, further spreading the word.
Different means of reaching out
Citi started Women & Co. to open the lines of communication between banks and women, and to educate women about finance. A national group, made up of mostly professional women, Women & Co. has a website that features financial information, a blog, newsletters and planning tools. Beyond the website, Women & Co. offers classes and other educational events throughout the year to not only keep women well informed but also to offer networking opportunities and the chance to learn from other women. They charge an annual membership fee of $125.
Read more: Women & Co. on the Web
Prudential’s Women & Money uses a similar tactic of targeting women by providing gender-specific resources and insight via their website. The site features information for women at all stages of life and also has checklists, calculators and interactive guides. Prudential conducts plenty of research and posts the findings on this site, too. As mentioned above, the 2010 Financial Experience & Behaviors Among Women study shows women’s growth in financial interest and the importance of marketing to women.
Read more: Studying women's financial behaviors'
Going a step further
International bank Standard Chartered takes a different approach in their marketing to women. Since 2005, they’ve taken an approach to appeal to female customers, as well as to women in their workplace and community. This three-pronged initiative is a unique strategy because it stretches beyond a focus on the consumer. They’ve developed specialized banking products for women, provided financial training for women, empowered females through Goal (a project focusing on transforming the lives of underprivileged girls) and promoted gender equality within their company through a diversity and inclusion initiative and leadership training.
Enhance your marketing
Once you’ve caught the attention of women, you must be willing to come up with ways to educate them about finance and to keep them engaged with your brand. This can be done by:
Making your campaign memorable – As mentioned above, women want to be seen as independent. And it helps to be as creative as possible when portraying financially independent females. Raymond James recently rolled out their “Tales of Financial Pragmatism” campaign whose first ad spot is a TV commercial that features Emily Skinner, a 187-year-old woman who lives life to the fullest due to her smart financial advice from Raymond James. This kind of campaign stands out for being unique, appealing to emotions and portraying women as independent.
Teaching in person – With so many financial institutions competing for the attention of women, you want to make yourself stand out. Go beyond what everyone else is doing. Instead of just focusing on your ad campaign and how to reach women, think of ways to hold their attention once you have it. One way you can do this is by offering seminars or conferences. This allows for women to learn, ask questions and converse with others within their demographic. Down-to-Earth Finance, a financial education company in New York City, does this with their “Simple Money” seminars that they host several times per year. And a West Coast example is WISE (Women Investing in Security and Education), which offers annual financial conferences.
Instilling confidence in female consumers – Time and time again, women report that they lack confidence in making financial decisions. Help them become more knowledgeable and confident by connecting with them and teaching them exactly what they want to know. Similar to Mint.com, LearnVest.com is a financial site that teaches people all about managing money. But LearnVest.com is targeted for women in their 20s and 30s. The 26-year-old founder Alexa von Tobel says, “I wanted to approach this in a hip and sensible way... It’s personal finance in plain English in a way that women are more focused on.” Site users answer five questions and then receive a personalized action plan with checklist items including reading materials and exercises. Look to sites like these in order to be sure you’re providing enough information to women to make them confident in their financial decisions. This will result in their seeking out financial service providers.
Read more: Financial Advice by Women for Women
What to do next
Keep up with research trends and stay a step ahead of your competition. Also, engage the women in your staff when making decisions regarding female target consumers. Remember that while women targets should be treated differently than men, they do not want to be talked down to. It’s not going to be as simple as slapping a pink banner on your ad or creating a more female-friendly logo. You have to dig deeper. Promote financial education and show women that you want to educate them and help them to gain financial success and freedom, rather than simply have them as customers.
Push has extensive experience working with developing, growing and mature brands in the banking industry. If you would like to see examples of work done for a variety of our clients, visit www.pushhere.com.
To talk to Push directly, please contact John Ludwig, CEO, at 407-841-2299 or at jludwig@pushhere.com.