I just finished a book called SheMarketing: the science of marketing to women by Amanda Stevens. I bought it several months ago, but saw it on my shelf two nights ago and decided I should actually read it!

It's quite funny that because I'm a woman and a marketer, I probably thought at least subconsciously, ‘What can this book teach me?', but reading it helped me slow down and think about the mental processes involved in marketing. That served to give me a fresh outlook.

What I found most interesting about the book is it explored the neurological aspects of the differences between men and women. It also provided segmentation information based on lifestyle stages and provided concrete examples of the do's and don'ts of marketing to women. It also keenly reminded me of the information I greedily absorbed during my Consumer Behaviour studies. From what I remember though, they definitely need to revise the sections on psychographics to include some of the techniques mentioned in this book, but that's a topic for another post!

It made me smile when Amanda indicated that some marketers (presumably male) still think of women as a niche. How on earth can more than half of the population be a niche, especially when they purportedly at least influence 80% of purchase decisions? That kind of thinking is probably on the don't list!

SO, in summary, this book will definitely remain on my marketing bookshelf as a reference, both for its inherent usefulness, but also simply because it encouraged me to ‘think pink'.

PS  I've just noticed that the cover is, indeed, pink, but Amanda does caution companies against thinking that turning a product pink will automatically endear them to women.