Gender Gap
Earlier this year, the Consumer Electronics Association came out with a study that showed women are increasingly driving a greater share of technology purchases than men. Women’s heightened sense of shopping aside, it seems that the consumer electronics industry is finally warming to a discovery that has had significant impact in the home improvement industry: even in what seem like testosterone-heavy categories, women are controlling the purse strings.
Maybe I’m old-school, but I think men are still bigger gadget freaks. What seems to make more sense to me is that men are happy just to buy some technology, but that women tend to be the more discerning shoppers and therefore are making more of the decisions. At the same time, women may be finding some products that have real value for them.
Whatever the underlying cause, though, I think recognizing women’s influence in electronics purchasing decisions should have a positive impact on the product offerings that we will see going forward. I look at Philips as an example. It seems that a few years ago (i.e., a few years before most of their competitors) Philips marketers began to notice that women were an important part of the selling equation. As a result, their products began to offer a little more design sense, and their advertisements began to show more women consumers. Philips became the Target to the rest of the industry’s Wal-Mart.
I think the problem is that we still aren’t seeing enough companies following in the footsteps of Philips. Let’s take high definition television as an example.
Men love HDTV. Sports look great, action movies look great, and size matters, right? With men, bigger is better — more bragging rights, more assertiveness, more boldness. Guys want visitors to notice the 50″ or 70″ screens in our living rooms and to make comments.
Women seem a little less enamored with size. Instead of looking for a trophy piece, they seem to be asking the question, “How is the room going to look when the set is off and the screen is black?” And the answer isn’t really to just leave the TV on all the time for effect. Instead, women seem happier with smaller televisions, or at least sets that have a little more style or that are integrated into the surroundings (read “wall mounted” or “recessed”).
What’s a gadget-loving guy to do? If we want to convince our significant others that it really is okay to splurge on the bigger TV, we need to appease them somehow.
In addition to wall mounting and choosing a set that looks stylish, why not find a good use for the set when we aren’t watching TV? Televisions are great for displaying pictures — which both eliminates the black hole that would otherwise be there, and encourages more gadget envy from house guests.