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Female Econonmy

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As a market, women represent a bigger opportunity than China and India combined. So why are companies doing such a poor job of serving them?

The Female Economy by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre

Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea

2 The Female Economy

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The Female Economy

The Idea in Brief
• Women represent the largest market opportunity in the world. • But despite women’s dominant buying power, many companies continue to market mostly to men and fail to explore how they might meet women’s needs. • Companies that can offer tailored products and services—going beyond “make it pink”—will be positioned to win when the economy begins to recover.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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As a market, women represent a bigger opportunity than China and India combined. So why are companies doing such a poor job of serving them?

The Female Economy by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre

COPYRIGHT © 2009 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Women now drive the world economy. Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period. In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than twice as big, in fact. Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer. And yet many companies do just that, even ones that are confident they have a winning strategy when it comes to women. Consider Dell’s short-lived effort to market laptops specifically to women. The company fell into the classic “make it pink”

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