ComScore just published a report that reflects women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men. This is interesting but may also have strategic implications for publishers and advertisers.
Women are a critical audience because they’re key decision-makers and control household purchases.
Yahoo just competed a survey of 3,000 women and is trickling out findings on Twitter. The company asserted that women make 85% of household buying decisions (a data point validated elsewhere). Yahoo, based on third party data, also says that “by 2014, women will control roughly $28 trillion in annual consumer spending.”
I’ve often wondered whether a directory/local search site that specifically tried to appeal to women (Center’d is probably the closest thing) could be effective. I’m not certain . . . and what would that look like?
It would focus on community for sure and there might be UI or “aesthetic” elements that were specifically intended to appeal to women (i.e., richly “visual”). Beyond that I’m sure multivariate and focus group testing would reveal UX and functionality interests that differentiate women and men (e.g., search vs. browse).
May 26th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
[...] targeting parents or moms in particular. Beyond the “mommy blogs” with listings, the closest thing to my idea was/is Center’d. However its demographic emphasis is not explicit in the way these apps target [...]