Cherry London whitepaper: How to market to women using brand partnerships

NO WOMAN IS AN ISLAND,AND NEITHER IS ANY BRAND

WHAT MAKES WOMEN TICK AND HOW TOMARKET TO THEM USING BRAND PARTNERSHIPS

Cherry London presents a whitepaperon Marketing to Women June 2014

By Charlie Hills, strategy director

Cherry London ©2014

It’s a universally acknowledged truth that women make more than 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions. But it’s less acknowledged that 91% of women say advertisers don’t understand them. And because of this, only 13% admit that marketing is the chief influencer in buying from a brand. It makes you realise that most marketers are getting it woefully wrong.

We commissioned this report to get to the bottom of what really influences women to buy a brand, what makes them tick, what marketers can do to connect with women, and how brands can tap into this important market effectively and powerfully – using brand partnerships.

38% of respondents told us that the most important factor in purchasing was a recommendation from someone they know (which is five times the number who rated a brand’s marketing activity as the most important factor). They turn to friends firstly, then their children, mothers, and then partners and ‘recommendations from other brands’ jointly. ‘Trusted brands’ are almost as influential as partners; a big vote of

confidence for brands that build powerful loyalty mechanisms.

The survey findings also point strongly to the fact that brands need to be mindful of how they speak to women, what they say – and crucially, at what time in a woman’s life they say it. And that requires in depth knowledge of your customer and developing trust; essentially it’s a five-step approach:

· Listen to what she wants· Give her something to talk about· Create experiences she can share· Make it easy for her· And be real

In a crowded marketplace, where every brand is clamouring for attention, we need to learn to listen, to respond, to stimulate discussion and encourage sharing of information. Finding the right brand partners and working with them in the right way can help your brand become part of a woman’s trusted inner circle – and ultimately earn a place in her head and her heart.

EXEC SUMMARY

Get in touch: [email protected] 020 3111 0500 @cherrylondon cherrylondon.com 01

01. Exec summary

02. Introduction - Why marketers don’t get women

03. What women want

04. Influencing behaviour

05. Brand partnerships connect with women

06. Connect with women in 5 steps: Listen to what she wants. Give her something to talk about. Create experiences she can share. Make it easy for her. Be real.

12. Making the right connections

13. Sources

14. Contact

CONTENTS

Get in touch: [email protected] 020 3111 0500 @cherrylondon cherrylondon.com


INTRODUCTIONMost marketers don’t get

women - how brand partnerships is uniquely

placed to get it right

Women are a powerful force in purchasing behaviour and brand loyalty. Most marketers just don’t understand – and are losing out to more female-focused operators.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that women make more than 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions. But it’s less acknowledged that 91% of women say advertisers don’t understand them. And because of this, only 13% admit that marketing is the chief factor in buying from a brand. It makes you realise that most marketers are getting it woefully wrong.

We’re not just talking a cosmetic makeover, either. As Bridget Brennan, Founder of Chicago-based marketing consulting firm Female Factor, points out, “Pink is not a strategy.” Instead, brands need to look at the way they present themselves to women, the way they talk and how honest they’re being. And that requires a fundamental shift in thinking.

As Cherry CEO Tamara Gillan says, “Up until quite recently most marketers assumed that the man was in the driving seat, or worse, they just didn’t think about who actually was. In truth, it is most often the woman who is directing the purchase. It changes the entire game.”

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That friend who talks at you non-stop: we all have one. They don’t ask you any questions, they don’t show any interest; they just focus on their own needs – and their own voice. It doesn’t engage you or make you feel good; instead, you feel used and drained. It’s astonishing how many brands fall into this pattern in the way they deal with their customers, pushing their agenda and expecting customers to be loyal and become advocates. It can be a turnoff for customers, or even impact negatively on a brand’s credibility.

To make strong connections with a female consumer, brands need to show more interest, like that friend. Ask her what she wants, listen to what she says (and what she doesn’t), suggest solutions and continuously evolve as she does. “It’s taken a long time for brands to realise how far a woman’s influence extends in purchasing,” says Gillan. “Women are more likely to be loyal to a brand or product than men if they’re treated in the right way. It’s a huge untapped resource for many brands, and can’t be ignored.”

WHATWOMEN WANT

“Brands need to showmore interest, like thatfriend...”

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The role that women play in purchasing is a complex matter that deserves attention, so Cherry London recently surveyed 1,000 women across the UK to find out what influenced them in their choice of brand.

Our first insight was that 38% told us that the most important factor in purchasing was a recommendation from someone they know (or five times the number who rated a brand’s marketing activity as the most important factor). They advised that they turned to friends firstly, then their children, mothers, partners and, just fractionally behind, were ‘recommendations from other brands’. Interesting that ‘trusted brands’ are almost as influential as partners; a big vote of confidence for brands that build powerful loyalty mechanisms.

A second major point from our female consumers was that the influence of mothers declines with age. So 18-29 year old women were more than twice as likely as older women to say that their mum was the most important steer in choosing a brand (12.2% vs 5.2% average), but partners have the most influence on women aged 30-39, who are twice as likely as other age groups to listen to their spouse.

The survey raised a challenge for marketers too, the social tendencies of women decline with age. As they get older, they become more ‘island-like’ in their social lives, meaning that brand recommendations become less important. A woman over 60 is 1.5 times as likely as an 18-29 year old woman to say she doesn’t take the recommendations of others into account.

INFLUENCINGPURCHASEBEHAVIOUR


told us that the most important factor in purchasing was a recommendation from someone they know

38%

04

The survey findings point strongly to the fact that brands need to be mindful of how they speak to women, what they say – and crucially, at what time of a woman’s life they say it. And that requires determining knowledge of your customer and developing trust.

We want to share our top tips for how brands can tap into this important market effectively and powerfully – using brand partnerships. Brand Partnerships, done the Cherry Way, has two key characteristics that other marketing disciplines don’t:

1. Find out what your customer really wants in life first

Only by understanding what is really important to her can we identify her needs, desires and aspirations – and that means looking beyond a client’s brand or category to understand a woman’s fundamental needs and desires. From these we determine deep insights with real emotional connection. Then we pinpoint the right brand partners to address those insights – and bring brands together to complement each other, and act as catalysts for each other.

2. Build meaningful, lasting relationships

We create relationships that are designed to last over time – between two brands and between a brand and its customers. In this way, we can help acquire friends of friends over time, a valuable consideration when dealing with women customers. By engaging and conversing with people you couldn’t normally reach, you can attract customers more cost-effectively than you could do through traditional marketing – and become part of a woman’s trusted ‘inner circle’ of recommendations that greatly influence buying behaviour, building credibility and ultimately changing perceptions.


BRANDPARTNERSHIPSTO CONNECT

WITH WOMEN“We create relationships that are built to last…”

05

CONNECT WITH WOMEN IN FIVE STEPS

At Cherry London, we have masterminded

many notable brand partnerships for women,

using our five-step approach.


01.03.

02.04. 05.

06

Understanding what women want in their lives – as opposed to what they want from a brand or a category – gives a far richer insight that can drive a successful strategic partnership. And we work relentlessly to understand our clients’ customer base.

In the case of O2, we established that 49% of their Priority customers are women, whose key passions are film and music, food and drink, fashion and beauty. Based on this, we developed a suite of engaging, relevant rewards, partnering with brands that gave female customers access to tailored rewards that O2 couldn’t offer on its own.

We tracked the results in conjunction with O2 Business Intelligence, assessing 13 individual characteristics that contribute to the success or failure of thousands of Priority experiences, offers and rewards with their millions of customers. The findings summarised exactly which combination of offer characteristics drive success and which don’t, so we were able to craft winning partnerships, such as with Hotel Chocolat and Caffè Nero, giving away a sweet Valentine’s gift or a latte when women need a boost.

Understanding the passions that matter and matching them with the right combination of offer characteristics can make an offer 13,000 times more successful than getting a single factor wrong. As Mark Stevenson, Head of Priority and Sponsorship at O2, says, “Investing the time and effort to understand what our customers want and then giving it to them has always been the main difference between Priority and other reward programmes in the marketplace”.It’s scientific, proven and entirely effective.

LISTEN TO WHAT SHE WANTS. THEN GIVE IT TO HER.

01.



O2 Priority: gives customers what they want: exclusive access

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going out for a night on the town – and partnered with the right mix of relevant fun-loving brands to create the ultimate dressing room for the girls’ night out. Toni&Guy, ASOS, Look magazine and Nails Inc came together in the pop-up Malibutique in UK city shopping centres, drawing tens of thousands of women and connecting via social media with millions more. We quadrupled their Facebook fan base year on year, fuelled thousands of real conversations and dramatically shifted brand perception.

Another successful brand partnership in the market that illustrates the point is that between Diet Coke and fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. The announcement that Gaultier was the brand’s first Designer Creative Director was made through three videos of the designer giving Diet Coke puppets a makeover over 72 hours, released during Paris Fashion Week to generate massive hype and millions of conversations. The collaboration was extended to products through limited edition designer bottles, retail activations and exclusive events and coverage. It was a powerful and credible brand partnership that got women talking about – and drinking – Diet Coke.

GIVE HER SOMETHINGTO TALK ABOUT

02.CONNECT WITH WOMEN IN FIVE STEPS


Malibutique: a compellingmulti-platform partnership campaign connecting the brand with millions of women’

Women love to communicate; they like to be informed and want to be interesting; plus they’re reaching out to technology to fuel this exchange of information. In fact, more women use social media in the US than men (30% of women vs 26% of men) and more women are using the biggest social media sites, ie. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. So we know that giving women interesting things to say and share is a key way that brands can make a powerful connection.

“By fuelling rich, authentic conversations for clients, we have created long-lasting relationships – and spread the brand love into different categories, a potent way of extending your brand’s reach and voice. For Malibu, the challenge was to change perception of a brand that many women considered a little uncool, and something they only drank in a bikini on holiday,” says Tamara Gillian. We pinpointed their consumers’ ‘getting ready moment’ – the ritualistic hour that young women share, chatting, doing their hair and makeup before

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One of the defining books on how to market to women is Inside Her Pretty Little Head, by marketers Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts. They explain how women are driven by an ‘altruism code’: the desire to nurture, share and give to their friends and family. It’s this essence of collaboration that drives a lot of what we do at Cherry.

Brand partnerships are naturally collaborative: they involve sharing marketing expertise, sharing resources and sharing experiences. And our recent research with O2 proved that rewards which are shareable have the highest engagement levels. So, targeting women who share with the people

who matter to them can be an effective way of capturing a wider customer base.

Some of the most popular rewards in the last 12 months have been family tickets to the premiere of Rio 2, free Mother’s Day Cards from WH Smith, access to tickets for Lady Gaga and a ‘Valentines Mini Slab’ from Hotel Chocolat to give to the one to you love. Sharing is spreading the message.

This need to share goes beyond women’s direct social circle too. Women are some of the biggest givers in society: M&S and Oxfam’s Schwopping campaign is one of the best examples we’ve seen of a brand connecting to women through giving. So far, Oxfam has received 6.9 million items of clothing worth £4.5 million through M&S, winning a Big Society Award for excellence. David Cameron pointed out that if shows “how a simple and innovative idea can inspire people, making it easy for them to make a contribution to their community and the wider world.”

Working with the right brand partners can create a strong shareable concept that gives a brand a unique talking point.


CREATE EXPERIENCES SHE CAN SHARE WITH FAMILYAND FRIENDS

03.

Get in touch: [email protected] 020 3111 0500 @cherrylondon cherrylondon.com 09

O2 Priority: family fun –see it first film series

Women have more pressure on them than ever before: pressure from family, from friends, from society – and most of all from themselves. Sarah Bailey, editor-in-chief of Red magazine, tellingly referred to her audience as “hyper-connected, busy, fried women”. These are not people who need added complications in life.

But that’s exactly what many marketers do. The beauty advertisers who promise the ‘perfect look’ but just play on insecurities; those who extend a ‘free offer’ which you find you can only receive if you visit three websites, enter all your personal details, your credit card details and your waist size. It increases stress, distrust and frustration. Instead of solving problems for customers, it piles on even more pressure. Faith Popcorn understood this back in 2001, before

the days of smartphones and digital dependence. In her book EVEolution, she talked about a fifth truth of marketing to women: about how brands who master convenience will win women’s hearts. At Cherry London, we’re great advocates of engaging women in the right place at the right time – and in the right way. “We believe that brand partnerships offer flexibility and relevance, introducing a partner brand to one that women already love, understand and trust.” Influencing household decision makers to consider our client Aviva for their insurance needs is a key challenge. Usually, the decision maker is a woman, but the sector has traditionally communicated in a masculine tone. With their customer loyalty programme, Aviva Advantages, we strive to develop partnerships and rewards that make it easy for the woman of the house to connect with friends and family. Our successful Christmas 2013 campaign featured a host of partners targeting women specifically with rewards such as Fortnum & Mason hampers, a Thompson & Morgan plant giveaway and tickets to Dancing on Ice. We made it easy for customers, with effortless entry, prize redemption and promotion communication, and perfect timing to make their Christmas even more special. It was a deceptively simple concept, but engaged tens of thousands of women.

MAKE IT EASY FOR HER04.



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Aviva Advantages: rewards women with things they can share with their loved ones

BE REAL. GET INVOLVED.

05.



Rohit Bhargava in the Non-Obvious Trend Report said 2014 was going to be the year of ‘lovable imperfection’. Where true authenticity is defined by minor imperfections in products, personalities and brands themselves – and customers will reward realness with attention, loyalty and greater trust. It’s seen on your high street at weekends as we work the farmer’s market nostalgically buying misshapen veg.

Today’s brands must be genuine and authentic to connect, and speak as women want to be spoken to, warts and all. The right brand partner can enhance your story through adding depth to what you offer – and become part of your story in a natural, organic way. Sport England understand this better than most, as they work to engage young women (14-17 years) and try to shift their perceptions about sport and

with the long-term goal of increasing participation. Statistics show that only 12% of this age group is active, a trend that seriously needs reversing for the sake of the nation’s health.

For young women, there are barriers that negatively impact their perception of sport. Embarrassment at how they look while playing; the competitive ‘play to win’ culture; even the feeling that it is aimed at a ‘different type’ of girl. But there are lots of motivations too: the social benefits, the desire to be fit and healthy – and the sheer fun of it.

To help young women see sport in a new light, we’ve created the BloominGirls social media campaign and event this summer to pair the brands these young women love with non-traditional barrier-free versions of various sports. Our headline ambassadors are British girl band Neon Jungle, who are collaborating with a collection of cool brands (boohoo.com, MUA, Batiste and Babyliss to name a few), as well as the national governing bodies for netball (AENA), football (FA), hockey (EH) and rugby (RFU).

Neon Jungle are known for their music and fashion, but are bringing credibility as they all participate in sport to stay fit – and look good. “In this way, we’re presenting sport in a new way: in their speak, in their style, in their social set, outside of the school environment and linked with music and fashion, two of their key passions.”

Connects young women with sportin a way they can

understand

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Connecting with women is highly profitable for marketers, but requires a serious shift in communications strategies.

In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath talk about credibility being “hard to achieve outside of our trusted circles of friends, family, experiences and faith”, something that should strike a chord with marketers, who often aren’t really listening to their women customers to really find out what their goals and desires in life are.

The Heaths go on to point out that “tapping into authorities with credibility is one sure fire way of gaining credibility”. This informs our approach of introducing brand partnerships to already loyal customers to transfer trust onto a new brand – and enhance the existing one’s story.

In a crowded marketplace, where every brand is clamouring for attention, we need to learn to listen, to respond, to stimulate discussion and sharing of information. Finding the right brand partners and working with them in the right way, can help you drive your business forward by connecting the audience who make 80% of purchasing decisions. It can help your brand become part of a woman’s trusted inner-circle and ultimately earn a place in her head and her heart.


MAKINGTHE RIGHT

CONNECTIONS

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Cherry London Research, Nov 13, Usurv.com survey of 1000 UK adults, demographics: age: 18+

Cherry London Research, Feb 14, Usurv.com survey of 1000 UK women, demographics: age: 18+

Cherry London Flipboard Magazine “No woman is an island, what makes women tick and how to market to them”

Cherry London Pinterest Board: http://www.pinterest.com/cherrylondonltd/no-woman-is-an-island-what-makes-women-tick-and-ho/

Cherry London and O2 Business Intelligence Priority Analysis, 2014

Sport England Research, numerous, 2008-2014http://financesonline.com/uploads/social-media-infographic.jpg

http://www.sofii.org/node/1415http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/03/26/children-rank-higher-marketing-influencing-brands-women-buy

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ms-shwopping-scheme-wins-big-society-award

http://she-conomy.com/facts-on-women

http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/page.

Inside Her Pretty Little Head: A New Theory of Female Motivation and What it Means for Marketing, Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts

Daring Book for Boys in Business, Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts

EVEolution, Faith Popcorn

Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg

What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping, Paco Underhill

The Female Brain, Louann Brizendine

Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B Caldini

Why We Buy, Paco Underhill

Consumer.ology, Philip Graves

Made to Stick, Chip & Dan Heath

Nudge, Thaler & SunsteinBuzz, Emanuel Rosen

The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz

Celebrity Sells, Hamish Pringle

Why she buys, Bridget Brennan


SOURCES

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GET IN TOUCHCherry London

7-9 William Road, London, NW1 3ER

[email protected] 3111 0500

@cherrylondonwww.cherrylondon.com

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Date post:	18-Dec-2014
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