This past holiday I was amazed at how many of my female friends received tech gadgets as presents. One friend was beaming about her new MacBook and iPOD combo, one was pretty jazzed about a new Blackberry, and I myself asked for a 22″ monitor and a MIO GPS system for my car.
I figured being in a tech consulting field, I probably surrounded myself with some pretty tech-savvy friends that were out of the norm. Until I read Microtrends by Mark Penn…
As the CEO of Burson-Marsteller and advisor to both Clinton campaigns, Mark’s job is to spot up and coming trends. In fact, identified “soccer Moms” as an important group for Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign. In his new book, he identifies small patterns in behavior that are influencing our lives.
In the technology section, Mark identifies a group he calls “Tech Fatales”. It turns out there is sizable group of tech-savvy women being ignored by most technology retail outlets. Women outspend men 3 to 2 on technology and influence 57 percent of new technology purchases. Girls are more likely than boys to use cell phones, digital cameras, satellite radios, and DVD recorders.
But Best Buy, Circuit City, Verizon and Geek Squad almost go out of their way to be condescending to women especially in the more hardcore “tech” departments. I’m more comfortable buying a car as a woman today that walking into those stores sometimes. Retailers note – that’s why we buy technology online.
There are also some interesting implications for technology OEMs. Women want gadgets that don’t smudge makeup, home electronics that hide out of the way when not in use, and keyboards and PDAs that work with fingernails.
We just may start to see less Zales commercials and more Radio Shack ones on Lifetime…
