Quote of the day comes from Marti Barletta, one of the top thought leaders around when it comes to marketing to women–especially 50+ women. Speaking today at the Marketing2Women conference in Chicago:

“Women make 80 percent of all the household purchasing decisions. And when it comes to 50+ women, this is influenced by what I call ‘biological jujitsu.’ At this age, the estrogen level in women drops–which makes the effect of testosterone more visible. Women become more assertive and have more self-control. Meanwhile, testosterone levels in men fall–so they are more accommodating. The result? Women have expanded family influence. They make the decisions on where to vacation, and what to buy. And their kids might be out of the house, but they ask Mom for advice on all kinds of purchases.”

Barletta heads up the Trendsight Group, and just published a new book called “PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds and Business of Boomer Big Spenders.” In the book, she goes on to describe the coming concentration among women of financial assets as income rises and inheritances materialize from parents and husbands. Financial services companies already are on to this–witness major marketing pushes targeting women from Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch and others.

I’m reading the book and will be interviewing Marti here on the site next week. If you have questions for Marti, drop me a comment here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Financial Services, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.