Just Don’t Call It Investing “Like A Girl”

Quick - what’s the first name that pops into your head when I say "hugely successful investor."  Yeah, that’s the name I came up with too: Warren Buffett.  Well, it turns out, his style of researching and being patient with where he puts his money is more typically feminine than masculine.  Are you going to call him a sissy?

A recent Motley Fool article by LouAnn DiCosmo, closes with this:

It’s possible, dear reader, that you’re of the male persuasion, but
don’t fret. By focusing on the traits that created superinvestor Warren
Buffett — patience, the willingness to dig deep, the ability to wait
for the right price, and the desire to buy and hold instead of trade,
trade, trade — you can awaken the feminine side of your investment
psyche. Consider it. Your portfolio will thank you for it.

A few questions for you: Would any guy want to read a book or attend a conference about investing like a woman?  No.  Would a guy be interested in a book or presentation about making lots of money through patience, a willingness to dig deep, the ability to wait for the right price, and the desire to buy and hold?  Yes. 

Take the female label off of it, and - voila - everything can become a lot more accessible.  The difference is not content, but semantics.  As a marketer, you must decide whether to call out the feminine aspects of your product or service, or let them "lay low" and do their magic without being so named.  In many cases, I think the latter should be the default approach.

Over my years of studying and writing about marketing to women, I’ve learned that men can be quite alienated by any product, initiative, strategy using the word "women" on packaging or promotional materials.  I’ve recently been talking with a lot of businessmen, psychologists and sociologists, to get to the root of this issue.  In the meantime, I’ve also been working to find the most effective words and tone for inspiring more men to engage with the power of a feminine trait marketing focus. 

Consider this: In the old days, many of the available career choices were either "men’s jobs" or "women’s work."  Thankfully, a lot has changed by 2008.  Not surprisingly, however, in the marketplace such gender label polarization still occurs.   Today’s so-savvy consumers are much better prepared to see and buy past it.

Look around and you’ll notice a small, but trend-igniting, selection of supposed "women’s products" - like skin care or fashion, that are getting more attention from the men’s market.  This follows on the footsteps of the more established fact that women are big purchasers of lawn mowers, cars and homes these days - all of which were formerly understood to be solely within a man’s realm.

What’s going on now is that, both as consumers and at work, women and men are getting comfortable  with - and society is more allowing of - crossing those often arbitrarily assigned gender barriers of our past.   Our lives and our markets are expanding because of larger cultural transitions.  This may be worth a little celebrating, my friends.

Anyway -

If the most famous investor invests "like a girl," and any powerful woman these days is said to have achieved such success because she operates "like a guy" - are all bets off?   What underlies the gender-assignment of these "feminine" or "masculine" traits is the point.  Warren Buffett has unique traits and characteristics that make him who he is - which happen to come from perhaps the more feminine side of his brain, but that also result in his making a lot of money.  Oprah has unique traits and characteristics (some extremely and typically feminine, of course, but others - like building a media empire - more typically masculine) that make her who she is, as well: a very successful human.

It’s the same with your customers.  Perhaps, as a group, they have lots of strong feminine  characteristics - so you serve those well (of course).   Is there really a need to tell them and the world that most of your pre-market consumer research studied how women, and not men, buy?  No. Given the tended-to details of the full customer experience, brands should trust their customers - both male and female - to recognize that their unique ways and purchasing habits are well understood.   

The new rule:  More "women’s focus" walk.  Less "women’s focus" talk. 

Now - let’s get back to learning to invest "like Warren Buffett"…

Friday, March 21st, 2008 in Brain Science, Socio, Anthro, Marketing to Men, Men in Marketing to Women