Part of the Marketing to Women Survey Results Series.
Over the last few months, Aquitude – via the Purl Influencer Panel has been conducting a survey into the attitudes of women in relation to brands and marketing.
It is our intention to publish the results of this survey and similar regional surveys to highlight the areas where brands winning and losing in their battle to market themselves to women.
In this, the first piece of analysis of the survey results, we look at a general question about how women think they are influenced by brands.
The question we asked our panel of women was:
How important are the following factors when it comes to influencing your perception of brands?
The following is the aggregated ranking of the factors.
- The way they communicate
- Their service levels
- The look and feel of their online or offline stores
- The attitude of their staff
- Their advertising campaigns
- The way they interact on social media
- ‘Celebrity’ Endorsement.
The results are perhaps not surprising. What do women want? They want to be engaged honestly without marketing tricks or gimmicks.
Sometimes it may be the case that millions of dollars worth of marketing budget is ruined by the delivery of the product or service by uncaring employees or supply chain partners. Brand building is after-all about repeat purchase and loyalty, not a one-off transaction.
Similarly, there is a need for continuity when it comes to the brand values and the shopping environment. Whether it be a flagship store, concession or website – the emotional response at the point of sale continues to be a big influence on the way brands are perceived.
The results show that our panel are not the kind of women to be swayed by celebrity endorsement, but they are also not too concerned with the way brands use social media. (We will cover social media in more detail later in the series).
Perceptions are emotional responses, so trying to quantify the elements that go into the way we feel about brands is difficult. Perhaps that is why the less specific answers ranked more highly.
Our panel say that communication is a big factor when if comes to their perception of brands, but specific kinds of communication are seen as less important.