Watch out, here comes Wonder-Woman
Brands beware. There’s a highly powerful and increasingly influential segment of women fast emerging.
She’s confident, she’s ambitious. She’s strong-willed and well educated. She’s married. And she earns significantly more than her husband. In short, we call her Wonder-Woman. She represents a large chunk of consumer spending power. And it’s time for brands to take her seriously.
But who exactly is this Wonder-Woman and where did she come from?
Based on our cultural studies and analysis of consumer behavior at Mullen, we found that the origins of this powerful female segment date back to the mid-70’s, at around the time the comic-book inspired “Wonder Woman” TV series aired across America. During that time, this segment of women (who out-earned their husband) was relatively small, representing fewer than 1 out of 20 married households.
Fast forward to today and we see that the power base of wonder women has significantly strengthened, in that she may be present in as many as one third of all marriages. She’s most likely to be a Gen-Xer between the age of 30-44 years old, and with an average personal income of about $75,000. She’s got a good job, although she’s not necessarily in the top tier of earning power. What defines her is that she’s not just the gatekeeper – but also the primary bread winner in the household.
Essentially, she’s become the Female Head of Household. But she’s not necessarily looking to wield her power – or to gain the upper hand. Nor is she looking to make a dominant gender statement, or to put her career ambitions before everything else. On the contrary, she’s looking to attain a better life work balance, in pursuing her career and managing her matrimonial and maternal responsibilities. In this regard she’s trying to master it all and to vanquish the arch enemy of her “to-do-list” with a swashbuckling tenacity – all without compromising her sense of individuality.
From a marketing standpoint, what’s truly fascinating about Wonder-Woman is her potential impact on society as a cultural tipping point. Not only is she changing the economic dynamics within the institution of marriage, but she’s also causing the fundamentals of “socially-accepted” gender roles to be questioned. Among her friends, family, and interactions with stay-at-home moms, she’s confronted with managing self-identity and stereotype dilemmas. And certainly, from the perspective of the relationship with her husband, she’s also faced with some unique challenges within her own household. Especially for a Wonder-Woman who has children, there’s the added issue of the interchangeable nature of parenting and nurturing roles within her marriage. There’s also the high likelihood of a Mr. Mom scenario and a role reversal within the relationship dynamic: “Behind every good woman, there’s a good man.”
Given the cultural significance of all this, it would seem surprising that few brands have empathized with the challenges and complex dynamics of a Wonder-Woman household. Certainly for female-skewed brands, there would seem to be a significant marketing opportunity in identifying with and targeting this valuable consumer segment. Not just because of Wonder-Woman’s spending-power, but also because she’s a key purchase influencer, propagator of word of mouth and opinion leader. That makes her an important target audience consideration that few brands can afford to ignore.
However, for brands that do decide to overtly target Wonder-Woman, it’s important to also recognize that engaging her isn’t going to be easy. Brands will need to recognize her unique needs, be relevant in how they speak to her, and appreciate that her advertising defense systems are likely to be on full alert. For sure, relying on a one-message-fits-all approach or resorting to the “old ways” of mass advertising is less likely to work. Intercepting and engaging Wonder-Woman is going to take a highly targeted and focused messaging approach. Taking the following insights into consideration could help to increase a brands potential to win her over:
- She will identify with being enabled – make your brand her secret weapon
- She’s more receptive before she goes shopping, don’t wait until she gets to the POS
- Earn the right to be part of her world, don’t assume she’ll automatically be part of yours – she’s active in the social media space, blogs and online communities
- She’s multi-tasking when wearing the Wonder Woman costume. Some brands might fare better trying to engage her when she’s off-duty.
- For a Wonder-Woman with kids, don’t forget about Mr. Mom – her husband is still a key influencer in considered purchases
- Understand her emotional needs – and she could become your most ardent brand ambassador
I'm curious if you found any information regarding non-heterosexual women- women who may identify as lesbian, bisexual, asexual, etc. You bring forth many interesting points about the evolution of gender norms and roles as they relate to advertising and marketing to a new population. However it is important to recognize another subset of this “Wonder Women” group. What about Mrs. Mom. Same-sex marriage is to date legal in 5 states (New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut) and soon to be 6 with the addition of Washington, D.C. How do we account for this new emerging Ms. Mom and the Mrs. Moms out there?
I AM wonder woman!
Hmm. I'm never sure what to say about stuff like this. It bothers me quite a bit that we refer to this as something novel–as if we've just started to acknowledge that women can have powerful careers, essentially run the household most of the time and that men might–gasp!–actually want to help raise their own children. I fit perfectly into this confabulated “wonder woman” profile, and this all sounds pretty quaint to me, especially the bit about the “wonder woman costume”. This isn't an act or an outfit. It's what happens when a society wakes up and casts off hundreds of years of male dominance. And if a brand is just starting to acknowledged this they are way, WAY too late. Those are the same brands that thought painting a product pink and renaming it would “satisfy my emotional needs”.
Ugh.
Rarely have I read such nonsense. First of all, there are 22% of families in which the wife is the higher earner. that means there are 78% of families in which the husband is the higher earner. Quite a gap. So if advertisers should target those with the highest income, shouldn't you be focused on the men? And why would women be the primary shoppers? that's what women have always been traditionally. Are you saying that the traditional sex roles have not changed? That would completely contradict your thesis of changing gender roles. It would make more sense for you to be saying that husbands should be now be targeted by ads instead of wives. the fact that husbands barely get a mention proves you don't really think there's been a change in family dynamics at all. Women are the primary family purchaser just as they always have been. So where is all this change in gender role?
Oh and as for “mr. mom”: As of the latest census, there were approximately 200000 male primary caregivers, versus 5 million female. So again, where is the great gender reversal?
Erica, thanks for posting your comments. You raise some interesting questions about non-hetrosexual Wonder-Women.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics would suggest the number of married women who earn more than their husbands is higher than 22% and is rising http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/jan/wk1/art05.htm. Although irrespective – it's undeniable that this consumer segment of so-called Wonder-Women represents an interesting target audience opportunity for advertisers. Being the female head of household creates a unique decision-making dynamic that especially impacts highly considered purchases: from buying a car to who's going to undersign for the home loan. It goes way beyond the issues of who does the grocery shopping? Very few brands recognize or truly understand this dynamic. And clearly, for brands to continue to exclusively focus on talking to a male target in this type of Wonder-Woman household would indicate that it truly doesn't understand the underlying psychologies that are at play in purchase decisions.
Not sure that the economic factors are really what is driving any new behavior. Women have been making most household decisions for a very long time. However, this more “evolved”, multi-tasking, time starved buyer makes buying decisions by leveraging social networks, on-line research, subscription services such as Consumer Reports and Angie's List, as well as e-mail or conversation based advice from friends and colleagues. They are heavily influenced by knowledge/analysis of users, are decisive, and go to POP after fast, effective research, with confidence and commitment. These smart women are not standing in the aisles of Best Buy saying, “Should I get this one or that one?” Their credit card is out of the purse in the parking lot, and their brains have moved on to their next task while they retrieve the item from the shelf, or, click on “Buy”. And that Wonder Woman stereotype is so not working for me… the woman you are supposedly talking about. I'd go so far as to say it's offensive…sorry. So 70's…
Not sure that the economic factors are really what is driving any new behavior. Women have been making most household decisions for a very long time. However, this more “evolved”, multi-tasking, time starved buyer makes buying decisions by leveraging social networks, on-line research, subscription services such as Consumer Reports and Angie's List, as well as e-mail or conversation based advice from friends and colleagues. They are heavily influenced by knowledge/analysis of users, are decisive, and go to POP after fast, effective research, with confidence and commitment. These smart women are not standing in the aisles of Best Buy saying, “Should I get this one or that one?” Their credit card is out of the purse in the parking lot, and their brains have moved on to their next task while they retrieve the item from the shelf, or, click on “Buy”. And that Wonder Woman stereotype is so not working for me… the woman you are supposedly talking about. I'd go so far as to say it's offensive…sorry. So 70's…