'Gender intelligence' is her message: 'What women really want' the key

According to Dana Flavelle, Business Reporter at the Toronto Star, companies need to consider what women really want. Her article talks about author Joanne Thomas Yaccato and her research.

"Joanne Thomas Yaccato sees corporate discrimination against women consumers everywhere, even on the steering wheel of her Volvo, a car she bought not just because it's one of the most women-friendly car companies in the world, but also because she liked it. But there it was, in the centre of the steering wheel, a brand logo with the word Volvo encircled by chrome trim with a small arrow jutting at an angle to the right — the male gender symbol.
" I couldn't believe it when I saw it," says the self-described fiery red-headed Irish-Italian. "What's that all about?"

Joanne Thomas Yaccato has written the book Reaching the Real World of Women: The 80 Per Cent Minority (published by Viking Canada). The book includes stories about some of the companies who have worked to figure out what women want that went to the trouble to figure out what women really want. According to her research " women influence or directly control 80 per cent of consumer expenditures, from food and clothing to houses and cars but women are still not considerd by many.

Example of a companies considering women

• The Holiday Inn in downtown Toronto "market research found businesswomen are more concerned about personal safety, view out-of-town trips as an opportunity to network after hours and are more likely to add a weekend stay to their trip than male customers.So, the hotel assigned women rooms closer to the elevators, hired security guards to escort them to the parking garage, designated an under-utilized restaurant just for businesswomen and added spa services.Within a year, the hotel was attracting five times more women business travellers, all without advertising the changes."
• RBC Royal Bank Financial Group and Mountain Equipment Co-op.
  

Source: DANA FLAVELLE
BUSINESS REPORTER, Toronto Star Apr. 9, 2003.

See more about Gender Intelligence at Thomas Yaccato's websitehttp://www.thethomasyaccatogroup.ca/wwd_marketresearch.php