It's no secret who's the apple of marketers' eyes. It's not the wild spending teens or successful businessmen. It's working women 25 – 54 of whom there are over 70 million in North America. They have incredible clout, changing the way companies design, position and market their products.

Business Week Magazine shows women earn 79 cents for every dollar a man gets. But they make more than 80% of the buying decisions in the home. They also shop very differently than men, doing much more product research and being somewhat less influenced by ads (they will make up their own minds, thank you!)

Women much prefer to be informed through reviews in newspapers or on-line, or even by television role models like Oprah. Just because women earn less than men, don't think their income hasn't soared in the past 25 years – over 65% to be exact compared to men's paltry 1%. Ouch!

This has spurred a significant move to a new luxury sector in the market. The deeper-pocketed woman now demands much more "haute” products. This is seen in such retail successes as Coach, where designer bags are mandatory. Other luxury brands followed suit, like BMW, Apple and even Harley Davidson, where sales to women increased by 10% in the past decade.

"I am woman, hear me roar” was the mantra in the Helen Reddy song in 1972. Little did we know just how loud!

We'd love to hear from you.  If you have any comments on this topic, please forward them to Janice Johnston at jjohnston@adcomcommunications.com.

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