Use Your Advertising Dollars To Reach The Female Demographic

Here's an example of how teen girls spend their time: They visit social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace to look at pages and pictures their friends have posted. Simultaneously, they'll be on the phone or instant messaging with those exact same friends, talking about the pictures and postings. So if you're a marketer and want to reach this group, your best bet to reach this demographic is by having an online advertising presence on these social network sites. And remember, even though this group doesn't read traditional print media very much, they do read articles and view ads online.

Trends: 55- to 64-Year-Olds

Older women offered some surprising findings. With this group, watching TV ranked as the number one leisure activity (22 percent)—no surprise there. But coming in second and third were playing free Web-based games (18 percent) and using the Internet (11 percent). Reading newspapers or magazines and listening to music only ranked in at 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Surprised that casual gaming ranked so high among older women? Most people are. But what's important to note here is that the majority of these women are playing free games such as Solitaire, Bridge, Mah Jong and Blackjack. Most are not playing violent or action-packed video games. So if you're going to supplement your TV ads with some online ads at gaming sites, make sure your ad appears during games that older women are likely to play. It's also important to note that seniors are one of the fastest-growing segments on the Internet. They're reading online articles, researching Web pages for information and simply logging on just for fun. Therefore, make sure your Internet presence targets this market—not just the younger ladies.

The Women's Marketing Movement

With the tremendous buying power women have, all marketers need to target this group. Even companies that have traditionally targeted men, such as The Home Depot, are realizing that women hold and control the purse strings in the majority of households. That's why they now offer home improvement classes for women and show more women using power tools in their ads. They also do product placements on home-decorating shows such as TLC's Trading Spaces to gain credibility among female viewers.

For the tanning industry, marketers have an easier time of targeting the female demographic—but you must still remember to tailor your message and ad placement so that women see it, understand it and trust it.

Peter Koeppel is founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct-response television (DRTV), online, print and radio media buying. Peter is a Wharton MBA, with more than 25 years of marketing and advertising experience. Koeppel has helped Fortune 1000 businesses, as well as small businesses and entrepreneurs, develop direct-marketing campaigns to increase profits. For more information, please visit www.koeppeldirect.com or call (972) 732-6110.