Customer Reviews

Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy -- and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Women are the most powerful consumer force in the U.S., but they do not approach buying decisions the way men do. That's intriguing, but it doesn't mean that exhaustive demographic and sales statistics make interesting reading. Authors and marketing consultants Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned explain how to direct your marketing efforts to women. Each chapter deals with a different subset of women - old, young, black, white, Hispanic, married, single - but the groups are compared along similar lines and the information is sliced the same way in most chapters. The authors liven up their exposition with short illustrative case studies, but the cases often feature products for which marketers have made no concerted, specific effort to attract female buyers. For instance, the decision to sell single servings of food occurred because of other demographics (more people living alone) and was not intended just to attract women buyers. Still, the thesis here is important enough to carry the authors' occasional tendency to twist product features to fit the theme, as well as their branding jargon. Acknowledging the significance of marketing to women, we recommend this information-packed book.

After nearly 30 years in the marketing business, I am delighted to find two dynamic thinkers who have written compelling, concise and creative content on the needs of this country's most powerful and influencial market. Too long overlooked, women have different priorities, values, communication styles and preferences than men consumers. Learned and Johnson aptly address key differences, important nuances and critical factors that drive decision making, the customer experience and brand loyalty by giving actionable strategies for gaining women's trust and turning them into true brand advocates. Don't Think Pink is an easy read business book, dotted with personality and fun. If you want to train your brain to think differently about the women's market (not to mention grow your bottomline), but hate to be weighted down by the business-speak in a typicial business book, Don't Think Pink is for you.

I've read a lot of business-related books and rarely do I find one that I can't put down. As a woman consumer, I read Don't Think Pink and I found myself feeling understood. As a businesswoman I believe that organizations that truly embrace the marketing philosophy, strategy and tangible suggestions that the authors provide will find themselves able to break ahead of the pack to reach their women customers innovatively.
The personality and expertise of the authors come through in their writing, which makes this book not only incredibly relevant in today's marketplace, but also just a fun, conversational, easy read!

I started reading this book and was bored
out of my skull fro about 40 pages. I thought
it was shallow and no more informative than
a magazine article.

I'm still not sure the material in here is book-worthy,
but I guess that's true of a lot of business books -
thin premises bulked up for publishing.

Not that it's bad or I didn't learn anything. Actually
I resented my boredom so I went back and started
"genius reading" it - a speed-reading method. In this
way I was able to tear through it fairly quickly
and extract some useful nuggets - perhaps affirming
stuff I already had guessed at but useful nevertheless.

I don't read a lot of market research books - so compared
to others perhaps this one is a star. I get the feeling
that this book was really written so junior executives
could use it as ammunition in the boardroom to get their
ideas through to a management with antiquated notions
of women's buying behavior.

The treatment of generational distinctions was helpful...
generation X (I'm part of it) and generation Y (the kids
today) are both comfortable with technology but the
younger generation is expects a crazy level of catering
to their tastes and whims... they are accustomed to instant
gratification in a way no group of people aside from
the extremely wealthy ever has been. That's an insight
worth keeping - and it goes across gender boundaries so
it applies to young men as well.

It is an honor to review this book from a male's perspective. In my opinion it's more important for men to read, hear and understand these distinctions. The marketplace as explained in Don't Think Pink is what most marketers need to consider. I found it helpful in relating our products to women and men after the first read.

What "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" did for the conversations in personal relationships "Don't Think Pink" does for business language. I highly recommend this book for anyone in sales, marketing, product development, advertising and management in any organization that is attempting to connect with the primary buyers.

PS. I first read the book about 18 months ago and had my fair share of revelations and just read it again and it surprised me how much more I took away. I'll let you know what I think of their next book guys.

This book provides a thorough analysis of women shoppers, including those of all ethnic, age, geographic, educational, and socio-economic groups and marital statuses. It gives solid, workable advice on how to attract today's saavy, busy, informed, educated, female customers. It also tells how to help others in the company to overcome outdated, stereotypical thinking about female consumers. I may use this book along with Why We Buy as a text in my visual merchandising course.

This is another one of those books that tries to repackage common sense and sell it as some ground-breaking perspective. The authors of "Don't Think Pink" go to great lengths about how the purchasing power, buying patterns and influence of women have changed and how what may have worked in the past may not resonate with that market segment. Shocker. Honestly, what 21st century marketer "thinks pink" and really believes they can successfully connect with 52% of the population by pigeon-holing that entire female demographic into a pink-hearts-and-flowery-marketing motif? No Post-ERA-red-bloodied-executive can afford to hold such powder-puff-gender-biased views. While the authors spend a lot of time telling the reader all the female-centric marketing no-no's you know you shouldn't do, they do a solid 180 degree turn and ultimately save the book by offering meaningful solutions to engage and build relationships with this influential customer base. But any marketer who needs to read this book for that insight might want to consider a new career path - something more suited to their skills, such as a caveman.

The last time I was this enthused after reading a marketing book was in '99 when Paco Underhill's book Why We Buy was published. I've already begun a second (slower) reading of Don't Think Pink -- and I just bought it on Thursday!

Thanks to the authors Lisa and Andrea for sharing their experience and findings in such a readable book. After knocking around the marketing arena for a couple of decades, I am thrilled to have a ready, authoritative reference such as Don't Think Pink to cite when presenting recommendations and concepts, both internally as well as to clients.

Don't Think Pink is indeed insightful as well as approachable in style. I myself gained a deeper appreciation for corporate lingo, a small selection of words which many people will say has been drained of real meaning. Leverage, actionable, synergies, proactive, relatable, networking, and resonate are all words deserving of more attention, especially from people like me who are not primarily interested in marketing. I did note that it took until page 199 for the authors to actually use "paradigm shift," and I was titillated thoroughly when I read it. "Empower" and its variants were used almost once every page, and this book will indeed empower not only you as a marketer, but the women you will inveigle, in whatever roles they fill.
This book was packed with useful information, and well-formatted. With examples drawn from many industries, it is sure to strike a chord with a good portion of its readers.
The references at the back were largely web sites, which should facilitate your filling out your own background in this topic.
In fact, if you don't give a hoot about marketing strategies, you should still read it. If you're looking at this page, it must interest you in some manner, and I say the book is well worth the price. Go for it, ladies!

It not only encourages thinking like a woman, but also thinking like your customer does when she... or he... makes the purchase decision.