Customer Reviews

Just Ask a Woman: Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mary Lou Quinlan interviewed 3,000 women consumers about their desires and buying habits. When you finish her book, you will actually be able to answer the question, "What do women want?" Quinlan's style is direct and personable. She backs up her arguments with quotes from successful CEOs and marketers and with a smattering of do's and don'ts from the world of advertising. The book has heart - after all, Quinlan maintains that for women, business is personal - as well as practical advice, although you may have to dig for it. She provides a lot of information on broad thematic lines, sometimes making it tricky to sort out strategies from stories. This is less of a textbook than Marketing to Women (by Martha Barletta from Dearborn Trade Publishing); it is more research-based and extends beyond communications into comparable hands-on, practical counsel. We suggest this wakeup call about the buying power of women to professionals in marketing, advertising, sales and customer service. Use this primer to decode those mixed signals you've been getting from women in your marketplace - and in your life.

This book is a waste of money - I bought it thinking I was going to learn something new - the BIG revelation -Woman want to be treated as people - there I told you - so don't waste your time or your money....Mary Lou Quilan states the obvious again and again, it is not worth the [$$$].

As a brand manager for a consumer products company and as a man, I recommend this book for marketers who want to succeed with their most important customers - women. The tone of the book doesn't have any layer of man bashing instead the author really just tells the truth about women today. The excerpts from her research with women were so revealing and honest and I could hear the women in my own life saying the same things. Now I understand how to translate that to strategy for growing my business. A must buy for marketers.

"Just Ask a Woman" is a great book that very accurately describes the way women think and feel about buying, but, more broadly, life in general. Ms. Quinlan genuinely captures what makes women of all ages tick and all men, company execs or not, should take note.

For most marketing professionals - or any human being that has one or more woman in his/her life - Mary Lou's book doesn't present any dramatically new information. What it does, however, (and does nicely) is clearly remind the reader that many females share some common attributes: they want to be heard, they suffer self-induced stress in addition to work & family induced stress, they put others first, they crave comfort, etc. Being a woman, I could relate with everything printed in the book; being a marketer, I know it is easy to "forget" these very simple truisms when it's time to market to women. Mary Lou's writing is clear and straightforward - a good read for any business person looking to effectively tap into the large female buying population, or any man, really, looking to improve his female relationships :)

Good guidance for those exploring the marketing fundatmentals that are needed today to market WITH women. Solid background and easy to follow. Simply a delight to read.

This is an essential book for anyone involved with marketing products to women. It gets to the heart of how to increase relevancy with the valuable female target market - what's important to them, how to speak to them, what they really want & need in their lives. This book is well written and packed with insights on every page. Well worth the read!

It's amazing how Mary Lou opens our eyes once again and reminds us of good marketing fundamentals. I found the book to be full of valuable insight as well as good anecdotal facts. Definitely worth the read for any marketing and sales executive looking to target the country's most important consumer: WOMEN!

Translated, this sentence written by Aragon means: "Women are the future of mankind".
Indeed, you might say that women are the future of any commercial company. They purchase (or share equally in the purchase decisions) of about 83% of all consumer products. For example they purchase 74% of all cars, 66% of all home PCs!
This book brilliantly explains what it takes to successfully market products to women. (It was an invaluable source preparing my own book about women and job hunting). I can highly recommend it. The main strength of the book is that every single point Mary Lou Quinlan makes has been carefully researched through focus groups and discussions with a very large number of women. This is first-hand authentic stuff! Read it and your ideas on how to be successful while marketing consumer products in the 21th century will definately gain a new perspective.
David Veenhuys
http://www.davidveenhuys.com

This book was recommended to me by a friend who runs marketing at a Fortune 500 company and who says he is buying copies for all his staff. Good move. This book is chock full of solid, useful examples-- most of which are common sense observations, but need to be highlighted. It's also extremely readable and insightful, even poignant in places. The author has done a real service. I'm sure this will be used for years to come-- in companies, large and small, as well as in the classroom.