Marketing to Women—Failures and Six Insights by Will Phillips from his Blog—Health Club Guru September 2, 2009 Women represent the largest market opportunity in the world. In the US the number of working women is about to surpass men. Women drive the world economy. During the recent layoffs more men than women got pink slips by far. Many clubs still market mostly to men and fail to explore how to meet womens’ needs. And when clubs do market to women they are often condescending: ‘make it pink’, focus on calories. All these comments are from a recent Harvard Business Review Article September 2009—The Female Economy. Cars have been designed for speed and size. No SUV is designed for a mom with two kids. Lots of data about women’s views of how well they are served was collected in an online survey. You can see the results (we are largely underserved) and take the survey yourself. Number one need is time saving solutions. The researchers went on to identify SIX KEY FEMALE CONSUMER SEGMENTS with descriptions of the characteristics of each segment. It is like a mini lmarketing research report on women’s needs. NOW, can you use these to enhance your focus on marketing to and serving women? Read the original article to see the authors comments on the fitness industry. There is powerful, valuable, marketing information in this research. Even for women’s only clubs.