Tom Peters' UK gig yesterday, he made a big play for the disconnect between the sizeable market that is the female sex (he also had a similar thing for everyone 45yrs+) and most male commissioned / targeted marketing, in that most marketing doesn't resonate with or even speak directly to women in a language they will ever recognise, let alone 'get'. This is, as Tom might bark, a "BIG MISTAKE!" because men and women think and emote in fundamentally different ways, and for these reasons - and many, many more - men are just able not to understand what makes women tick, yet they - men -control the freakin' world!

Peters spoke about two US DIY stores, Lowe's and Home Depot. and he contrasted the typical male, tool-fetishist environment such stores typify with the fact that the huge majority of home improvement and furniture purchases and other home / lifestyle related initiatives, are kicked off by women the vast majority of times and merely undertaken by men, not bought by them. Yet these stores mainly appeal to men in their look and feel. He went on to say that Lowe's had attempted to address this in a number of ways with some success, not least by brightening up their stores with better lighting and widening the aisles; apparently men don't mind 'rubbing butts' as much as women do.

There were many other examples he gave of similar marketing mis-alignment where women either lead the purchasing decision or are massive influencers - luxury car showrooms being a shameful example of blatant male-hood with only 9% of car salespeople in the US being female. As you'd expect, he talked about this a great deal more than I'm going to be able to cover here but it was a very interesting and thought provoking subject, though.

He also used a number of great quotes from Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps by Barbara & Allan Pease, including this absolute gem...

"A woman knows her children's friends, hopes, dreams, romances, secret fears, what they are thinking, how they are feeling and, usually, what mischief they are plotting. Men are vaguely aware of some short people also living in the house."

I'm ordering that book today, I think.