Wizard Women
How Australia's leading non-bank lender has tapped into the unique needs of female borrowers.
The Power of Four
Creating an emotional connection with women by entering the sacred world of the inner circle.
SheMarketing Introductory Breakfast Seminars
Limited seating left!
Marketing to Women Summit
Your chance to purchase a full DVD program of the inaugural two-day marketing to women summit.
About Splash

Splash now offers services including research & strategy, creative & design, marketing & promotions and pr & events.

Don’t believe everything
you read.

On page three of AdNews a fortnight ago, a competitor of ours claimed that marketing to women was a ‘fad’ and in explaining her move away from specialising in marketing to women, declared that the concept of marketing to women was a ‘flash in the pan with no future’.

Predicting the demise of marketing to women is a very strange move when all the evidence here on earth suggests otherwise.

Right now, we are working with some of the biggest brands in the country, many of which have ‘scoping, understanding and optimising the female market’ as one of their top three strategic goals. Not just at a marketing level, at an organisational level.

Women are the dominant and fastest-growing force in consumer spending. And from a demographic perspective, all data indicates that the wealth profile of the female market will increase exponentially over the next 5-10 years. Here are the facts:

  • Women 25-40 are still the fastest growing wealth demographic. Females are earning more, getting married later and delaying having children (the average childbearing age of today’s Australian woman is 30.8, an increase of 4.2 years in the last decade)
  • There was a 50% increase in single female home owners in the last ten years. Furthermore, single women have a greater proportion of their wealth tied up in property compared to single men
  • In the last five years, the number of female directors of top 200 ASX companies has tripled and organisations such as BT Financial, Deloittes, Westpac and IAG have all recently made a very visible commitment to the advancement of women in senior management
  • Females still account for the majority of grocery purchase decisions and a growing number of big ticket items such as property, cars, furniture and household electronics

Basically, we are at the tip of the iceberg. And the female grip on the purse strings is tightening. The Economist magazine in the US recently predicted that by 2019, two-thirds of all wealthy Americans will be women. With a similar trend expected to flow to Australia, it isn’t really congruent with a view of marketing to women as a ‘flash in the pan’.

Over 3,000 marketing professionals have now attended one of our Marketing to Women breakfasts and we have just finished more sellout events in Sydney and Melbourne. (If you missed out, there are more in May. Read on to find out more).

In this issue of Marketing to Women, we profile a new initiative from Wizard Home Loans, a predominantly online strategy that is built from a platform of understanding and a site where ‘www’ stands for ‘What Women Want’.

We also look at a great example of a brand that has tapped into the power of the inner circle – the group of two or three women that your female customers turn to for purchase reassurance. These are the women who can endorse or trash your brand in the blink of an eye.

Enjoy this issue and as always, I welcome your feedback


Amanda Stevens


Last month Wizard Home Loans commissioned Splash to conduct a research study into women and mortgages. The key objective was to identify women’s needs from a home loan provider to follow on from our work with them in 2002 on the Pregnant Pause home loan feature.

The approach included extensive desk research, qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with women and a detailed survey of 1000 respondents.

The research uncovered some startling facts:

Thirty-eight per cent of women said home loan lenders discriminate against them, and more than half (57 per cent) said their lender didn’t understand their needs.

Perhaps more telling was the fact that 87% of women said their needs from a mortgage provider were different to men’s.

The result of the study is two key initiatives, Wizard Women, an online community developed to meet women’s home loan information needs and Women Wise, a new training course for Wizard’s sales force that meets the gaps identified by Australian women who want to buy property.

Wizard Women is more than a website with ‘femalified’ information. It is an online community that provides an environment for women to research, learn, interact, have their say and find solutions according to their needs, aspirations, lifestyles and perspectives.

Of course connecting with women at a marketing level is well and good but if the customer experience is not consistent with the expectation, the results can be harmful (‘danger of the disconnect’ as I call it).

With that in mind, Wizard has ensured the results of their new female initiative extend beyond the headlines (the launch of Wizard Women generated significant press coverage including articles in The Australian, The Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph).

Women Wise is a detailed training program for all Wizard branch managers developed by Wizard in conjunction with Splash.

As Chairman of Wizard Home Loans Mark Bouris said, “Today, lenders can’t ignore how important women borrowers are. Most women – single or in a couple – are the household managers of Australian homes. Lenders need to treat them like it, get rid of any outmoded discrimination, and meet their needs”.

To learn more, visit www.wizardwomen.com.au


If you have been to one of our SheMarketing Breakfast Seminars, you’d know that I talk a lot about ‘The Inner Circle’, a phenomenon that plays an enormous role in the purchase behaviour of women of all ages.

The Inner Circle is the group of close friends (usually 2 or 3) that women surround themselves with – an assembly where no topic is sacred.

The power of the Inner Circle cannot be underestimated. These are the friends that women will turn to for advice, support, help, guidance, opinion and recommendations - not just on what to wear on Friday night or whether to cut their hair short, but on product and brand choices across hundreds of categories. At its most powerful, The Inner Circle has the ability to ok or veto your brand in the blink of an eye.

One brand to realise the power of the inner circle is Schweppes with their new ‘Secret Society’ campaign.

With its simple yet brilliant creative execution you feel almost voyeuristic as a reader, as though you could be eavesdropping on a very private, very intimate conversation.

If you listen closely, perhaps you'll hear them discussing your brand, giving it the ultimate tick of approval.


If you haven’t attended one of our introductory breakfast seminars, this is your last opportunity until September. Join us on May 2 in Sydney and May 16 in Melbourne for a two and a half hour introduction to the SheMarketing methodology.

You’ll discover why the explosive power of women’s wealth is set to increase further, the very latest in social trends driving female consumer behaviour and learn strategies for attracting, retaining and maximising a loyal female customer base.

Tickets are just $99, $179 a double. To secure your seating, call Joanna Smith on 1800-splash or
(02) 9957 4998.

Click here to learn more and book online

If you missed the inaugural marketing to women summit in November, you can now purchase the entire summit on DVD.

This special DVD package includes over 15 hours of groundbreaking insights, research and trends in marketing to women from world-class speakers, including Chicago-based Martha Barletta (pictured), the best-selling author of Marketing to Women.

You can now purchase the full DVD package for just $395 (reduced from $695).

Click here to preview the Summit DVD

Call 1800-splash to order.


Splash Consulting Group is Australia’s leading communications consultancy specialising in SheMarketing™, the science of marketing to women. In fact, we coined the term SheMarketing in 2000 after a two-year research study into how the neurological differences between men and women affect responses to marketing.

Our services include research & strategy, creative & design, marketing & promotions and pr & events. We work with clients who predominantly market to women, or clients who realize they have a competitive opportunity to more effectively market to the female segment.

Our clients include Wizard Home Loans, Sanitarium, Sydney Cricket Ground, SGIO, FlyBuys, Ezibuy, City Pacific Finance, Healthy Inspirations, Delfin Lend Lease, Melbourne Racing Club, Fowler and Caroma. We have offices in Sydney and Melbourne and are backed by the strength of our investment partner, Drake International.

To find out more, visit shemarketing.com.au or call us toll-free on 1800-splash.

Sydney  
Address 168 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
Phone 1800-SPLASH
Email info@splashgroup.com.au
 
Melbourne  
Address Level 40, 55 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000
Phone 1800-SPLASH
Email info@splashgroup.com.au