From a Google search of “Girls’ Night Out”, here’s how marketers are attempting to reach the lucrative women’s market:

In contrast, what women themselves are posting on Pinterest. This is a snapshot from the “Popular” tab:

Notice any discrepancies? I sure do! 

• Women, in fact, don’t post images of things drenched in pink

• Women show a depth of interest in things they like. Sure, fashion is there, but so are inspirational quotes, ideas for Henna Tattoos, solutions for organizing, home projects, art projects, vintage finds, recipes, piercing ideas, upcycle ideas, rock posters and more.

Women show a depth of interests, with a focus on practicality

• Women, at least those posting on Pinterest, favor clean, classic fonts with lots of white space over whimsical, curly fonts

Classic fonts appear with frequency on Pinterest

• Women posting on Pinterest appreciate carefully crafted art and photography.

• As far as humor goes, sarcastic seems to get the most posts.

Sarcastic and snarky humor runs large on Pinterest

So what’s this mean? When marketing an event directly to women, we need to consider the real audience we’re marketing to, and not the stereotype we’re so accustomed to seeing, if we want to reach and appeal to this diverse and sophisticated diverse audience.

TURNS OUT WOMEN MEAN MORE TO THE BOATING INDUSTRY THAN MODELING BIKINIS AT BOAT SHOWS

Photo: Renee Jones Schneider, Star Tribune

Today’s Star Tribune cover page article, “Women discover that rentals float their boat,” is a bit unappropriately titled. Why? Because the article is much more about how the boating industry is discovering that women, who make 85% of all household purchasing decisions (including big-ticket items), are a profitable target market.

But identifying a new audience is just part of the puzzle for the industry. The challenge for marinas who are looking for women to rent their boats for a summer as part of a “boating club,” is to overcome the potential barrier that women often have no experience driving a boat, since many women traditionally defer driving to their spouse. So, they took the tact of going all-in: offering ladies-only boating instruction classes and catering to women in their clubs.

Smartly, focusing on rentals to get women on the water is a tactic that’s translating to greater industry sales. Once women get a taste of how fun it is to boat, they become interested in investing in their own watercraft. And boat-related sales jumped in Minnesota, where boat clubs are marketing to women: up 42% from 2010.

“The vast majority of household spending trickles through the hands of women, even in categories that seem unlikely,” the article quotes from marketing firm owner Beth Perro-Jarvis. Indeed, besides boats these categories include tires, vehicles, stocks and bonds and home renovations.

This is a great example of an industry paying attention to the statistics and changing their marketing tactics to reach an audience that has and spends money. It’ll be interesting to see when and if other industries that traditionally market to men will follow suit.