It’s the summer of girl power – at least in the entertainment industry. Barbie, Beyonce and Taylor have taken over the conversation and are responsible for billions of dollars in entertainment spending in the US.

While Hollywood and the music industry have long catered to a male audience, this summer reminded us all of a force that retailers have known about for years — the spending power of women. In fact, over 80 percent of purchases and purchase influence are made by women, according to Bankrate.

The Power of the Female Consumer

Harvard Business reported on this (then seemingly growing trend) in 2009 in the article “The Female Economy”. At that time, fourteen years ago, “The Female Economy” explored companies’ repeated mis-steps in trying to market to women consumers (remember all the early 2000’s pink laptops, pens and legos?) and commented on a 2008 study by Boston Consulting Group. “Here’s what we found, in brief: Women feel vastly underserved,” the study concluded.

This is what the summer of girl power is about. Women feeling seen and catered to by the entertainment industry. And showing up to spend their hard-earned dollars. After a pandemic that disproportionately affected women financially (especially women of color), it seems that the collective is starting to rebound.

In a recent piece by MarketWatch exploring the economic impact of Barbie, Beyonce and Taylor,  Denise Moulton, human capital insights leader at Deloitte Consulting is quoted saying, “There are a record number of women in the U.S. labor force, surpassing pre pandemic levels, and the unemployment rate among women is at an all-time low of 3.4%.”

So, how can other businesses capitalize on this moment? By keeping that light on female-identifying consumers.

Five Tips for Marketing to a Female Audience

1. Use real, authentic storytelling – authenticity is almost always the answer. Avoid stereotyping or falling into trope traps by using real stories instead. Share more testimonials from female-identifying customers or clients. Include women in focus groups and in ads.
2. Avoid the “pink it and shrink it” strategy – Learn from the early 2000s retailers’ mistakes. Don’t just take a product and make it pink or smaller or rename it something feminine and call it “for women.” Just don’t.
3. Respect their time – The fact that women control 80% of the purchases also means they are making a large majority of the financial decisions for their households. Learn about the audience you are trying to reach and how you can optimize their time.
4. Speak to their values – Women, like all consumers, will spend most when they feel an emotional attachment to a brand. Think about how you can appeal to a uniquely female sense of nostalgia, or align with a charitable cause that has strong female support to get in front of more consumers.
5. Commit to messages of diversity, inclusion and empowerment – As venture capitalist Monique Woodard said in her interview with MarketWatch, it’s important to remember that “women are not a monolith.” It’s not enough to show one representation of a woman or speak to one sector of the female audience if you want to really connect with female-identifying consumers. You need to continue to do this in your marketing over time, incorporating ideas from various perspectives. (Which means, you should probably take a look at the make-up of your marketing and executive teams.)