The power of the purse.

If you're looking for a market with big opportunity and low competition that's riding an uptrend, then cherchez la femme. Seek out the woman, says Martha Barletta and you're on the fast track to sales growth, market-share dominance and profit improvement.

"Women should be the primary' target, but most banks don't know that," says Bedetta, author of "Marketing to Women; How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the Wodd's Largest Market Segment," Some of the reasons women are vitally important to a financial institution's marketing plan are because they are the:

* Keepers of the household checkbook.

* Holders of the primary credit card.

* Fastest-growing segment of home buyers.

* Purchasers of two out of three new cars.

* Controllers of the finances in 53 percent of U.S. households

* Majority (51 percent of the U.S. population.

* Achievers of 57 percent of the college degrees.

* Decision makers concerning 80 percent of household purchases.

"The simple fact is that women are now deeply integrated into the workplace, are more educated on average than men and often earn as much or more than men. The result is the power of the purse that comes from earning," states Barletta in her book.

So don't try to label them as a niche market. Women are not a small specialty category. Review their population numbers and awesome consumer power and then, Barlette says, "Get this initiative out of the Specialty Markets group and rename it something like 'Monster Opportunities group' or 'Future of the Company group.'"

Bottom line--if you want to create marketing messages that resonate with the largest share of the consumer population, you've got to start paying attention to what women want. Most bank advertising assumes that women have the same drives and aspirations as men. They don't. Use the same marketing strategies for both and you chance missing the greater mark.

Barletta's GenderTrends[TM] Marketing Model explains in detail, and with a good deal of humor, why men's marketing doesn't work with women. Ultimately it comes down to what she calls gender culture differences. Understand those, and you're well on the way to capturing the attention and winning the business of women consumers.

What works with women

Most banks get customers through new checking account openings, often marketed via direct mail, free gifts or free checking. All three could use serious upgrading in theft approach to women.

"One key area of improvement is on the outbound marketing done by financial institutions," says Barletta. "All that direct marl looks remarkably alike, and it's a waste of time because people have to be really engaged to play that game."

What works, Barletta says, are the right list, the right creative and the right offer.

List--First, you have to mail to the right person. That would be the woman of the household, considering she handles the checkbook.

Creative--Then improve the look of direct mail pieces, Women are more interested in people than statistics and features. Putting people on the outside of the mailer means it will more likely be opened and read.

Simplify the communication of the product. Women am not just busy, they're time starved. They've taken on a role in the workplace, and the home front hasn't changed as much or as fast.

"What retailers don't appreciate is that even the ones that don't work outside the home still have tight schedules," explains Barletta. "There are appointments, sports practice, music lessons, day-care ... you hold up a woman by 10 minutes, and you're creating irritation. She's not going to spend the time reading the bullet points."

Don't waste space with maps promoting branches and addresses. She only cares about the one closer to home. Instead, devote print space to what makes the customer's life easier, like new switch kits.

Leave out the endless lists of facts and figures and focus on the elements of commonality with other customers, Women appreciate a stow-telling approach more than a straight product pitch, such as "Jim is going to college so every cent counts. He likes our totally free checking because ..."

Offer--Banks have been offering "universal appeal" premiums since time immemorial and the market is saturated. Try a more female friendly premium such as the cowgirl theme purse recently offered by a Texas bank.

"Number one, it jumps right off the page, and number two, the ones that want it would really want it," says Barletta, explaining that cowgirl themes am popular right now in retail stores like Nordstrom's and Neiman Marcus. "This premium is distinctive and interesting and might motivate action in a smaller group but could lead to a higher conversion."

Also, offer the account that has the most value. While free checking is nice, it may not be appropriate.

"Instead of selling stuff to people who don't want it, focus on selling what's perfect for her," says Barletta. "Her" being that time-starved, multitasking, action figure mentioned above. "Free" is not nearly as important as "It can solve a lot of my problems."

Gender culture sensitivity should cut across all parts of the business, and can easily be applied to training materials. A large percentage of people who work in a bank, especially the frontline, are women, but most bank training materials am not aligned with gender.

"For example, women aren't comfortable with sales incentives that emphasize 'I'm going to beat you,'" states Barletta. "They're more interested in a team approach."

As a salesperson, Vanessa Freytag claims she'd "take this market all day long."

"The woman's market is growing exponentially, we're not at the peak," says the president of W-Insight Inc. in Cincinnati, and former national director of Bank One's Woman Entrepreneur Initiative. "But the financial services industry hasn't fully awakened to the opportunity."

Freytag admits there's still a lot of confusion on where to begin. A common first step is to assign the women in the bank the job of selling to women. But research has shown that women don't care about the gender of the adviser.

A survey of 743 women with at least $3 million in investable assets done by Hannah Shaw Grove and Russ Alan Prince resulted in the report "Women of Wealth." Of note were the top things considered important when talking to an adviser. The number one answer, by 90 percent of respondents, was "chemistry." Number two was "knowing that the adviser is hooked on the woman's goals," Gender was less than 10 percent.

"Not having a lot of female employees doesn't mean you're hindered from going after this market," counters Freytag. "Anyone who is a good consultative sales person will do well because mostly you hear women complain that advisers am not listening. They're trying to tell her what to do, not advise her."

Eight Myths About Marketing To Women

Excerpt from Martha Barletta's "Marketing to Women." Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2003

Myth #1: Marketing to women may be appropriate because it supports diversity, but with our limited resources, we need to stay focused on the business.

Reality: Marketing to women is not about diversity--it's about sales, shares and profits.

Myth #2: We need to keep our marketing focus on our core customers--men

Reality: If you're always looking back. how do you expect to move forward?

Myth #3: Average income for women is lower than for men. It doesn't make sense to go after a low-income market.

Reality: Careful to look beyond the averages.

Reality #4: Marketing to women will require us to double our budget, or worse, split it in half.

Reality: Marketing to women takes the same budget and delivers more bang for the buck.

Myth #5: With women, marketing is all about relationships.

Reality: Don't buy into the simplistic that with woman its all about relationships. Women deeper from men in many, many marketing dimensions. Overlooking their complexities would be to undermine the effectiveness of your company's program.

Myth #6: The best way to focus on marketing to women is to undertake a dedicated initiative within our Emerging Markets group.

Reality: Don't single it out--build it in.

Myth #7: We believe in gender-neutral marketing--it's what women want.

Reality: Gender-neutral marketing is not how you put your sales into overdrive.

Myth #8: I've heard of companies that did woman-specific advertising and nothing happened or it backfired. Gender-specific marketing doesn't work.

Reality: Bad gender-specific marketing doesn't work. Just as with every other marketing initiative, if you want it to work, you've got to get it right.

Putting on the glitz.

As the earning and spending power of women continues to grow, some financial institutions are taking note. Ks evidence, simply look hack at the collection of financial services institutions that advertised during the February 2004 Academy Awards ceremony.

Allstate. Charles Schwab and Washington Mutual were among those willing to pay ABC a record average of $1.5 million per 30-second commercial spot, as reported by The Wall Street Journal Dubbed the "Super Bowl of Women," the Oscars are attractive to marketers who know that an estimated 64 percent of the viewers in 2003 were women, and that women are key financial decision makers.

Other major financial institutions that focus on marketing financial services to women:

* Merrill Lynch opened a Women's Business Development unit in January 2003 to expand the market for high-net-worth women investors. The key target areas of women include business owners, executives and philanthropists.

* Women and Co., a division launched by Citigroup in 2001, targets women with at least $100,000 in investment assets

* Others, such as Legacy Bank of Texas, Wachovia and Wells Fargo & Co. have focused on marketing to women entrepreneurs for many years. For example, Wells Fargo has loaned more than $16 billion to women business owners nationwide since their program's inception in 1995.

Taking aim

When focusing on the women's market, your first task is to hone in on the category of women you want to target, whether on the business or consumer side. The Center for Women's Business Research finds that one in 11 adult women today is an entrepreneur, and one in seven employees works for a women-owned business. The growth in numbers of affluent women has predominantly come from those who have started or on their own business. Within the women business owners' category are subsets, such as new owners or established owners with over $1 million in revenue or over 10 employees.

The consumer side also has many possible breakouts. Affluent women are often defined by levels of assets and income, but there are still several subsets in terms of approach. Some women have created their own wealth, while others married or inherited wealth. Each has different needs.

It's also very common to look at life stages, which can trigger financial needs. But Freytag warns, "Be cautious about making presumptions. The boomer generation broke the mold when it comes to being able to look at age categories."

It's no longer as simple as dividing up financial needs on a generational basis. For one, women are waiting to have children, which means they're not done with college costs until their mid-to-late 50s. That -has a dramatic impact on retirement planning. It also alters women's needs with respect to financial advisers.

So, are men and women really different?

"I .say always," claims Freytag. "Go to the bookstore and look at the enormous wall of books on men versus women. Those differences in communication don't go away when making financial decisions."

She recites research done by the Center for Women's Business Research. They surveyed a group of men and women on the question "What is your definition of success?" The answer:

MEN: "Achieving a goal."

WOMEN: "Controlling my own destiny."

"Think about marketing to those two different mind-sets," she challenges. "Both say 'I want to profitable and succeed.'"

Freytag offers these possible gender specific scenarios of a lender talking to a successful business owner. The clients are considering the purchase of the building they currently lease.

A relationship manager talking to a man: "I might say, 'I know you wanted to own and diversify, this is the way to do it. It's a watershed achievement."'

To a woman: "You might say, 'Sally I know how frustrated you were when the roof was leaking and the landlord didn't respond. Owning your building gives you control over what happens to your property.'"

Both very different approaches to the same end.

Don't dabble

Roberta Schroeder is passionate when it comes to discussing female market segment. Once the vice president of marketing for First Union, she now uses her talents as the director of business development for Alcott Routon to help banking clients market their products.

"I have a lot of experience in trying to move folks toward recognizing this powerful and meaningful segment," says Schroeder. "It's been difficult, and there's a lot of opportunity being missed right now."

For one thing, says Schroeder, you can't just dabble in it. Saying you have products geared to women, for example, doesn't cut it. You've got to look at your delivery channels and current sales tactics. Understand the women, the markets you serve and who are within those markets. And it must be an all-out company commitment.

"Doing a better job of marketing to women will be rewarding of itself," she claims. "You won't be alienating men, you're just appealing to the pickier of the two. If you appeal to the women, you'll get the men."

Just keep in mind that for women, convenience is king and information is queen. Traditional sales training teaches that objections have to be overcome, and questions are objections. Not so with women. They are the information gatherers, and questions rule.

Janet Bigham Berristel specializes in writing about marketing and financial services industry issues. She works in Jupiter, Fla.