More new businesses fail in the first 5 years, than succeed.

Being a business owner myself, I take great interest in watching the new businesses that succeed and grow.

One lesson that comes out time and time again is how truly great service sets a winning business apart from its competitors.

Coming from a family of retailers, I spent my school holidays on the floor in my Grandmother's shoe store.

Looking back, I was privileged to have this extensive early exposure to all these grown up women in their natural habitat, going through their decision making processes:

The princess in her shoe heaven, constantly balancing left and right brain information.

Every piece of my 7 year old DNA remembers the theatre of consideration, justification and emotions that played out as women went through the lovely ordeal of trying to buy a pair of shoes.  

My Grandma would throw herself at the feet of her customers, getting down on her knees to check the fit with the professional zeal of a passionate and caring salesperson.

She always seemed to know the right questions to ask, and would seemingly develop empathy with a customer so effortlessly that all the while I thought she was just checking the fit of a particular shoe.

Whilst her customer would strut a few steps admiring the fine Italian designs, she would future-proof the investment for these women.

Her eldest son, Peter Sheppard, would later quote her sales technique when he’d announce at the end of his TV ads ""My mother always said you can tell by the look on a woman's face if her shoes fit"".

I would take these sales floor lessons on unwittingly, and they came to mean something to me when I myself started selling on a shop floor.

Working part time as a Pharmacy assistant for 7 years, I was innately equipped with the skill of empathy and service. Today with my clients I still practice this.


These are four lessons I gleaned from providing great service to customers:

1.    Be acutely tuned in to the needs of your customer. Are they rushed, are they looking for engagement, do they want help, do they need you to be a sounding board?

2.    Can you help them beyond the reason they are in your store? Do they want to look at any other purchases? Is there something arriving in store next week they might be interested in?

3.    They are about to part with money. Can you reassure them, offer them validation for their purchase and remove that toxic post purchase dissonance?

4.    Is the transaction genuine? If you want your customers to come back – don’t go for an insincere pushy sale that will ultimately be a one hit wonder. Make it a truly rewarding experience for the customer. That way they’ll come back, because those shoes truly fit and the investment paid off.



Recently I took a gamble on booking in at a new hair salon that opened. I’d been watching it for months. The décor got better over time which seemed to tell me they were making profit and investing it back into their business. A good service signal.

Well, it delivered. Their service was impeccable.

They showed empathy with me, took the time to deliver what I had asked for, up sold me a hair treatment, threw in an extra special head massage. Before I knew it, I’d agreed to the next appointment and they’d given me a voucher for a free treatment and blow wave.

It was a service-oriented transaction, and one that I feel happy about.

They worked out the secret to retain customers with charm and ease and it reminded me of that proverb my grandma understood so well.

If the shoe fits, you do wear it.

A few years ago, some enlightened US marketer drew a map of the different journeys undertaken by men and women shopping for a pair of jeans. See diagram below.


The male journey was direct, under 10 minutes and made in a linear fashion. Coincidentally, a lot of modern agency strategy planning takes this linear view to the buying cycle:

Trigger > Consider > Search > Choose > Buy > Experience

The female journey on the other hand was complex, retraced steps, explored many options and retailers, took a long time and then an outcome was made.

The amount spent by a woman versus a man, speaks for itself.

While there is always going to be a starting trigger or need that initiates the process, and a purchase made which concludes it, what happens in between is far less predictable, linear, or sequential.

Along the journey to purchase, a female may revise her thinking at any time.

She’ll touch it first and feel it, them pick it up, put it down again.
Move three metres and go through the same rituals, come back to it, try it on.
Research, phase one complete.  (To be repeated many more times on many different occasions.)
Go to a new store.
Begin research phase two, three and four.
Have new doubts and return to phase one again.
And that’s just research. The decision to move from research to purchase could take 5 seconds, 5 days or 5 months.

Yes, the female process of making decisions is organic.

Women do "shop" for pleasure and for leisure. However, their functionality shopping is always undergoing review.

As part of female behaviour, notes and reviews are exchanged often and regularly amongst others.

Word of mouth, personal recommendation and the Internet or other quick-research methods will have played a big part in her loyalty to your brand.

Traditional forms of advertising will have played a major role of course. Moreover, they are often responsible for getting the personal "board of directors" endorsing a woman’s ongoing relationship with your brand by keeping it in the awareness.

If a woman has a wonderful first hand experience with your brand she’ll tell 5 of her "board of director" friends.

But if a woman has a bad experience with your brand she will tell that anyone that will listen. This is her way of purging the toxic experience from her world and protecting others from the same experience.

There are scientific explanations for this behaviour, and physiological reasons for the differences between the way men and women’s brains process information on purchasing decisions.

Because of the organic nature that drives this female behaviour, it may seem frustrating to the Marketer trying to attract or retain their consumer.

It certainly keeps Marketers on their toes, because this reinforces the adage that "everything matters."

And making an effort with her, respecting her, talking to her, LISTENING to her, creating trust with her, empathising with her are just the beginning.

Just because she bought yesterday, or is not in the market, don’t assume she’s not paying attention to your communications. Remember, her decision making process is never complete, and her radar is always on.

In the world where she can, and will, review your brand and it’s place in her life constantly, keeping up with her needs is imperative.

Remember, she controls the lions share of the average household budget, are a lot of places and products for her to spend it.

What is your brand doing to get on, and stay on, her list?

Ever noticed that women will, and frequently do, observe every minor detail?

The way you looked at her when you kissed her goodbye.

The way her best friend was dressed up more than usual when they went for a casual coffee. 

A minor haircut or a color change.

The way her mother signed off an email.

Women are wired to tune in into subtle changes and nuance. It’s what helps them nurture their 
offspring and tend to babes that can’t yet communicate. It’s an instinct that has been developed
in the DNA of the female race. 

It’s scientifically proven that women have different brain structures and functionality to men. Males
and females produce different hormones, have different ways of interpreting communication 
and therefore respond differently to different cues.

Maybe this accounts for why women tend to do the lioness-share of the housework?

Could it be because the look and state of their environment has a greater impact on a woman’s feelings?

The way you store looks, smells, and feels, overlays all her rational thought processes such as value 
for money and product benefits.

The appearance may be the key in swaying her one way or another in selling your product or service.

Right down to the stitching on the lapel of the Sales Assistant’s outfit, the way your windows are dressed,
 the shelves stacked, 
the imagery in store.

It all matters.

The way women feel in your store is very dependent upon how your environment looks. If your environment
looks like it matters to you and provides "serving suggestions", stimulation and a source of inspiration
the chances of converting her to purchasing are great. This feeling you have created of harmony, tended 
and cared for, shows her that she matters. 

And so your brand will matter to her. 

Think of it like she is coming home from a trip away (from your brand). If the house is messy and not
"house-proud" she interprets that you don’t care about her feelings. Or worse still, that you are 
more interested in yourselves than her.

If the house is preened, clean and welcoming – then she feels valued, nurtured and loved.

Form becomes as important as function in the decision-making and buying process.

Take Apple as great example in creating an aesthetic that pleases women.

The accessories that were designed to "dress up" the iPOD with were a great example of embracing female
aesthetic values. This iconic music carrier is all about making life cleaner, simpler, more compact and manageable. 

You’ve just won over every woman.

In virtually every high-end fashion shoot the stylist will choose a sleek lined, rounded corner, complementary 
colored Apple to adorn the shot over the dull grey or black boxed PC.

In the movie "You’ve got Mail" the lovely heroine Meg Ryan used a Mac, whereas the dominating and greedy Tom Hanks 
used a PC.

It would seem that women are from Apple and men are from IBM. 

It is no surprise that most marketing decisions are based on rational, product feature and benefits kind of thinking. 
In a world of parity and sameness, it is most commonly the place to look for competitive advantage. 
These pressures can lead to aesthetics being overlooked or underplayed.

Yet this appeal can turn or burn your female customer. The Marketer that tunes their radar to the world of appearance
will gain a competitive edge. In a world where women do notice everything, and look for meaning in the detail, it is
imperative to take notice.

You might be the cheapest in town – but there’s no need to look cheap.

A discount warehouse will earn its reputation through the female community because it is genuinely cheaper and 
priced to please. 
It doesn’t have to live in an environment of ugliness to win the loyalty of her purse. 

Sydney Real Estate Agents have recently noticed that putting a luxury European car in the driveway or garage of a
house for sale can increase a sale price by around 10%. This ads to the old classics of baking bread, brewing 
coffee for inspections, and renovating just the bathroom and kitchen to increase appeal. 

All of these are aesthetics targeted at the real family decision maker – the women.

Ask yourself how you can improve your aesthetics, improve your appeal to women and you will without doubt, 
improve your bottom line. 

The first thing to spring to mind for most people when thinking of women travellers, might be a Pram, crying baby and noisy kids in tow.

However, women now account for around 43% of all business travellers.

So what? Men have been travelling for business since before Australia was even discovered. In fact, that’s how Australia was discovered.

Men and women are very different and finally the more progressive thinkers in the travel industry are beginning to recognise this.

But are our hotels and airlines really making use of this information correctly?

Or like many industries that misunderstand the nature of marketing to women, are they simply slapping on a tint of pink and making the room smell nice?

Forget the business traveller for a moment, and let’s look at the wider travelling market.

Research has finally emerged on the behaviour potential travellers enact, before even a single toothbrush has been packed.

Surprise, surprise, we find that female parties play a dominant role in the whole ‘holiday’ process, particularly at the initiation stage.

Women are usually the first to bring up the idea of a holiday, and collect information on potential destinations, activities and accommodation; 45% in fact, as opposed to 21% male and 22% a joint effort.

Women also tend to visit travel agents for information, along with searching the Internet and asking the opinion/recommendation of friends and family.

Again, it is the female party who is most likely to then make the booking and choose the travel agent or other method to do so.

If all this information searching and decision-making is predominantly down to the female, this makes her an important consumer to travel agents and services.

So what is being done to target her?

Good question.

Some hotels and airlines are beginning to get the picture, by offering exclusive female services.

A great insight from Tony Davis, CEO of Tiger Airways, identifies that operating a low-cost airline is more like being in retail, than running a
transport business.

Take notice Australia.

American Airlines have set up a new website, solely aimed at their female passengers, claiming to be, ‘the airline industry’s first web page dedicated to women who travel’.

For the most part, they have got it right.

Information on travel destinations and package deals, extra safety for the children and expert tips on how to stay healthy while you travel, are useful when decision-making.

But then they got a bit carried away by throwing in celebrity magazines, ‘Girlfriend getaways’ and flooding the website and awkward smiling women.

At least they are trying, and estimate they can boost revenue by as much as $94million annually if they manage to increase the number of women passengers by just 2%.

Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, America, is also having a crack, turning its 11th floor into a woman-only zone on weekdays, to target female business travellers.

Although praised for their added security created by this move, and the introduction of elevator passes to access the floor, they too have been swept up in all things girly, turning rooms into potpourried, Danielle Steel infested nightmares.

Considering all the effort that women take into searching out hotel and flight options, perhaps the focus of targeting female travellers should be on the communication before they book.

Women are extremely loyal customers as long as they are satisfied with the product or service being offered.

Girly frills and cheap celebrity gossip may attract a small percentage of female travellers, but if airlines and hotels want a share of the regular female travellers passing by their doors every day, they need to speak to them in a language they understand.  

New airline to Australia, Tiger Airways created interest and potential loyal business before launching, by telling people, "sign up to our website and tell us which routes you’d like us to fly".

Women appreciate being asked for their opinion, and therefore are likely to remember and search out Tiger Airways when their service commences.

And although this is another airline set to challenge the price of domestic and international flying to and from Australia, they have already taken the emphasis off low fare prices and back into service.

Low fares are for men, who find a cheap deal and then book with little further investigation.

Low fares for women are a category expectation, or added bonus. The first specific criteria on their shopping list is convenience of flight time, additional services available and being treated like a valued customer.

This is an opportunity for a new airline to take the lead in Australia and potentially secure a valued relationship with all the female business and holiday travellers out there.

Take the time to properly investigate the influences of the female traveller and forget the superficial pandering of all things pink and the market is theirs for the taking.

Maybe the newest member of the pack, Tiger Airways will take this opportunity and set a new standard in Australia for marketing to women and the general flying public.

David Ogilvy, founder of Advertising Agency Ogilvy and Mather, announced that "...the consumer is not a moron, she's my wife..."

This proclamation was reason enough to open the doors to Venus Advertising, Australia's first Advertising Agency that specializes in Marketing to Women (go to www.venusadvertising.com.au)

But what exactly was Mr Ogilvy saying about the 85% of women who are responsible for the majority of household expenditure?

Let's hope that his wife was not intellectually challenged, and that he meant that women should be communicated with, in a more intelligent manner.

It is true, that women are often treated moronically in advertising parlance.

Women are stereotyped in many creative executions, bearing the projections of characters that only exist in fantasy.

It seems that much of the time, they are falsely empowered with transparent and insincere"sisterhood"statements.

Women are inflicted with patronizing, B-grade advertising messages. And more often than not, these messages don't achieve the desired outcomes.

Not so for advertising targeted at men.

Observe the category of beer.

The latest Toohey's extravaganza. The sheer production dollars in film, and countless hours spent crafting a fully integrated campaign online is remarkable. And it all starts with a hair planted in the ground and sci-fi like special effects that unravel the concept.

And it's not one of a kind. Heineken, Guinness, Budweiser – they all pick up the premium awards at International Advertising Festivals for their creative genius.

Closer to home, The Big Ad for Carlton Draught. It's a love letter for men, by men, to men. A celebration of beer, of testosterone and good old-fashioned mateship, and camaraderie.

So, where is the Big ad for women?

It doesn't seem to exist.

Maybe the guys who write the ads just don't feel the same passion for hairspray as they do for beer? Perhaps those fermented hops mean more to the creative juices, than a box of nappies? Maybe the amber nectar is easier to understand than trying to get frothy over washing detergent?

Or perhaps it's simply a matter of empathy.

Maybe men surrounded by men, running through the wild, breaking through wire fences and singing the lyrics all together, in team-like worship, is a familiar metaphor to them?

Maybe the climactic reward of imbibing the beverage and tasting the sweetness of the product (wiping it macho across their face to finish) is de rigeur.

And if this is second nature, then what we have is a strong suggestion, that to truly write brilliant advertising ideas it helps to have these personal and intuitive insights.

To be able to create such powerful metaphor, which has incredible sales impact and reward, first hand experience of the target consumer, appears mandatory.

David Ogily also said that "... the best creative insight really does come from real experience...".

For most of us, the most powerful empathy is had from this first hand experience. Or, when we have "walked a mile" in someone else's shoes.

Given that women are responsible for the majority of household spending, I think they are very well qualified for that insightful task.