Ruling the world in high heels

What do women want? is a question that has been asked for centuries and with each generation of women and as the world changes, some answers have become more complex and yet some answers have remained unchanged from the time of our grandmothers.

NBC Universal — the world’s largest entertainment company with channels in Asia Pacific such as Universal, Diva, E!, Style, Syfy and 13 Street Universal — answers this question with its High Heeled Warriors (HHW) study, a survey of the female pay-TV audience in Asia  to better understand women and create  marketing strategies that are tailored for specific shows and their women viewers.

Today, women are making or influencing 80 percent of all purchase decisions and control US$20 trillion (yes, that’s trillion) of consumer spending worldwide and this represents the most important commercial opportunities for companies and brands. 

The study, in fact, saves time and money for advertisers who want to hit their target audiences with particular TV shows.

Christine Fellowes, managing director of Universal Networks-Asia Pacific, says, “We see the majority of our audience, who are women, scaling up in education, earning power and aspirations over the last few years. The ASEAN region has the highest proportion of women in senior management roles in the world — at 32 percent versus the global average of 21 percent. Thirty-one percent of women in Asia are chief income earners and purchase over 60 percent of traditionally male products.  It is fundamental that advertisers listen to the needs of this critical demographic and yet we hear from women that they don’t feel engaged by today’s ad campaigns.”

She adds, “The distinction of women and her influences uncovered by High Heeled Warriors research allow us and advertisers to effectively engage with women across Asia. Since Asia’s pay-television females are big media consumers and list pay-TV as their No. 1 source of information on new products, NBC Universal is the most valuable vehicle to connect with women.”

Conducted by Ipsos (formerly Synovate), the study was first done in 2011 as an in-depth, qualitative analysis of the female Asian pay-TV audience and uncovered the motivations influencing the choices they make in finance, travel, fashion, beauty and automotive.

This year, High Heeled Warriors had over 3,000 female participants, ages 20 to 44, from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong. These women are middle income earners and above, they have cable TV at home, and live in major cities.

So what did they find? HHW believes that psychological traits and demographics are more powerful than demographics alone. In talking to the respondents, they discovered five categories of women:

• Trailblazers — big spending, career-focused and individualistic women who consume a variety of media including entertainment on multiple platforms;

•  Passionistas — they live for the moment, they are the connectors who are known as Social-Siders with the most number of friends on Facebook among the five segments and treat TV as a social activity;

• Peacekeepers — they are fiercely loyal consumers that stick to their favorite brands and TV shows as they seek stability in their lives

• Heart Warmers — they are family-oriented, they take pride and spend for their family.

The characteristics of each segment, of course, are not exclusive to each category because women, after all, play different roles in life and adopt traits for each role.

Of the five markets surveyed the biggest category for is Passionistas — except for Hong Kong where it was Peacekeepers. What brands do they buy? Gucci and Louis Vuitton take the top spot, appearing in all categories except for the Peacekeepers.

Some of the findings of the HHW study are almost foregone conclusions — like women talk 28 percent more than men on their mobile device and send 14 percent more text messages on average per month or that they are 86 percent  more likely to start a discussion on a social network than men, and they are the ones posting, commenting, liking and sharing.

What is more telling is how women choose their brands based on their “category.” Filipino women, for instance, choose gadgets by segment. Traiblazers choose Nikon, Lenovo, Toshiba and Sanyo; Passionistas choose Samsung, Apple, Canon and Blackberry; Heart Warmers prefer Apple, Sony, Nokia and HP; Social Siders love Samsung, Sony, Canon and HP; Peacekeepers love LG and Dell. Across the region, the top brands are Apple and Samsung. 

As for the airline they use for leisure travel, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines top the list, with frequent-traveling Trailblazers also choosing airlines that fly to more destinations such as Cathay Pacific, Delta and Singapore Airlines.

One in three Filipino High Heeled Warriors is head of the household or the chief income earner.

Brands that are top in quality earn women’s loyalty, not the price. You will see this in their choice of car brands and in other luxury goods. Trailblazers list BMW, Chevrolet, Mecedes Benz; Passionistas love Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Hyundai, Ford; Heart Warmers prefer Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Nissan; Social Siders go for Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Mazda; Peacekeepers love BMW and Audi.

One interesting fact that came out of the regional study is that 30 percent of  Ferrari owners in China are female. In fact, when Fiat redesigned its famous Fiat 500, it had the needs of women in mind. And yes, 60 percent of HHW women are the main or joint decision makers for car purchases.

You can see from the High Heeled Warriors study how far women have come in terms of economic and workplace empowerment, how they are better equipped now to balance work and family, and make decisions on the family’s finances (yes, they are increasingly leading discussions on family investments).

We ask — in all seriousness — why despite all their achievements, women are drawn to programs like Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Christine Fellowes laughs and says, yes, the show cuts across the segments and age groups. “It’s just one of those things that people can relate to.”

Really?

“The family bonding on the show more than anything else is what people can relate to. Sisters fight, borrow clothes from each other and discuss their boyfriends; it happens on the show and it happens in all our families.”

What the survey didn’t ask is who takes control of the remote at home. But then again, that, too, would be a foregone conclusion.