Category Reaching Women

Women and the web. The ads they notice and where they’re likely to see them.

According to the newly released “What Women Want From the Web Report,” Summer 2010, by Unicast, 95% of women plan to go online, and 62% notice and/or interact with online advertising. Women aged 18-24 use the web more than other age groups for all activities except keeping up with news, 53% vs. 67% overall.

The report found women who visit blogs notice online advertising far more than overall respondents. While this group is just 13% of women who read blogs regularly, it shows females are potentially more open to ads from relevant sources of information that they trust. Women age 18-24 are also more receptive to online advertising in various formats than the overall population, particularly more interested in localized information, surveys, social media formats and downloadable content.

The report finds that women are planning to do these things Online:

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Gender Specific Traits Affect Web Usage, Fact or Fiction?

By Tom Polanski

I spent part of the afternoon in our library and came across an article, based on PEW studies, regarding differences in the way that gender searches. All of it is pretty obvious. It’s not rocket science. Gender traits, many of them seemingly stereotypical, carry over to the internet.

For example, women are social people who multitask and browse. A woman looks at the internet as a means to connect with others of a like mind. She is more likely to use the internet to stay in touch with family and community. Our research shows that women are more likely to belong to and participate in forum and social media sites than men. Furthermore, our testing indicates that women are more likely to shop multiple sites then men…many times simultaneously with multiple windows open. There is pleasure derived from the shopping process that is lost on men. 

In addition, the women we queried take pride in finding name brands at great prices or close facsimiles at even better prices.

Men are task oriented problem solvers. Online they have specific goals that they’re trying to meet and they want to take the shortest path possible to achieve that goal. In addition, our experiences indicate, men online, like men with the pieces of an IKEA table laid out on the floor in front of them, probably won’t read the directions. If they’re forced to, they’ll scan the directions for a highlight that will reorient their relationship to the task.  

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