Women: the art of shopping.

Hereʼs a good example of a difference between men and women: shopping. Women shop. Men retrieve.

A woman will decide she needs a pair of brown shoes to go with a suit she wants to wear to work. A man will notice his brown shoes are looking tired and he could use a new pair. Both go to the mall. The woman will go with an idea of whatʼs in the fashion magazines, what she wants to spend, what brands of shoes fit her well and feel comfortable, what stores carry shoes she likes, what stores carry shoes she can afford. The man will go to the store where he found shoes the last time he bought shoes.

When the woman gets to the first store on her mental list, sheʼll look at all the shoes, sheʼll check out sale shoes, sheʼll tell the clerk sheʼs looking for brown shoes to go with a suit—something suitable for the office and point out a few pair sheʼd like to try on.

The man will point to a couple pair of brown shoes, ask for his size and sit down. He might check out the running shoes too. Heʼll try on the shoes. Look at the shoes. Walk around a little. Maybe try on and buy athletic shoes if the salesperson is on his game. The man will pay for his shoes and leave the store.

The woman may or may not buy a pair of brown shoes she likes. But sheʼll look at more stores for more brown shoes until she finds “the perfect brown shoes”. Sheʼll know them when she sees them. She wants to see the universe of brown shoes and some viable alternatives. Sheʼs shopping. Itʼs research. It will take all day. (Sometimes into the wee hours on the internet too.) She may arrive home tired and empty handed. (although she may take advantage of serendipitous finds too right to pass up and have several new items she “needed”.) Sheʼs a shopper.

The man will get in his car, stop for a car wash, pick up some crescent wrenches at the hardware store, stop for a beer and sandwich and arrive home with new brown shoes. Heʼll flop on the couch, turn on a game, wait for dinner. Both people will be gratified by how their day went. Both will say they went “shopping”.

Weʼre experts in how women shop. Good news for clients. Women influence 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to healthcare. Affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the Internet during an average month. About half are now considered heavy users of the Internet.

And yet, only 3% of the creative directors in ad agencies are women. We have two of them.

There’s more.

Talk to us. How women think isnʼt theory with us. Itʼs practice. Itʼs in our DNA.