It seems like Mel Gibson's question "What do women want?" in the eponymous movie, has always remained a stickler for the boys that want to marry, date, have sex with or otherwise help women figure out if the dress (or shorts, skirt, jeans, hair tie, bracelet, etc) they're wearing makes their rear-end look big[ger].
In the world of endurance sports, the question is very much alive and well.
A bit of context first: In 2004, NBC's prime time coverage of the Athens Olympic games included coverage of the women's Olympic distance triathlon. It was the third most-watched prime time show for the eweek of August 22, 2001 and it was seen in 24.3 million household.
Since its debut in the Olympics, womens involvement in endurance sports - running and triathlon for example - has skyrocketed. In any given half-marathon today, you'll find 57% or more of the competitors are women. In triathlon, women have grown quickly to represent just over half of the USAT (triathlon governing body) membership... that's up from about 15% fifteen years ago.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next. Companies started to Follow. The. Money.
As if companies like Adidas, Trek, Nike or any other gear or apparel provider needed more evidence of our purchasing power, they were getting a crash course in it now. We were single-handedly pushing the growth of the industry. And they were starting to listen; putting up "women-specific bikes", the "new shoe for women runners", and pink-ifying everything. As if.
Race organizers - in and out of the industry - took notice too. Entire race organizations were born from magazines (MORE, SELF), theme parks (Disney) and bike manufacturers (TrekWomen) and were created to serve women with "Women's Only" triathlons and running races, all in an effort to capture more of the dollars from the ever increasing numbers of women doing these events. And its not slowed down.
It seems they may have answered the question "What do women want?"
Or have they?
I visited one of the world's happiest places on earth recently and was asked that very question a number of time throughout my guided tour of the event.
And it got me thinking, the biggest companies still don't know the answer. And with increasing competition for the female endurance athlete's purse strings, they are finding it more important to know the answer to the ever present question "What do women want?".
So the next four things are the not-so-secret answer to the question "What do women want?" [Some of you may not be too surprised at the answers.]
1. An experience, not an event. It's easy to put on the latter, hard to deliver on the former. And because we're picky, and we can afford to be more than ever now, our dollars go to the experience more and more. The trick is understanding how we define experience.
2. Transparency vs trickery. We're not stupid. We're smart, educated, savvy, multi-tasking, humourous, laugh-at-ourselves, consumers. And if you haven't heard, we talk a lot. So be upfront with us about your plans, your intentions, and your products. We'll figure out your true colors soon enough, so it's better you tell us now. Otherwise, if we get burned, feel taken advantage of or feel like you used us, we've got the megaphones in our PC's, tablets and mobile devices to tell a lot of people, who listen, really quickly.
3. Authenticity and story-telling. Those petroglyphs on the cave-man walls/rocks? They communicated important lessons for the guy who wanted to try and catch a meal for his fam. Fire-side chats didn't start with Roosevelt and their relevance and importance for influencing behavior didn't stop there either. Tribes learn by story-telling, and its not just from the leader the stories are told. It's from the tribal members where clout and influence intersect, as well.
GOTRIbal Special Dinner with Chrissie Wellington, 3x World Ironman Champion and GOTRIbal Chief Ambassador.
4. Bonding baby. We crave learning experiences (see #1). Doing that with others who share our passions, struggles and stories is really all we want. Doing it in a meaningful, authentic and purposeful way, that changes our lives, and the lives of our friends and family members is what we want. (See #1, #2, #3 above). Do that well, and you are really getting close to the G-spot now.
There you have it. The secret sauce. The secret to reaching inside the hearts and minds of a [female] athlete. (and this doesn't just apply to athletes...)
I didn't say it was going to be rocket science. But then again, the real secret isn't knowing the ingredients. It's in the execution of marrying them all together.
How well companies serve vs tell, listen vs sell, will be the key to answer the "What do women want?" question in the future.
