Friday Research: Oh Yes, Sex Actually Sells To Women As Well

When Will You Use This?  

Planning and developing your marketing messages for women.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Previous literature have established that women’s economic decision making, contrary to men’s, is virtually insensitive to the presence of sexual cues.

Wrong!

The current research* investigates female economic decision making after having touched sexually laden stimuli. Researchers found that after touching boxers, women expressed a higher preference for a smaller immediate reward rather than a larger delayed monetary reward; the same treatment led female consumers to be less loss averse for money and food and to be willing to pay more for the rewards. The authors explain these findings by showing that the closeness of an appetitive (or sexually energizing) item activates Pavlovian consummatory responses.  Remember good old Pavlov's experiments with dogs? We are actually so similar in our primary responses.

Addition To Your Bag of Tricks  

  

While marketing for females customers, keep in mind that tactile sexual stimuli enhance women’s reward seeking decisions, and exposure to sexually rewarding cues can lead to a non-specific craving for all sorts of rewards like money, food or drinks.

*What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards.Anouk Festjens, Sabrina Bruyneel, and Siegfried Dewitte, Journal of Consumer Psychology, forthcoming.{Thanks for the material}
 
P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with "sex sells" type of marketing? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

P.P.S. Need some help on crafting your marketing message? Let's do this together.