‘Eve-olution: The eight truths of
marketing to women’
by Faith Popcorn and Lys Marigold
(Harper Collins Business, London; 2001; ISBN 0 00710715 3; 272pp; paperback;
£8.99)
A classic marketing text, written almost
50 years ago, describes the function of
marketing as that of seeing ‘the whole
business . . . from the customer’s point
of view’.1 A study of segmentation
variables is often recommended as a
way into the customer’s mind, and a
way of identifying subgroups which
respond in a similar fashion to the
marketing mix. Despite this, the ques-
tion of whether women’s point of
view differs systematically from that of
men has been overlooked by market-
ing texts. This book attempts to fill the
gap.
Faith Popcorn, ‘the Nostradamus
of marketing’ according to Fortune
magazine, provides a whirlwind tour of
her consulting experience. Drawing on
consumer and workplace trends, she
predicts the eight formulae that will
bring business success. Each is the
subject of its own chapter, richly
illustrated with business and other
anecdotes. The driver behind the eight
commandments is the increasing power
of women as consumers. Women buy
or influence 80 per cent of all
consumer purchases, 80 per cent of
all vehicle purchases and 51 per
cent of all consumer electronic pur-
chases. Female-owned and female-run
businesses generated US$3,6tn annually
and employ 27.5 million people —
76 䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1350-231X BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 9, NO. 1, 76–77 SEPTEMBER 2001
more than all the Fortune 500 com-
panies in the USA, and as increasing
numbers of women desert corporate
life (women are leaving corporate
America at twice the rate of men) the
number of female-run businesses is set
to increase. Women’s collective buying
power is now more than the economy
of Japan, and Popcorn predicts that by
2005 40 per cent of all firms will be
owned by women. All this adds up, in
Popcorn’s vision, to women being the
‘pioneers’ of consumerism. As such,
she considers that women will set
the trend for the way products are
fashioned and marketed. ‘The direction
that women consumers take is the way
all consumers are headed’.
So in what direction are the signs
pointing? According to Popcorn, what
women do not want is just as
important as what they do want. They
shun control, avoid inconvenience and
value different things from men. The
example of women’s growing use of
alternative healthcare (65 per cent of
the market in herbal medicines are
female) is explained in terms of a
female tendency to avoid control
and seek involvement (‘being in-
volved in basic decisions makes a
woman stay involved’). Differences
between women and men are fre-
quently referred to. Women do not like

to be marketed to in an aggressive way
and are wary of impulsive responses.
They are not impressed by expensive
advertising, pick up subtleties in-
visible to men, and dislike lack of
transparency.
Popcorn is short on evidence — half
a page is taken up with biological sex
differences — and some of the mes-
sages cry out for more than anecdote.
Some of the messages appear to
be conventional wisdom repackaged.
For example, her marketing to a
woman’s ‘peripheral vision’ looks at
times remarkably like merchandising
coupled with strategic alliances. That
said, there are some important mes-
sages. Women like to have some say in
the way products evolve (Popcorn
calls this ‘co-parenting’), like products
from companies whose policies ap-
peal to them, and like products that
take account of their ‘multiple’ lives
and preferences. The reviewer’s own
qualitative research2 continues to show
sharp discrepancies between the visual
preferences of men and women, and a
book such as this — even if it has some
䉷 HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1350-231X BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 9, NO. 1, 76–77 SEPTEMBER 2001
BOOK REVIEW
rough edges — is to be welcomed.
George Davies was recently hired by
Marks and Spencer to design a range
of clothes for 25–35-year-old-women,
and has been quoted as saying that
‘I have studied the whole psychol-
ogy of women’.3 Popcorn extends the
debate as to what women actually
want. Marketers and managers from
other disciplines can be expected to
derive benefit from this book. It has
some rich anecdotes, and may inspire
more than a few ideas.
References
(1) Drucker, P. F. (1954) ‘The Practice of
Marketing’, Harper and Row.
(2) Moss, G. (1999) ‘Gender and consumer
behaviour: Further explorations’, Journal of
Brand Management, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp.
88–100.
(3) Voyle, S. (2001) ‘Next’s founder to fashion
Marks and Spencer look’, Financial Times,
3rd February, p. 1.
Gloria Moss
Head of Research, Product
Psychology
Associate Lecturer
Open University Business School
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