According to a statement that has been issued by the director of digital strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles: yes.
The results of a recent study from Fleishman-Hillard Inc. revealed that throughout the next ten years, there will be a notable shift toward women as the primary consumers in the United States, and mobile marketing will be directly targeting that demographic.
The research showed that two thirds of American consumer wealth will be controlled by the female population.
This trend will represent one of the largest wealth transferences in the history of the nation. The implication that this holds for mobile marketing is that women will become a much more important target, as they will have a great deal more influence on where money is being spent. That said, within that industry, itself, there is a notable shortage of female employees.
Mobile marketing as an industry currently has a gender gap despite the direction that the target market is taking.
The latest research shows that mobile advertising has yet to find a solid place in the departments and budgets of most companies, as advertisers still don’t feel confident with the effectiveness of the medium or the strategies that should be used to best utilize it. In terms of building it as a part of standard practice, it remains in only the earliest of stages.
That said, mobile ad use is already increasing at an astronomical rate and that is only expected to continue in that direction. eMarketer’s figures have shown that adults in the United States spend one out of every four media usage minutes on their mobile devices. That said, only 9.8 percent of ad buys were directed at that channel, last year.
Moreover, an ExactTarget study that was published in the 2014 Mobile Behavior Report indicated that women are the group that are most likely to follow or like a brand over social media in order to obtain deals, offers, promotions and other types of savings. The figures from that report indicated that 71 percent of women will do this, compared to 63 percent of consumers as a whole.
Still, mobile marketing has not focused on women, specifically, and among the reasons for this, says Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles director of digital strategy, Kayla Green , is that there aren’t enough women actually working within this industry. A call has now been made by that director to include women in mobile advertising to a greater degree.
Target has been greatly expanding its mcommerce offerings and is now focusing on specific demographics.