No matter how much we hate to hear it, the scientific jury is in: The brains of men and women are different. They differ in size, structure and composition, and they function differently, as well. If that's the case, it's not so sexist to examine whether there might be certain things that one sex might be better at. Math, for example. Or marketing.
Before you go crazy on me, let's get a few things straight: First, nothing you're about to read applies to all women or all men. Scientists acknowledge that the range of individual differences is huge, and anyone might fall anywhere on the spectrum. Second, scientists use language like "tends to," indicates" and "seems to" in order to make clear that their studies almost never give an absolute answer. Moreover, the results of even a study of a large number subjects may not apply to people in general. I will pepper this article with "seems to's;" if I omit one, it's to streamline the language, not because I think it's an absolute.
This is your brain on marketing
Women's brains tend to have more gray matter, composed of nerve cell bodies, while men's brains, in addition to being bigger and heavier, tend to have more white matter, consisting of long nerve fibers that transmit impulses. This difference seems to be the basis of women's better verbal skills, and men's superior spatial abilities.
However, one area of women's brains has more white matter: the corpus callosum, a band of nerves connecting the two hemispheres. Some researchers think this might make it easier for them to integrate different modes of perception and thinking, as well as to providing better access to the non-verbal, intuitive right hemisphere.
Being able to call on the unconscious may be especially important for marketers: It seems that there's a treasure trove of valuable data locked in the non-verbal right brain, a data store that can be used to make the right decisions. Psychologists from Northwestern University found that what people think of as lucky guesses may actually be based on unconscious knowledge.
Ken Paller, a professor of psychology at Northwestern and one of the study's authors, thinks that the choice from an array of consumer products may be driven by memories at the unconscious level. And so might the decisions of the marketer tasked with provoking the choice.
A creative edge?
Aimee Evans is director of marketing for Again Mobile, a mobile advertising, marketing and application development company. She's also a mother of three. After saying she doesn't believe either sex has an advantage when it comes to marketing, she mentions that women do seem to be attracted to it. Why?
"Because we're so creative and industrious," she explains. "We can see more shades of gray. Our creative skills are well suited to that career path."
There's something else. "Women -- particularly working mothers -- are particularly good at multitasking. We can handle a lot of different things at once. When it comes to online marketing, with all the channels and campaigns that go on at once, multitasking is an essential skill," Evans says.
Science shows Evans may be right. Psychologists Kelly Lambert and Craig Kinsley showed that being pregnant and giving birth remodeled the brains of female rats. Their memories improved, they got better at finding food, and they got stressed out less easily. These changes help a mother feed and protect her offspring; they also help when you're marketing.
As Evans says, "Between getting three kids ready for school, getting them dressed and fed, and then dropping them off at two different locations, by the time I get to work, there is nothing they can throw at me that's harder than what I've already done. I'm ready, I can take it on."
Wired to connect
"We're hardwired differently," says Joy Nordenstrom, CEO of Joy of Romance. Nordenstrom, an experienced marketer, also wears this hat for her startup, which uses neuroscience as the foundation for romance coaching and romantic party-planning. "In stressful situations where we need to get something done, men have a tendency to go into fight-or-flight. Women tend and befriend."
Nordenstrom is talking about UCLA psychologist Shelley Taylor's theory that women evolved to depend on social connections for the survival of their children. When danger threatened, men would go out to fight, while women stayed to tend their children. The "befriend" part of the theory states that a woman who had more and deeper social connections could draw on them to help rear her children if she were injured or killed. Brain scans by the University of Pennsylvania confirmed this hypothesis, showing different patterns of activation when men and women were stressed.
Women are also better at empathy, Nordenstrom adds, which can provide an advantage when developing ad campaigns that resonate with a target market. "It's much easier for us to step into someone else's shoes."
Highly social media
In this environment of social marketing, it seems that women might have an even bigger advantage. "It isn't a stereotype or a generalization: Research backs up that women are the social connectors and the social conduits in their families," says Laura Triplet, head of the entertainment studies concentration at Cal State University, Fullerton. "It makes sense that we would be predisposed to be better communicators in any situation."
In fact, women are heavier users of social media than men are, by a small percentage. According to Hitwise, the gender breakdown for all social media is more than 51 percent women, compared to approximately 48 percent men. Those numbers are consistent for the largest social media sites -- even YouTube, which received slightly more visits from women than from men. MySpace has the biggest gender gap, Hitwise says, with 58.63 percent women and 45.24 percent men.
Quantcast shows similar splits for blogging sites, with Typepad.com, Blogger.com and Wordpress.com all skewing a few points toward the feminine side.
Nordenstrom believes that women are more careful about adding value to participatory media; there's less chest-thumping. She says women consider, "Is this Twitter update relevant to other people? Does this comment give people good insight? If it's a brand, is it adding value?"
Tara Greco, director of marketing for How2Heroes, identifies another strong point for women in social media: being genuine and personal. How2Heroes is an online video destination where professional and amateur foodies gather. "We get excited about new recipes on the site," Greco says, "but we also love the back story. What are the cooks' inspirations?"
The site skews heavily female, as does the company's staff. In that respect, Greco believes she has an additional advantage. "When you are the target, when you live and breathe it, you have a slight edge over someone else." Certainly this doesn't mean that women should stick to marketing women-oriented products while men handle the marketing for guy stuff, she's quick to add. "A good marketer is a good marketer, gender aside."
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