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She spends more than you think she does—and is more loyal too. Lois Seidl and Jeff Friedlaender The attention of marketers often seems focused on affluent shoppers, but the lower-income, working female is an equally enduring figure in our economy. Considering the current recessionary outlook, she is—and will be—an important component of mainstream shoppers for the foreseeable future. As many middle-class Americans now expect their personal finances to worsen in 2008, we thought it was a good time to compare and highlight the shopping of lower income pink-collar women against relatively affluent career women (household income averaging $90K per year). Our thinking is that more Americans will begin to behave like the pink-collar shopper in months ahead. Considering her much lower income overall, our first observation is the pink-collar shopper reduces her grocery costs only somewhat compared with her affluent career woman counterpart—just $28 less per week. The pink-collar shopper spends about $4,524 per year on groceries versus $6,000 by the affluent working female. Because, like everyone else, the pink-collar shopper has to eat, she is a fairly valuable shopper for a grocer to attract. But the value of the pink-collar shopper extends beyond just the grocery channel (see sidebar). How else does the pink-collar shopper spend her money and pattern her behavior? What kind of customer does she represent to a retailer or a manufacturer? What appeal can a retailer or manufacturer make to her? To which kinds of stores is she most loyal? Our study of the pink-collar shopper began when we consulted our own cross-channel research data set. This was research conducted as an online survey in October 2006 among subjects who shop in three or more (out of 17 pre-listed) retail channels. Eighty-five percent of the adults we contacted qualified on that basis, leaving only 15 percent of the population over 18 years old who did not shop in three or more channels. The sample reflects geography, ethnicity and affluence proportional to the U.S. population, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey itself covered attitudinal measures of shopping, general purchase behaviors and perceptions of various retail formats and retail brands. Both male and female shoppers responded to the survey, but our focus is on the 849 females who completed it. The Pink-Collar Profile To begin with what is perhaps obvious to some, a woman’s economic fortune is still very much associated with her marital status. Lower-income working females are typically without a marriage partner, while non-working homemakers and affluent working women usually are married. Our pink-collar shopper is approximately of the same age as married female homemakers. Both women commonly have children at home to care for. But the affluent career woman is a little older and less likely to have children at home. The pink-collar shopper has the daunting challenge of feeding, housing and maintaining her family alone, on an annual budget of roughly $26,000. Her income is substantially less than all other groups of female shoppers, including students. The face of the pink-collar shopper is more commonly white than it is Latino or African-American. The proportion of white faces is higher still among the affluent career woman segment, however. Where She Shops The pink-collar shopper is about 20 percent less likely to have visited a supermarket in the past 12 months than her higher income counterpart. She is also about 35 percent less likely to have visited a membership warehouse club. She is equally likely to have visited superstores, mass merchandisers and dollar stores. She shops in these last three classes of trade with greater frequency than the more affluent career woman (who also happens to use them). Pink-collar shoppers do not visit specialty stores with anywhere near the incidence that affluent career women do. In particular, they are roughly half as likely to have shopped in a store specializing in sporting goods or home fashions/furnishings. They are roughly 30 percent less likely to have shopped in a home improvement, hardware, pet supply, department, consumer-electronics or office-supply store. In short, the pink-collar shopper does without discretionary purchases and may even avoid looking at such items. She most nearly approximates her affluent counterparts in visits to automotive accessory stores, possibly looking for the cheapest way to keep her car running. Homemakers, students and even (just barely) retired/disabled women shop in more classes of trade than does the pink-collar shopper. There is no threshold of household income signaling an incremental jump in number of store types shopped by women and men. Rather, there is linear trend that increases positively as income increases. How She Shops The pink-collar shopper who does use a particular class of trade generally makes more visits than her wealthier counterpart. This is particularly noticeable in the case of dollar stores, but also apparent for c-stores, mass merchandisers, supercenters and drug stores. While low-income working women use fewer specialty stores, they have a strong affinity for those they do visit. They tend to visit these specialty stores just as frequently—and sometimes more frequently — than do affluent career women. This is particularly noticeable in the apparel and sporting goods categories. Although she cannot compete with the affluent shopper in all aspects of lifestyle, the pink-collar shopper does commonly reserve some area of special interest, development or pride, and may spend hard-earned money and time in that area. Retailers can certainly appeal to such interest. Considering that she makes more frequent trips to a narrower selection of store formats, one might wonder whether the lower income working woman isn’t subject to greater suggestion at point-of-sale through increased impressions from the places she visits. We’ll later show this may indeed be the case. Her Attitudes and Priorities Compared to male shoppers, most females report that budgeting is necessary. To the middle-class and affluent, budgets may sometimes be breached if it is a matter of desire or value. To the pink-collar shopper, budgeting is essential. The pink-collar shopper not only budgets relentlessly, but shuns the concept of buying ahead or in bulk to save money or an extra trip. (This corresponds with actually making more frequent store visits.) She is quite different from affluent and middle-class shoppers who pursue value by purchasing in bulk. Because she buys on an “as needed” basis, retailers will find it difficult to sell her on large-volume price-reductions. Merchants could succeed in appealing to her on other levels, though. In particular, she enjoys browsing just as much as her more affluent counterpart and is equally open to new ideas. Pink-collar shoppers use credit cards more rarely than others and this, too, can crimp impulse spending. What we quite often encounter when doing in-store intercept interviews are shoppers who need to balance making a purchase in one category with then being unable to afford a purchase in another. This trade-off situation results in a deferred purchase in one category until another day. Affluent working women and students also appear to be the higher aspirants in the area of taking care of themselves. Indications are that the low-income working woman and the homemaker (with her somewhat larger family of children to care for) devote less attention to self-care. Compared to more affluent working females, these two classes of women report higher incidence of feeling overweight, not following a diet and not exercising regularly, all symptoms of putting themselves second in priority. Both pink-collar and affluent career women support efforts to save the environment and to secure the nation from threat. The pink-collar shopper is tolerant of non-ideal shopping conditions and multi-language packaging in the stores. The affluent career woman assertively seeks out better merchandising, shorter lines and shopping ambiance. What She Buys Apparel. Pink-collar shoppers still buy some children’s clothing in department and clothing stores, but not to the extent of wealthier, working moms. They are picking up children’s garments in superstores, mass merchandisers, online and even in the dollar store (where the selection is actually very limited). Dollar store operators could probably sell more children’s clothes if they stocked more. Produce. The pink-collar shopper is a patron of superstores, farmer’s markets and fruit & vegetable stands to nearly the same extent as career women and homemakers. The pink-collar shopper and the homemaker are pulling back on more costly supermarket produce. Health & Beauty. With respect to health and beauty care, the affluent working shopper has more in common with the lower-income pink-collar shopper than not. Both rely heavily on drug stores, superstores and mass merchandisers for these items. Household Supplies. The pink-collar shopper and the homemaker are equally likely to get their cleaning supplies from the dollar store as from the supermarket. This is in marked contrast to the career woman, who definitely favors the supermarket. Soft goods. The pink-collar shopper does not indulge in purchasing soft goods often. When she does so, it is typically in a mass merchandiser. How To Reach Her As the leader in “as needed” purchasing, the pink-collar shopper willingly makes the additional store trips that this practice requires from her, although this tendency is now being challenged by fuel costs. Her shopping behavior has a certain consistency across categories. She chooses stores offering extreme everyday good value. She chooses categories on need, not aspiration. She buys when she runs short or completely out of an item, and she focuses on daily fundamentals. Because of her regular visits to the same stores, her habit of browsing and actively seeking new ideas at retail, point-of-sale communications can be effective with this shopper. Keep in mind she will exercise a stricter trade-off with respect to price and so the need the product serves must be abundantly clear and present. “Serve this tonight” or “wear it tomorrow; wear it always” are the better messages to her. The higher cost of fuel offers local retailers the opportunity to sell shoppers on items they used to drive farther to purchase at malls or big stores. Put such items in a visible location so that shoppers realize what’s available closer to home. For both retailers and manufacturers, the pink-collar shopper has an optimistic upside that sweetens the act of bringing her into the brand. She is often young, in her 30’s, and single—and has a long shopping history ahead of her. All that it requires for her spending power to increase materially are any one of several events with good likelihood of occurring: finding a partner, getting married or advancement at work. Investing in understanding today’s pink-collar shopper will not only reap dividends in the short-term, but also create habits and build loyalty that could pay off for years to come. n -- SIDEBAR Why Should You Care? It is not a matter of cause marketing to be interested in the pink-collar shopper. It is good business basics.
1 Page 60; Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, Sylvia Allegretto: The State of Working America 2006/2007 (10th Edition); Economic Policy Institute, Cornell University Press, NY, 2007. .. LOIS SEIDL is vice-president of client services and statistical resources at Meyers Research Center, (lseidl@meyersresearch.com), responsible for the design, application and execution of statistical models and procedures for shopper insights and in-store marketing. JEFF FRIEDLAENDER is vice-president of sales and marketing at Meyers Research Center (jfriedlaender@meyersresearch.com), a leading provider of in-store research services for category management and shopper insights.
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