A common misconception amongst those marketing to women is that women are non-competitive. This conjures up images of polite tea parties, constant compromising and demure conversations.
Women are competitive. They just aren’t competitive with each other.
Psychologist Jim Sindanius of the University of California-Los Angeles distinguishes between two types of competitive behavior – internal and external. Internal competitiveness is a drive for personal excellence, whereas Sindanius describes external competitiveness as “the desire to beat somebody into the ground.”
As I wrote in my book, Marketing to Women, Sindanius found that compared to men, women test equally high on internal competitiveness (or the drive to achieve her personal best), but the drive to conquer someone else is not nearly as strong.
This distinction changes everything we thought about women and competition. Marketers must realize that women compete with themselves to achieve their very best. How will this change your marketing perception of women?