Jane Enjoys a Little Nip

Dear readers, Jane hopes this fine, warm Tuesday finds you eager to meet the day. We hope that you have not been overdoing the summer fun. Unless you're a girl. For this Tuesday's Fit by Five, let's look at having fun.

Women, we discovered some time ago, are better at holding their liquor. Yes, that's a fact. According to Real Beer. The article may be from last fall, but Jane doesn't think things have changed all that much since then. Accordingly, (yes, we remember reporting on this before, but sometimes we like to remind you about the really good things) a study done by the University of Kentucky "found men's loss of inhibition was three times great than women's with the same blood alchohol levels."

We are not encouraging you to go out and test this theory -- dear readers, not without a designated driver, anyway! But, we think it bears noting -- to help you in your focus on the coming holidays. What can you offer your best customers as a thank you for their dedicated shopping? Perhaps not beer...or, perhaps beer. On the other hand, perhaps -- wine.

We received this little ditty from a reader, Alfred Schock, last month: news that women buy 77% of the wine sold in this country. Alfred kindly pointed Jane in the direction of one Jennifer Rosen, a James Beard Award writer for the Denver Post and author of the book, Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine (a Dauphin Press publication).

Jennifer has quite the style. The article from her newsletter titled, "Girls Just Wanna Have...Wha-uh?" which Alfred forwarded to us contained such goodies as,

"The following urgent story punctuated my normal flow of press releases that announce, at least a dozen times a day, that such and such a winery has just...released a wine! What WILL they think of next?"

Jennifer goes on to write, "While examining who their customers were, [wine] producers discovered who they weren't; most of the country...When the zoo spilled over, producers turned to serious, demographic market segmentation, where they discovered, as if from out of the depths of a mummy's tomb, a hitherto unkown group: women!"

You MUST click into the article and read it in its entirety, dear readers. No doubt, you will want to subscribe to Jennifer's newsletter (no, Jane does not receive any kickbacks from any subscriptions; we do not even know Ms. Rosen and only hope that our quoting her here is looked upon as a good thing). The paragraph beginning, "How to stalk this intriguing new species?" is a keeper and supports Jane's continued advice to get women where they think: in the heart!

Yes, dear readers, women are emotional, intuitive, heartfelt, pushovers, if you but only approach them with a story, a question about their family, an offer of assistance, a glass of wine, or beer, or advice on...how to run a happy home.

Perhaps real estate agents should take note. A bottle of wine, in a basket with crackers and cheese, instead of a fruit bowl, or a coffee/tea combination, would do more to cement lasting relationships with their female clients.

Speaking of real estate, we'll wind up this Fit by Five on how to market to women online, with some insight into the home of the future. From our dear friend AJ of the White Rabbit Inn (AJ, the wedding has been put off yet again!) we report on "Future homes may focus more on female sensibilities." An article by John Handley, from the Chicago Tribune, last March. (if the article has a link, Jane could not find it -- so sorry, dear readers.)

But, let us explore this article and keep in mind that nice bottle of wine (or beer) waiting for the lady of the house as she takes possession of her new home. According to an Anne Olson, owner of Olson ARchitecture, Inc. way out in Colorado somewhere..."a man's blood pressure drops when he comes home. 'But when the typical 25-45-year-old college-educated woman walks into her home, her blood pressure goes up three points. She's about to start her second job.' "

Jane would like to dispute one or two things in this article, though it does reveal some marvelous ideas for the home of the future (of now?). First, there is a sentence which reads, "Women are amazing multi-taskers." Oh puh-lease! We are trying so hard to dispel that idea! Women, and men, do what needs to get done. Sometimes it requires tackling multiple chores at the same time, sometimes one can concentrate on just one. But, multi-tasking just makes you tired. And, doing anything when you're tired is NOT good, nor worthwhile.

Second, Jane is actually annoyed at the second half of that statement, where a designer says, "Most women resent the dominance of the TV set in the home. The home theater is a guy's thing."

Knock us over with a remote control! Jane knows many, many women who are delighted with their home theaters. Many, many women who lust after that big screened TV, and the ability to fiddle with the stereo speakers (they're not stereos anymore, are they? Jane is so not with it when it comes to these things, but...we are in the minority.) Many, many women, Jane included, who hog the remote control!

We do, however, agree with this statement by Linda Reimer, president of Design Basics, and publisher of Her Home magazine; Linda says, "Women are concerned with how a house lives. The four major keys are entertaining, storage, de-stressing and flexibility." (picture compliments of Her Home Magazine.)

There you have it. Women are better beer drinkers. Women enjoy wine. Women want homes that appeal to their desire to entertain, keep things neat in storage, de-stress and allow them to be flexible.

To which we ask you, dear reader, can you make use of this information for your soon to be holiday ads? We think so.

what's not to like about that?

Comments

[Yvonne DiVita]

Excellent point, Da Goddess. We hope the general public does not take this post as an invitationt to overdo drinking. We do not approve of that sort of thing. However, it is interesting that men become more aggressive after a few drinks. Hmmm...now, who out there still thinks men and women should be marketed to as human beings, regardless of gender? It DOES make a difference, in all ways, not just with alcohol.

[Da Goddess]

Regarding the bit on women being "better at holding their liquor" - there is no mention of the fact that women do not possess a specific enzyme that breaks down alcohol the way men do. Women may behave better when drinking, but the fact is, we are at risk for becoming intoxicated quicker due to the lack of enzymes. Our blood alcohol levels are often much higher than men's after the same number of drinks.

Just some food for thought.