Women and Finance Survey – What Marketing Images Do Women Prefer?

In my Women and Finance Survey, I showed images from actual financial services ads to two groups of women, one over 50 and one under 50. I started with images of couples where the woman was in a subservient position (leaning her head on his shoulder, being carried by him, standing behind him as he gazes into the distance, etc.) Remember, these are images from actual advertisements.

Here’s how the women responded to these images…

When you see images like these in financial services ads, how do they make you feel?

I found it really interesting that women under 50 didn’t have as negative a reaction to the subservient couple images as the 50 plus group. Why did the women over 50 have such a negative reaction? Further research showed these women had several problems with the images.

1.    They are divorced, and the husband who was supposed to take care of them is remarried with another family.

2.    They’ve realized that they need to step up to the plate and take more responsibility for their finances. They are no longer simply relying on their husband to make all the decisions.

3.    They have lost their husband, either to divorce or they are a widow, and they often are not remarrying.

Perhaps women under 50 are still in their first marriages. I don’t have concrete answers. But the takeaway is — if you are targeting women of any age, be careful of images of couples where the woman is in a subservient position, especially with women over 50.

Which images did women respond to most favorably?

We tested other images from financial ads to see which ones got the most favorable response. Here are the images in order of preference:

1.    Multi-generational family

2.    Multi-generational group of three women

3.    Professional woman

4.    Couple but on an equal level

Here were some of the most favored images.

In both the under 50 and over 50 groups, the most favored images were the multi-generational group of three women and the family shots. This was especially effective when the people in the images were interacting.

Find more fascinating insights from my Women and Finance Survey in Selling Financial Services to Women.

Other Articles:

Creating a Winning Client Communication System

Why Financial Advisors Are Using Social Media

How Women Can Gain Credibility with Men

Read more about selling financial services to women on Holly Buchanan’s blog.