According to the NFL, 375,000 women attend games each week and more than 45 million watch NFL games on TV weekly. As more women become fans of the sport, individual teams prosper, the NFL flourish and the networks/cable attract more diversity in their sponsors.
Pro football is reaching out with some NFL ads specifically targeting female viewers. Additionally, they offer a variety of events from Football 101 to instructional seminars that explain everything from strategies to football history, helping to convert casual viewers to loyal fans. Eighteen teams participate in the Football 101 program, and more than 10,000 women attend annually.
Football also has other things that make it attractive to women, sports 
experts say. The season is short, the number of games few, so it doesn’t involve the same time commitment as baseball. It’s also possible to understand the play without becoming a master of statistics.
Several teams have developed successful programs to boost their female support. If teams want to grow their fan base, get more people to games or sell more merchandise, reaching out to women makes good business sense.
According to several sources, including NBC Sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers have the largest female fan base in professional football. A third of Pittsburgh-area women consider themselves fans. The Steelers sold out a Ladies Night Out event they held that included a prime rib dinner and a tour of Heinz Field.
In 2003, in an attempt to attract women, the Ravens formed Purple, a club which is free to join along with a higher-level club, the Lavender Ladies, which costs $250. In 2005, the Ravens added a ladies festival where women could come to the stadium, meet players, go on the field and talk to coaches. In the women’s merchandise section of the NFL’s Web site, there are 92 Ravens items. Female fans buy about $150 million in merchandise
each year.
As more teams realize the economic clout and interest of women in the sport of football, more and more programs will be designed to appeal to this growing, untapped and very lucrative market.
Female fans make up more than 45 percent of MLB fans, more than any other professional sport. They buy tickets, merchandise and snacks at the game kiosks. Female fans know player stats, understand the rules and nuances of baseball and encourage other women to get involved in the game.
appetizers and desserts, “Pamper Yourself” stations featuring makeovers, manicures, massages, a complimentary gift and visits by special on-air guests.
As women, we are mothers, wives, daughters, friends and businesswomen. Our ability to shop in brick and mortar stores is limited by all the things we juggle. Our time for socializing, reading books, catching up on current events and discovering bargains is no longer a daytime activity for many. Technology has made it possible to search the web, shop, watch movies and much more 24/7.
time.
However, there is little reason to compare the two worlds in order to pick the best because technology and rapid communication is here to stay. We don’t have the choice of returning to simpler, quieter times. But I’m not sure I would if I could. The speed of change and technology can be exhilarating, as well as exhausting.
After watching “Up in the Air” this weekend, I began thinking about the traveling public and how many men and women fly for business and pleasure each year. Most airlines have a program to reward their very best customers, as they should. In any business, it is always smart to create strategies to retain your current patrons, as well as steps to add new ones. Unfortunately, many businesses focus more on attracting new clients, which is much more costly than maintaining existing ones. But I digress.
environment and more assistance when needed, especially for women traveling alone, would be a good place to start. Not that women are helpless, we aren’t. It is just nice to have friendly, helpful personnel available. However, the best way to make your airline “the airline of choice for women” is to ask them what they want. By creating a Woman’s Advisory Board that includes a diverse mix of women, an airline can literally pull ahead of its competition.
Duff Goldman, renown for his Charm City Cakes and Ace of Cakes, partnered with Girl Gourmet to create the Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery. This kit allows girls (and boys) to make and roll out their own fondant to decorate a mini two-tiered cake with an air-powered icing gun. But the box still screams, “this product is for girls.”
opinion, makers of cooking-related toys still market almost exclusively to girls.
So why don’t kitchen toy manufacturers and designers go after this untapped market? They might be surprised at their rise in sales. In fact, in my family, both my sons cook and so do my two grandsons.
After literally weeks of cleaning, my house is spotless, at least for the moment. In reflection on the products we used in our toil, I was thinking of how most cleaning products are still marketed primarily to women. True, women are the major buyers, but the gap is getting smaller as more men do the shopping, help with household chores and even stay home with the kids.
male buyers? If you are advertising mostly to men, should you reevaluate your options and your sales demographics? You will find that will create a big spike in sales.
As gender roles continue to blur and women become an even greater force in the work place, couples are feeling the impact. More women are employed than men for the first time since WWII. With children, parents, partners and career responsibilities, women are oftentimes overwhelmed. Men can really earn points by jumping in and helping out without being asked, aka “nagging.”
We will be moving soon, thus we are cleaning out things I didn’t even know we had. I’ve never thought of myself as a pack rat, but when you come across things from 1994 that you haven’t seen in 15 years, maybe I am, just a little.
the IRS. We are having a massive garage sale with everything from kids’ toys to tools. House wares, books, furniture, office supplies, picture frames, bedding…you name it and it is probably in the sale.
them.
card, selecting delicious chocolates and beautiful flowers, especially roses. While my two books 
panies, their families and themselves, spending trillions of dollars annually. The book addresses problems industries face and solutions for successfully marketing and selling their products and services to today’s women. Additionally, the reader will learn from examples from well-known companies, relevant case studies, significant statistics and cost-effective marketing tips and techniques.
There are many books written on the differences in the genders and how we communicate, buy and lead differently. Shaunti Feldhahn recently released The Male Factor: The Unwritten Rules, Misperceptions, and Secret Beliefs of Men in the Workplace. She wrote that the familiar phrase, “It’s not personal; it’s business” concisely states how different men and women are. Men can compartmentalize and focus entirely on work, whereas women’s focus is more encompassing. Leading the Way to Success by Dr. Warren Bennis, Jack Canfield, Gerry Myers and James Kouzes http://advisorylink-dfw.com/books.html is another example in a long list of books on this topic.
