To convert our new target market – female chefs – I’ll be giving a lot more attention to the gender differences you’ve noted here.

Thanks!

Still, an excellent article! Thanks!

Great article. I think in many ways I buy more like a woman, even though I’m a guy. It took years of practice, but now I try to avoid the impulse buys.

Thanks, Brad

As a health copywriter, I’m giving this particular thought since so often women are the main purchasers of supplements for their family. So even if a supplement is geared towards men, it may be the woman (wife, mother, daughter) who is making the purchase and needs to be convinced.

So here is a little story as an example:
I am a gardening addict, I am physically unable to pass a greenhouse without ‘just walking through’ ($100 and 2 hours later the trunk of my car has dirt in it and my husband is rolling his eyes). I do a lot of product research online before I set foot in a greenhouse though. I also shop for gardening accessories, and those I will buy online- site unseen.

I need a mini-greenhouse to get my tomato plants ready for planting- one site only has the huge 1500$ ones, more than I need. Another competing site has a mini one that is reasonably priced- the product description was ok- had the dimensions I needed at least.

But it was the customer review that made my decision not to click ‘buy it’. Cheap and flimsy material, hard to put together is what I remember of it. Suddenly the price did not seem so reasonable.

I did tell my husband about it- his response “Buy it and try it out, if it doesn’t hold up, then return it to the store.” (And if the website had a clear return policy statement anywhere near the ‘Buy It’ button that said I could do that- I would have. Guess what- they didn’t do that, I still have not bought it, I still need it).

Morale of the story? (Yes, there is one!) – There are defiantly different buying perspectives between men and women. But I would not always exclude one from the other, some purchase decisions are made by couples where both perspectives are at play and need to be taken into account. (Consensus anyone?)

Looking forward to June Holly!

A woman in ASIA does not necessarily react the same way as in North America

But that aside, I think Holly has done an incredible job of showing different communication styles and the need to write copy that speaks to specific genders. Sure, you can write decent content and get a decent response, but it’s worth the experiment to write to her needs and time horizon to see how much growth you experience in your business.

It’s quite simple for a competitor or marketer to use these, there’s not verification of the reviewer past a working email address. I’ve got quite a few of these myself and can set up hundreds more in a few minutes.

Combine that with most readers really believing that the reviews are accurate, and we have an area of WOM that’s ripe for abuse.

In fact, I’m sure you’re aware that it’ll be illegal to avoid disclosure if you’re blogging or writing online on behalf of a company or commercial organization. This is a direct response to past abuses.

There’s a real danger here that spammers and shady practices will destroy the value of user reviews. Personally, I think that would be a disaster.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a straightforward solution to combat the problems with the current user reviews model. I think we may soon be back to square one and “buyer beware” being the best defense for any consumer.

I can’t speak to the authenticity of the reviwers. But if you want to do further research, go to epinions.com and look up the grill each person is talking about.

dickiedo has only written one review (according to epinions.com) but the review you call out was written by Juilet166. She has written three other reviews. You can see her information here: http://www.epinions.com/user-julietl66

I’ll let you decide if she is real or not.

Would a consumer actually use a phrase like “experiencing the exceptional cooking found in weber grills”?

Color me yellow and call me a chicken, but I don’t think these are genuine reviews!

I do not know if this will work well but think it is worth a try.