Women outperform men in brand marketing, according to professor Mark Ritson of Melbourne Business School. Their brains are better suited to it, he says.
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Ritson, associate professor of marketing at the school, says, “One of the most common observations in my brand strategy class is that in the case studies, the women consistently outperform the men. It’s actually become a bit of a running joke in the classroom – senior male marketer produces average or horrible result. Female marketer repeatedly produces a superior approach.”
The secret lies in genetics, he says. Women’s brains are hard wired for empathy, can read non-verbal messages better and have a far greater ability to convey sympathy. In contrast, men generally struggle with the challenge of understanding others.
“There is, perhaps, no greater skill for a marketer than empathy. Women are genetically geared towards being empathetic from before they are born. In the womb, men’s brains are affected hugely by testosterone which destroys cells in the communication centres of the brain and a growth of cells in the sex and aggression centres,” he says.
Ritson also says that women’s brains are better suited to combining qualitative and quantitative research, have a greater attention to detail and are more able to treat each new client as unique, rather than putting them into groups based on previous experiences – something men are prone to do.
