The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency
Earlier this year, Reach Group’s CEO and marketing-to-women expert, Lisa Johnson, co-authored The Gamma Factor: Women and the New Social Currency.
Commissioned and released by Meredith Corporation, this new report identifies a growing and influential segment of “Gamma women,” who are currently estimated to account for 55 million American women.
This week, Lisa Johnson is presenting on the Gamma Factor and moderating a star-studded panel of marketing executives on behalf of Meredith Corp in Chicago and New York.
Why Gamma Women Matter
“This report identifies a hidden power in the women’s market—a dynamic group of women who interact with and influence a wide network of consumers, who generate and disseminate trends and new ideas, and whose social behavior and media habits reflect a new marketplace and marketing model. Gamma women area majority market that acts in many ways like a psychographic segment—they share a set of attitudes and behaviors that can be marketed to with specific messaging and techniques. Understanding how Gammas connect and interact can also give marketers insight into how information travels in the new media landscape.”—Introduction to The Gamma Factor
Key Characteristics of Gamma Women
- Collaborative and inclusive
- Feels empowered by information
- Defines success for herself
- Individualistic and self-actualizing
- Believes work should fit personal and family needs
- Strives to be healthy
- Enjoys creative pursuits and opportunities for self-expression
- Environmentally-conscious
- Faith and spirituality are important to her
- Willing to share her time and talents
Gamma Style of Influence
Unlike so-called ‘Alpha women,’ who tend to value status and operate within a top-down hierarchy, Gamma women generally operate within the center of a web of relationships. Gamma women share and exchange information, ideas, opinions, contacts and recommendations with their wide-reaching network using multiple media and channels of communication. Alphas tend to be more exclusive and elite and therefore use a top down approach for selectively passing along information. A Gamma woman is guided by her internal beliefs, passions and priorities, while an Alpha woman is driven by external factors that indicate status or popularity.
Gamma Profiles
According to Johnson and Finn, there are five key personality profiles within the Gamma mindset. Each Gamma profile embodies a specific set of beliefs and behaviors and therefore reacts to marketing techniques and messaging that align with her values and personality. They are:
The Connector: She interacts with an extensive network and embraces technology and new media tools to help her identify and connect to people, issues, information and communities that matter to her.
The Catalyst: She wants to make a difference in the world and uses her energy to lead / participate in organizations, causes and projects that matter to her and make an impact.
The Challenge-Seeker: She is a risk taker who is always pushing her personal limits, whether it be physically or professionally.
Family-Focused: She is a mom who is both a strong individual and the epicenter of her family.
DIY Creator: She is an artist, innovator and new kind of trend-setter who expresses herself through various mediums from creating her own jewelry line to writing her own blog.
To learn more about The Gamma Factor, click here. To download an executive summary (pdf) of the report, click here.
This post was written by Cassie Pruett
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