SAN FRANCISCO -- Looking for that perfect gift for the woman in your life?
Try power tools.
Half of the residential customers of home-improvement stores are women.
On True Value hardware's Web site, products for "handy-mom" share top billing with "gourmet-mom." The site for Rubbermaid's women-focused Tough Tools includes images of women showing men how to get the job done.
Female hosts on home-improvement shows include Lynda Lyday on the call-in show "Talk2DIY," Amy Devers on "DIY to the Rescue," and Jodi Marks on HGTV's "Fix It Up."
Harry Harrison, host of HGTV's "Help Around the House," generally works with female homeowners. Even magazines are popping up, such as the new Woodworking for Women.
"I keep an eye on five to 10 industries. This is the second most advanced one," outdone only by financial services companies, in its marketing to women, said Martha Barletta, author of "Marketing to Women" (Dearborn, 2003) and chief executive of TrendSight Group, a marketing consulting firm based in the Chicago area.
The home-improvement industry, including retailers, manufacturers and television producers, is "doing back flips because it's suddenly becoming apparent that women are a much bigger factor in the home-improvement decision than they realized," Barletta said.
"Ace Hardware did a study and found that their women customers spent 50 percent more than their male customers," she said. "If women are half of the customers and they're spending 50 percent more, it doesn't take much to do the math."
Home Depot reports that 200,000 women have attended its Do-It-Herself remodeling workshops, initiated a year ago. Lowe's started addressing women's tastes in its store redesigns about 10 years ago.
"We know that women make 85 percent of the home-improvement decisions," said Chris Ahearn, a Lowe's spokeswoman. That realization led to new stores that are brightly lit, with wide aisles and products within easy reach.
"Our stores are also very uncluttered and extremely clean," Ahearn said, making for a "shopping environment that's very attractive to women, and men don't mind either. While women are more discerning shoppers, men like all the same things women do."
"Lowe's is saying, 'We know where the money is, we get it, we're fixing it,' " she said. While Home Depot has made strides, company executives make comments such as "we don't want to alienate men, so we don't want to change [our stores] that much," Barletta said.
Ace Hardware made some store design changes, but the company's Web site makes few references to women and tools, and the Mother's Day "gift ideas" page shows a kitchen cart, copper bowl, garden bench and cooking pot.
