There's a book called Don't Think Pink that talks about marketing to women. There's a list of 20 questions in it. Though the list is specifically geared towards a marketing point of view, going through these questions is a helpful way of understanding women. Also, just replace the word "women" with "men" in the list of questions, and it works just as well for understanding men.
1. What motivates women to use your product? How can you utilize these motivators to increase sales to them? How do women rationalize their purchase of your product?
2. What causes women to switch to your product and reject the competition? If they came from using a competitor's product, why did they first reject your product in favor of a competitor?
3. What are the reasons women have rejected the product in the past, and how can those reasons be managed so that they don't resurface?
4. Which of your female customers' deep, fundamental, motivating needs and desires can your company tap into? How important are their underlying desires - the ones they may not like to admit to, such as prestige, professional image, fun, luxury, wanting a change for change's sake, or fear?
5. Do women have subconscious negative reactions to your product? How can these negatives be circumvented at this same subconscious level?
6. Are messages hidden in your ads, brochures, sales presentations, demos, exhibits, events, and your customer-service style that elicit a negative reaction from women? How can they be changed?
7. If there are compelling arguments that will get women to change their minds about your product, how do they need to be presented? (By whom, through what channel?)
8. How can you disqualify the competition, reset the rules, redefine the standards, reorder priorities, change the decision-making criteria, transform the game and make your product the only one in a woman's mind?
9. What seemingly petty frustrations about products in your overall industry can you turn into major advantages for your brand?
10. What product changes are relatively inexpensive and easy for you, but offer extremely high value to the customer? What augmentations can transform a common product into a winner?
11. Are there advantages, features, benefits or company information that your marketing materials don't address, but that your female customers want to hear?
12. What are your female customers' interests and passions? Which claims, language, concepts, images and challenges inspire positive emotions?
13. What are the deeply held fundamental beliefs, values, attitudes and emotions that will lead customers and prospects to use your product?
14. What are the questions that your customers and prospects are avoiding, or are afraid to ask? How can you give them the answers that will satisfy them without raising these questions?
15. What are the unexpressed expectations of your female customers, and how can they be brought more in line with what you will actually deliver?
16. What are the most effective things that your competitors are doing that you should be doing or countering? What are your competitors' vulnerabilities?
17. How can you change negative perceptions of your product without mammoth advertising campaigns? How can you capture the power of word-of-mouth referrals?
18. How is word-of-mouth, good and bad, affecting new prospects' decisions? What are the actual words used between women discussion your product and which features or benefits do they stress?
19. What are the specific steps that can be taken to increase customer satisfaction? What are the subtle things that female customers seek? Are there improvements in service, response time or quality that would be truly meaningful to them?
20. Are your sales people really sold on your product themselves? Do your women prospects perceive a lack of enthusiasm from the sales staff?
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