Gender vendors

Even Vernon lets slip a little Christmas-morning euphoria about her new office computer: "It's exciting," she says. "I sit down and look at my new screen and it's so much sharper from anything...."

Sound familiar, men?

Women and men ask different questions, and they go to different sources, too, the CEA survey found. The random sampling of 1,000 households found that men more often turn to the media for information. This could be interpreted (full disclosure: this reporter is female) as another expression of an old maxim about men: They hate to ask for directions.

For example, Rebecca Day, a technology editor for Popular Mechanics, says that many of her male friends are so afraid to admit ignorance that they enlist her as a shopping buddy who tags along and asks questions for them.

On the other hand, women are more likely to get information from conversations with co-workers, friends, spouses, and children. No one knows that better than Nancy Evans, editor and cofounder of iVillage.com, a women's website. She recalls when Palm Pilots first came out, women in her chatrooms constantly shared tips for using the new organizers.

In an ideal world, women would find that sort of camaraderie at Circuit City or Best Buy. Instead, Ms. Evans says, a woman at an electronics store is no better off than at a car dealership: Both venues tend to teem with testosterone, and in both, "they start talking to you in Greek," she says.

Andrea Learned, cofounder of the marketing firm ReachWomen, suggests that stores offer female clients comparative shopping advice: How do the Sony stereos fare next to the JVC brands? Sharing such tips, even if it promotes a product the store doesn't stock, can win a woman's loyalty in the long run, says Ms. Learned. And one woman's loyalty, she adds, can be all it takes to make fans out of an entire Tupperware party.

Driven by what she heard in her iVillage chatrooms, Evans approached Ford a few years ago with a proposal: a survey of women about what they look for in an SUV - a heart-to-heart between women and the auto industry.

Today, some Ford SUV models have incorporated many of their ideas, including cup holders large enough to hold a supersize soft drink and an extra rear-view mirror to let the driver keep an eye on kids in the back seat.

Ford is not alone. "There's definitely acknowledgment that women are a veritable market," says Catherine Markman, director of Evins Communications' tech division. She and others point to smaller home-theater systems, better communication applications in computers, and more attention to style since the mid-1980s.

Sometimes, however, an appeal to women comes off as a throwback to the days when manufacturers tried to sell toasters to wives with slogans like, "Perfect toast for your husband every morning." Ms. Wiklund, who favors her digital camera over all her electronic toys,can think of at least one egregious recent example of this: a cotton-candy-pink tool set in a Lillian Vernon catalogue. Such ideas, she says, stand on the "assumption that all women are the same."

Last month, at the CEA show in Las Vegas, JVC rolled out a line of car stereos designed for women. Chad Vogelsong, head of marketing for mobile electronics, says JVC plans to market the blue and green radios exclusively in women's magazines and has even worked out a deal with cosmetic brand Urban Decay, which will sell nail polish in the same green and blue.

Mobile electronics, especially, is a market dominated by men. The JVC line is the first for women. But the ads will feature Donna D'Errico of the show "Baywatch." Some women say this could backfire - not unlike the Claudia Schiffer Palm Pilots, which came out last year. "It's not enough to tell women it's sexy," says Ms. Markman. "You want to feel smart for making the purchase."

Markman believes just about any electronic could be sold even to the most practical of women, with the right marketing. Women scoff at iPods as frivolous memory? Markman suggests a campaign that features Thelma and Louise on the road with the sleek music player: No need to change tapes or worry about batteries.

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