“God, you are such a girl!” my friend Torri says, rolling her eyes. You see, we’re on a 23-mile bike ride, the wind is blowing against me and I just had to pedal like mad to get away from an angry dog.

So, yes, I am a girl. A girlie, girlie, girl, actually. And while I am too girlie even for one of my girlfriends, my girlie-ness actually makes me a very easy demographic for retailers to market to.

Confused?
You won’t be for long.

DervalResearch has found that a woman’s hormonal makeup drives her taste – in just about everything – although the research team focused in on fabrics and textures. According to their findings, estrogen-driven women prefer animal fabrics like wool, fur, leather or silk, while testosterone-driven women prefer cotton and linen. Men, on the other hand, tend to be more sensitive to synthetic materials.

And do you know how they figured this out? Neither do I, really.

But here’s what I’ve put together so far:

• They studied 3,500 men/women from 25 different countries to get these results.
• They utilized a variety of factors, including the difference in length between the index finger and ring finger on the right hand (allegedly prenatal hormone exposure will show up in the difference in length).
• The research gets quite in-depth with individuals next being put into categories of vibration.

While this portion of the research has yet to clearly make sense, to me, I can tell you this:

• Go take the Hormonal Quotient test now. It’s free and it’s online and it’s about to give you some very interesting information about yourself. Not only that, think about the information it could give you about your clients, so that your every marketing move could be tailored to their preferences.

Creepy or brilliant?

I’m opting for possibly brilliant with a side of creepiness. And it’s called neuromarketing.

"Consumers are unique individuals but they are also predictable," said Diana Derval, president, research director and author. "Their preferences and behavior are directly linked to their biological and sensory perceptions. And again, these perceptions are greatly due to the influence of prenatal hormones. Similarly to what exists in many animal species, we have identified eight gender polymorphisms among humans based on the prenatal influence of hormones – four in male and four in female. We can identify the gender polymorphism or what we call the Hormonal Quotient (HQ) of an individual based on the gender, ethnicity and different biomarkers, including the digit ratio – the relative length of the index and ring fingers of the right hand."

Derval’s findings have been published in "The Right Sensory Mix," and the book has already received a nomination for the Berry-AMA (American Marketing Association) prize for Best Book of Marketing in 2011.

What’s your hormonal quotient? For the record, mine was “balanced – sociable, competitive, versatile.”  (Take that Torri!) Do you think neuromarketing is the wave of the future? Leave your thoughts here!

-Heather Strang