When I first started in construction I realized that women were very fearful of being able to improve and fix their home. It wasn't that they couldn't do it; it's just that they didn't have the knowledge, and therefore they didn't have the various applications.

It's always been that the young girl knows how to bake the cake because the mother taught her. But if the father taught the girl—like my father did—how to take a hammer and nail two pieces of wood together, then it would build that part of her self esteem that she needs to connect the dots to that aspect of her lifestyle. It's a feeling of total empowerment and independence when you teach a young girl to be self sufficient. Not only in the kitchen but in other areas of her life.

These products are really appropriate for any woman who strives to have the level of independence that I know every woman wants. Why be a damsel in distress when you have the choice to do it yourself?

Instead of [a woman] going to a store and saying 'Okay I need to buy a hammer, because I think that's what I need to hang a picture.' It's more like 'Okay, I'm going to buy a toolkit, and this toolkit is going to have a how-to guide. It's going to tell me that I need a hammer, and a tape measure and a level and a picture hook. And I'm going to find all those components inside the toolkit. So this system is going to enable me to get this project completed. And therefore after I do that I'm going to feel empowered to possibly take on other projects.' So this is all about empowerment and self-reliance at the end of the day.

So when you take a guidebook and you combine it with great feeling tools that are more ergonomically designed with a woman in mind, [women] have a system now that enables them to get a project completed.

We have a new line of automotive products for women. Everything in our research has come back great; women love it. Except for one product. It was a comfort grip that you put over your steering wheel and for the seatbelt too. It totally bombed [in research]. Whereas the automotive safety kit and more practical items fared really well in the research.

I think women would like a solution for a car failing. They are not looking necessarily to add to the styling of the car. They've already purchased the car; they don't need to change the steering wheel and make it more stylish. [Instead they are looking for] solutions to get out of the jam in case they get stuck on the side of the road—more things to protect themselves and their family.

It's not just about the tool, it's about the whole packaging of the tools combined as one to enable you to accomplish things around the home that you need to get done. Women don't shop in terms of 'I've got to go buy a hammer.' They think in terms of 'I've got to get that picture hung. I've got to fix my leaky faucet. I want to hang those shelves; I want to put those pictures on the shelf so they look pretty.'

Men are thinking 'I really want to get that power drill for myself.'

Women don't think like that. They think more in terms of 'I want to make my home beautiful. Therefore I'm going to hang these pictures and that's going to make this room look really beautiful when I'm done.' That's how women think and that's how women shop.

Robin D. Rusch was the founding editor of brandchannel. She is the CEO of BrandWizard.