I fail to see how it's so complicated. The ladies just want to be treated with a little respect and appreciation. That means listening to her. I mean actually listening and understanding she's a unique person with her own wants and needs and desires and motivations. And then making some sort of a gesture showing you understand and value them. Big or small, expensive or free, it makes no difference. Really, how hard is that?
Not every woman is a flowers and chocolates kind of girl. But what does she like? What does she value? Show her she's important enough for you to understand and think about that, about her, and you're 90% of the way there.
I'm assuming you guys know the other 10%. Hopefully.
Treat her like an object whose only job is to give it up or a carbon copy of what you think all women should be without showing her you see and think about her, and you're done for. You've just showed her you have no respect for her and don't value her. You'll never get inside her head or anything else that way.
Some men make it seem so complicated, but this is not exactly rocket science.
It's not that complicated but as not as easy as all that either. First of all plain old chemistry will disqualify a large percentage of women which reduces opportunity.
Respect and admiration mean vastly different things to individual women as has been demonstrated on this thread. Men are tasked with discovering exactly what represents respect and admiration to individual women ( some of whom can't even recognize it when it is being given ). Then when the woman gives it up for some "hot bad boy" his mind is really blown.
All this while the man is in need of some respect and admiration himself but is expected to provide it to the lady first. Are these qualities that men are to deny themselves while hunting for a romantic or sexual liason ?
Haven't we moved passed the time when ladies waited for a 'prince charming' to guess all her needs and provide them to her? Once women yield to the advances they wonder what happened to the man they first knew. Maybe he was too busy trying to reasasure her to be himself.
Don't worry guys--they plan to fix us up after all is said and done
The problem here is the men - or some of them, I should be clear - play the double standard.
If a man is not feeling like his own needs are being met, is he telling the woman what they are? If he tells her what they are and she attempts to deliver, is he letting her know if it's not what he needed? Does he step back to see and appreciate her efforts, even if they aren't precisely on the mark? I had a man bring me flowers I was allergic to once. He was mortified.

But it was only a second date, he had no way to know, and the thought was sweet and still very much appreciated.
Also, does he say one thing and mean another? Is he feeling constrained by his own idea of having to be the "Prince Charming" and provider instead of just being himself and being open about the fact that he has needs at all? Or is he doing the whole emotional macho act and pretending needs are for wimps?
Respect and appreciation do mean different things to different women - that was my whole point. One size doesn't fit all, and we know when we're being lumped in that category and told what we want instead of asked. If you're talking about much beyond a one night stand, keeping a lady's interest in or out of bed means finding out what that means to her. AND letting her know what that means to you. Believe it or not, any good woman who cares about her man at all wants to make sure she's treating him right and satisfying his needs too. But she's no more a mind reader than he is.
Now, if you're just looking to get your rocks off and go your own way it's a whole different set of rules, and where the hot bad boys come in.

But that didn't seem to be what was being asked.