Marketing to Women

I've been tossing a lot of ideas around lately for my blog - my personal blog, that is. And they all seem to come up as NOT a personal blog but more of a go-to place for women where they can find information, get a little does of laughter and maybe even some advice about work and life in general.

I tend to let things gel around for a while before I actually take any action or do anything about it. Starting a blog or anything worthwhile, really, takes time, effort and a good dose of energy…not to mention a commitment. So, knowing all that, I've been kind of letting some ideas hang out and waiting on a little bit of inspiration as to whether it was even doable.

Today, I came across this statement on the site findingwhatmatters.com about women and work/life balance that make me stop and think for a minute. It went like this…

"There are millions of us (according to research, more than 30 million): women who crave greater success in our careers and greater sense of harmony in our lives."

It wasn't the "craving greater success and harmony" that got me. It was the number – 30 million.

There are (at least) 30 million women out there looking for inspiration and a means to step up to the next level in their lives. Wow.

Don't get me wrong. There are tons of excellent resources for women but I haven't come across a single comprehensive source that speaks to the unique struggle women face in balancing the different aspects of their lives.

Thirty million women. Think about it for a second.

Thirty million answers to the challenges of being a woman in this era. Thirty million voices to speak about the need for the beauty that feeds our souls.

Where is there an opportunity for women to do this? A place where they can breathe a collective sigh of relief because understanding reigns freely and resources to help grow a business, help raise a child, help feed a community, help grow personally exist…

I'm feeling a soap box moment coming on.

The truth is this is no small endeavor and it's still gelling around. I'd love to know what you think or better yet, how it FEELS. Right now, it feels pretty good to me.

In the meantime, here are some resources, excellent resources, for women and the men who seek a better understanding of them. They are in no particular order and speak to the many aspects of the lives that women lead. Hope you'll find them useful and interesting.

Startupprincess

Findingwhatmatters (blog – web site still to launch)

BlogHer

Sk-rt

SCORE (plethora of resources for women entrepreneurs)

ReInvention

eMomsAtHome

DivineCaroline

PopGadget

WomensLunchTalk

You gotta see this.

I was reading a blog post over at the marketing to women online blog called "The Importance of Images When Marketing to Women".

Holly brings up some really interesting questions about how women relate to advertising images differently than men and it got me thinking. You can check it out here.

Now, we all know men and women are VERY different. And while that’s a thought that is pleasing to me, personally, it does lead to some, shall we say, interesting communication and perception problems.  So, if we take that very basic unscientific viewpoint and extend it to advertising what is evident will undoubtedly blow your socks off!

It did mine…they are still somewhere upstairs possibly never to be seen again.

Take a look at the results of this (truly scientific) eyetracking study compliments of OJR.org. The red hotspots are the places viewed the longest…(You can see the full article here)

Men and women OBVIOUSLY look at images in advertising differently but who knew HOW differently! Are your socks blown to the recesses of your cubicle yet?

Laura Ruel and Nora Paul, the authors of the article that contains the eyetracking data, go on to say it this way. …"gender makes a distinct difference on what parts of the photo are stared at the longest."

Um, yeah, based on the image above, I'd definitely agree with that.

They also point out that, "Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed."

There is a reason for all this madness. Women are simply wired differently than men. Women are more attuned to facial expressions and deciphering emotion. Ladies, we are BORN that way.

This knowledge can be put to excellent use. In designing a web site, in creating an ad campaign, in any media that you might use to reach women, it's imperative that an emotional connection is made so you can tell your story.

I'm curious about what you think - curious if you've experienced this in advertisements (whether you are male or female) and what about the ad made you take some sort of action or lack thereof.

As always, please share your own thoughts and viewpoints. Love to know what you are thinking!

Ok. Where are they?

This blog is owned and operated by a woman – yes, that would be me. I know there are tons of other blogs by women but where are they?

The reason I’m asking this question is simply that I was thinking the other day about women and that we, as a group, don’t really have a place online or enough places online that are just for us.

Okay, guys, no eyeball rolling please.

And to take it one step further, I don’t really see women-owned blogs at the top of the heap. My line of thinking…which (I have to warn you) tends to run rampant once I latch on to an idea…really got started by doing a Google search on women bloggers.

Go ahead. Try it.

#1 womenbloggers - web ring (directory) but still a great place to get a link from and good information.

#2 blogher - cool conferences, good information

While the blogs I found were interesting and offered up valuable information. They still didn’t quite answer my questions. I wanted to know who those other women were and what they were blogging about - work, family, kids, parents, hobbies? Are they on Technorati, Squidoo, or using social networking in any way? Women tend to be relational by nature. They talk and share -a lot. So, why am I not hearing those voices? Is it because I’m not listening? Is ANYONE really listening?

I think it’s time to turn up the volume.

I saw an article last week posted in the Reuters Second Life bureau  where one of the top Technorati bloggers Arianna Huffington was interviewed on her new book. There were two things that struck me:

First, she's a grown-up, successful businesswoman, author, radio personality and she has an avatar in Second Life (Arianna Hera). Don’t know about you, but for some reason, I just hadn’t thought about the two going together but it makes sense when you realize she has a grasp of technology and definitely knows how to use it.

Second, she’s not afraid to be bold, put herself out there and create controversy - thus her new book on being fearless.

Interesting.

So, here’s my challenge. If you are a woman and you are a blogger – leave me a comment or send me an email about your blog, about you. You can be brief and add your links. I’ll post the responses (links and all) and let’s see what kind of conversations we can get started.

Here’s an example format to follow:
Name:
Blog:
Description About You and/or Your Blog (3-4 sentences):
Your Biggest Challenge in Blogging (feel free to dish!):

Women of the blogosphere….UNITE!
(um, just couldn’t resist that one)

1. Community of Customers

Socialization is big. Looking at your customers as a community of individuals with whom you are having a conversation is what today’s personalized marketing is all about. Taking this trend to the next level are technologies like Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews who are actually seeking to exponentially increase the conversation in your community of customers through reviews and honest information exchanged about products on eCommerce web sites.

2. Green Living (what I like to call the Green Revolution!)

The demand for eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable products and services will only grow over time. This market area tends to span demographics and really can’t be pinpointed to one specific area. While there is growing interest in these products across the board from a consumer standpoint, there is also growing interest by savvy marketers on how best to capitalize on this trend. My bet is you’ll be seeing more and more about “green” living in marketing campaigns in the very near future.

If terms like photovoltaic, hydroelectric and carbon neutral are foreign concepts, check out treehugger where a pretty cool group of individuals are on a mission to make the whole concept of “green living” mainstream.

3. Affluent Women

According to The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3 percent access the internet during an average month. Not only are they growing in numbers but they are web savvy and actively look for information, resources and products on the web. Gearing marketing efforts to capture this market is a must for 2007. Reaching these women takes skill and credibility. They are well-educated, enjoy quite a bit of purchasing power, are comfortable making decisions and are looking for experiences that are real.

Here are some of the best places I've found to get very pertinent and targeted information about affluent women and marketing to women in general. These women really know their stuff!

• Marketing to Women Online
• Wonder Branding
• How to Reach Women
• Diva Marketing
• Learned on Women
• Lip Sticking

4. Word of Mouth Marketing

Everyone wants to create buzz! A Lucid Marketing study, "U.S. Adults: Word of Mouth Communications" concluded the following…

• women are more likely than men to share a positive experience with a business
• full-time employees made substantially more daily contacts than those not in the workforce
• people with household earnings of more than $100,000 were more likely to make recommendations than those earning less.

The biggest dilemma in word of mouth marketing is how to accurately track word of mouth marketing (WOMM) campaigns. There’s a new on demand service called buzzlogic that tracks and measures where your campaign is being talked about (web sites and blogs) and who is doing the talking (bloggers).

Just a note… There IS a bit of a debate about the difference between “buzz” and “viral” marketing among word of mouth marketers.

I am raising my hand up right now to swear I'm not on a feminist kick.

But…

I came across some startling information and it's my duty as a responsible blogger (which is the same thing as a blog addict, I think) to share what I found.

As a marketer, I do a lot of research on who I am marketing to. In fact, creating very specific personalities and personas for the person or people I am marketing too has proven extremely useful in creating marketing and pr campaigns. It's called persuasion architecture and you can find a lot of detailed information on it at the Marketing to Women Online blog.

Here's a rundown on the stats I found:

• Women head approximately 40 percent of the households with assets of more than $600,000 and have quietly become the majority asset holders in the United States controlling 51 percent of private wealth in this country.
• The ranks of affluent women will only increase and it is estimated by 2010 that two-thirds of all private wealth will reside in their hands. 
• Women account for roughly 80 percent of all consumer buying. The Center for Women's Business Research indicates that businesswomen (working women and female entrepreneurs) are the primary decision makers in households making 95 percent of the purchasing decisions.

Now, I love seeing that information passed around and talked about. The problem I ran into is that not everyone felt the same way.

(You can see all the stats I listed above and more in the book Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy or visit Andrea Learned's blog.)

Armed with my newfound super cool knowledge about women I decided to do one of the things we women do best, share. I shared it first with a male colleague. 

I was truly surprised. He was not impressed.

In fact, he didn't believe me - thought I made it all up or had misinterpreted the information. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. So, I moved on to the next person. I made sure it was a man, just to see what sort of reaction I'd get. 

Same thing.

I decided to do a very unofficial poll. I asked every man I came into contact with over a two-day period what they thought of the information I'd found on women and their purchasing power. Here's what I found out:

• None of them was nearly as excited as I was about the whole concept
• Statistic or not, they all questioned where I got the information (had to be some crazy terrorist man-hating blog)
• Almost all asked if the income these women enjoyed had come from dead husbands (ie. she be a gold digga?)
• 100 percent of the men I asked went from relaxed to panicked when they realized the topic of conversation
• Worst of all, only one saw it as a positive thing. And even he admitted it made him feel a little strange.

What a bummer. Here I thought we'd made real progress…you know, equality for all people regardless of gender or race.

Women, as a whole, it seems, are a pretty viable market with exponential growth in their purchasing power. Who wouldn't want to capitalize on that? But, how do you overcome the big monkey-wrench of men-vs-women? Even bigger, maybe, is how do men, who still hold the majority of positions as business owners and CEO's, market to these women with any kind of integrity or sincerity?