Normally I post a link to articles that touch me or incite something that I wanted to talk about and share with our readers. For today I am going to post an article that I though was important as more businesses focus on how to market to women. Most of us are familiar with TED Talks. I have posted many of them on this blog over the last few yrs.  Engage Boomers: Media Posts rss feed from today – had a beautiful article written by Stephen Riley who attended the most recent TED Talks. What got me was the line “What Boomer Women Look Like” and the subsequent overview of some of the world’s most powerful women and how they reflect accomplishment – not reflected as a targeted age group – but rather as women making a grand difference around the globe – and as Riley writes “creating goals with a purpose.”

As more businesses strategically plan and leverage social media tools, as a way to market their products and services – women play a huge role - not only as decision makers and consumers, but also in helping you create and SHARE your goals and purpose. This new dynamic is about finding ways to create an experience – that incites the recipient of that experience – to take the action you intended them to make.

Best Nicole

What TED Can Teach Us About Marketing To Women

I recently attended the annual TED Conference, which gathers attendees each year to hear cutting-edge scientists, inspiring artists, and global reformers give their own versions of the famous 18-minute “TED Talks.” You have probably seen (or been sent) some TED Talks yourself; all the talks I saw will soon be available to see and share.

As I made my way home after four days of these mind-blowing presentations, I started focusing on some underlying themes. One of those themes was the portrait TED painted (through its speakers) of Baby Boomer women and the true meaning of “aspiration.”

I also found myself wondering how these themes will be discussed at this year’s M2W Conference on April 13-14 in Chicago. M2W may not have as many inventors at TED, but it features a lot of speakers and attendees who think about marketing to women of all ages.

What Great Boomer Women Look Like

Most of the women speakers at TED were themselves Baby Boomers, and they reflected a wide array of female accomplishment:

• Indra Nooyi, the 55-year old chairman and CEO of Pepsico, explained Pepsi’s new mission statement: “Performance with Purpose.” On the “purpose” side of that equation, she told the story of the “Pepsi Refresh Project,”, where millions of citizens have nominated and voted for non-profit groups to receive grants from funds that Pepsi would have otherwise spent on commercials.

• Edith Widder, 60, a biologist, conservationist, and deep-sea explorer, told us about her decades-long fascination with bio-illuminescence, the property that lets an infinite variety of deep-sea creatures produce light. Widder’s lifelong passion has changed the way we see and protect 99% of living space on earth that takes place below the ocean’s surface.

• Julie Taymor, 58 and the creator of “The Lion King,” identified her own creative impulse with an experience at the edge of an active New Zealand volcano, then compared that experience to the inferno she finds herself in now as the producer of Broadway’s disaster-prone “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

• Amina Az-Zubair, a Nigerian reformer, told her own story growing up in a more prosperous Nigeria and now delivering meaningful results as she oversees a $1 billion investment in education to improve the lives of 70 million Nigerians who live in poverty.

As these speakers rolled across my memory, I thought of the portrait they painted of what it means to be a Boomer woman in the U.S. and the world. I saw passions and qualities that we hear about from women but rarely see reflected in any advertisement. Those qualities include:

• An entrepreneurial spirit that is about doing well by doing good

• A reforming instinct

• A creative passion that never gives up

• Knowledge and wisdom that come from years of careful observation

Marketers always talk about what it presenting “aspirational” models for consumers. In the case of Boomer women, that usually means presenting them models who have no wrinkles or grey hair. Yet, the TED Talks I heard reminded me that aspiration can take many forms, and marketers who want to reach women over 50 should also recognize and celebrate the values these remarkable women exhibited: accomplishment borne from a lifelong passion, the wisdom gained from experience and a desire to make the world a better place.

If you remind Boomer women that you recognize these (among other) aspirations in them, you will make it a lot easier for them to help you achieve Pepsi’s goal of performance with purpose.

We are working on all sorts of digital projects these days—many of them are contests—with the plan to build a fan base, so they can begin to engage and connect with their clients one-on-one. As we continue to guide and educate our current clients with social media strategies and execution – we are always trying to sell new clients who have yet to really get engaged. As a women owned and run business – I always use the analogy that social media is a natural for women. It is focused on how we communicate. We like to tell stories and share our ideas. If we have a great experience we want the world to know and when we don’t we want the world to to know that too.

I have written regularly on our SHARE Blog, about the stats that provide overwhelming evidence – about the influence that women have as decision makers and buyers of all products and services. The power of their influence is even greater in an online community environment. The breadth and depth of the reach alone – is many, many, many times greater than that of using traditional methods. Today’s post is inspired by a post from a blog called Whymomsrule.com - I say not just moms but women too! Written by Jamie Dunham, this post provides stats that reinforce the importance of women and social media.

Don’t have a campaign that you feel reaches your target “women consumer”? Time to take a good look at social media in order to reach the women – who are eager to recieve from you – information that is important, authentic and personal to them – as they look to fulfill their needs, wants and benefits. The ones that best fit their day to day life.

Best Nicole

A recent post by Socialmediatoday.com did a nice job of bringing together some new studies that reinforce the importance of women in social media.  It’s not surprising to see that women are more active on social networks than are men.

The latest research from Royal.pingdom.com shows that across 19 social media sites, there were more female users than men on 16 out of the 19 most popular sites.

Here are some interesting facts:

• Twitter and Facebook have approximately the same male-female ratio:  Twitter is 59 percent female and Facebook is 57 percent female.
• The average ratio of all 19 sites was 47 percent male, 53 percent female.
• The most female-dominated sites are Bebo (66 percent female users), MySpace and Classmates.com (64 percent female users).

The three sites with more male users are functional, news related sites – Digg, Reddit and Slashdot.

So why is this female user important?  She’s the consumer, the connector and the decision maker for most of the purchase decisions in the family.

But more important to marketers, women are three times more likely to share personal stories with a friend than men.  Evidently, women are hard-wired that way – with more actual brain activity for bonding and connecting with others.

When we need a recommendation, we tend to ask our friends for their hairdresser, the dentist they go to, their favorite stores and what book they read last.

The multiple effect of a women’s Twitter or Facebook account has important implications for marketers.  The average Facebook user has 130 friends.  The more followers you have on Twitter, the most Tweets per day.  Twenty-one percent of online women tweet.

But remember, marketers, women want information that is important, authentic and personal to them.  Their age, their lifestage and their lifestyle are important indicators of how to address them.

One of the great reasons for women focussed marketing in 2010—a target market who weilds 80% of both the decision making as well as buying power—is that women are online and using social networks. The nature of engagement is a good fit to how women connect naturally offline and have been engaging for centuries. Check out these stats on the female economy (stats from 2009 book, Why She Buys, by Bridget Brennan).

• Apparel – 65% of purchases are made by women
• Automotive - 52% of all new vehicle purchases, including trucks, made by women (80% of purchases influenced by women)
• Consumer Electronics -45% percent of purchases made by women (61% of purchases influenced by women)
• Health Care- 80% if family health care decisons are made by women
• Travel - 70% of the decisions are made by women
• Insurance, Investments,and Retirement Accounts - 90% of women participate in the decisions that affect their houshold’s retirement & investment accounts
• Homes – 20% of purchases are made by single women; 91% of all purchases are influenced by women
• Wine – 55% of all purchases are made by women
• Gaming – 40% of players are women

Some convincing reasons to start reaching out to women today, if you haven’t already. Being aware and dedicated to finding ways to target and engage women via social media is sure to be a winning return on your investment for years to come!

Best Nicole

Go New Orleans Saints!

Watch this video for what three visionary CEOs have to say about Social Networking:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco: “Social Networking is transforming companies. Is is the future of Business Productivity, Health Care, Education and Entertainment.”
• Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsico: “Global company with global brands and reputation can use it as a force for good.”
• Jeffrey Joerres, President and CEO, Manpower: “When it comes to Social Networking, it is a major trend towards what will be a very standard everyday stuff.”

This very clearly highlights the fact that Social Media and Social Networking are not a fad, but for real, are here to stay and will become mainstream in near future. Social Business is not just another way of doing business, it is THE way business will be conducted.

I strongly recommend that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, and lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools.

Social Networking has far reaching implications for the marketing department and I recommend that CMOs setup a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social Networking tools and applications. Sooner marketing department(s) adopt and start using Social Networking for engaging their customers better for their brand(s), else performance of their business will suffer.

Incidently, big business is still unsure of how to adopt their marketing approach to this very clear shift. Many businesses recognize the power of women but still balk at finding ways to speak to and target this market with the nuance of understanding the various personas, lifestyles and information that can be used to engage and connect their products and services to their female consumers.

As I said in a meeting today with one of Canada’s largest retailers, women are broad based and they are not looking to have everything wrapped in a pink ribbon. They do want to be spoken to in an intelligent way that accounts not only for who they are, but what they want and need and how they live their lives. Best of all, when you market to women it provides men with a better experience too! Now that is an incentive to re-focus on the female consumer!

What are you doing in your business to market and target your women consumer? Let us know.

Best Nicole

Who’s the boss? If we’re talking about small and medium-sized companies, those with 500 employees or less, chances are it’s a woman.

Female entrepreneurs are driving some of Canada’s most successful small ventures, according to Profit magazine in its recently released annual ranking of the top 100 women entrepreneurs.

They’re now also far outpacing their male counterparts.

From 1976 to 2008, the number of self-employed men in Canada roughly doubled, from 873,400 to 1,719,700, according to Statistics Canada. The number of self-employed women nearly tripled over the same period, going from 311,600 to 909,900.

“A lot of women are starting businesses as a lifestyle decision,” says Carissa Reiniger, president of Women Entrepreneurs of Canada.

“They start to have a family, so they’re not prepared to completely give up on their career but they can’t stay doing what they were doing before, or kind of at the end of their career,” Ms. Reiniger says. “[Or] they’re getting towards a point where they can think about retiring or they’re getting further along their career path and they think, ‘You know what, I don’t want to put up with this any more. I want my own rules and my own life and I’m not quite ready to retire.’”

Graphic: Canada’s top 10 women entrepreneurs

Leaving an employer to strike out on your own has become easier, says Ron Close, executive entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.

“With the access to information and research, it’s a little easier to do planning and competitive analysis with the internet,” he says. “It’s also easier, I think, to access skills and talent.”

Ideas for products and services sought after by women have also traditionally been overlooked by male entrepreneurs, Mr. Close adds.

Betty Anne Latrace-Henderson, president of Saskatoon-based Airline Hotels and Resorts, who ranked number one on the Profit W100 list, says many women are drawn to entrepreneurship for better work-life balance.

“There’s definitely the option of [setting] your hours, depending on what you’re in,” she says.

Aimée Israel, CEO of LifeSpeak, a Toronto-based work-life balance consultancy firm, who also made the Profit W100 list, says there is a simple reason for the growing number of self-employed women in Canada.

“I think that has to do a little bit with women feeling more liberated to stray off the traditional path and maybe look at opportunities outside of the corporate environment combined with more creativity, more passion around what they’re doing and also looking for more flexibility,” she says.

Of course, self-employment comes with its own unique demands.

“You have in some respects more flexibility because you’re your own boss and you can schedule some things within the parameters of your own needs, but it’s also your own undertaking, so it’s on your mind 24/7,” she says.

Media Post’s, Marketing=Green, and its author, Patti Minglan, wrote an article called “The Female Side of Green.” A recent study done by Frank about Women, has posted some numbers that are worth paying attention too.

Here is a list of Patti’s tips below about how you can incorporate your green efforts when you are marketing to her! You can’t lose and we all get to contribute to a cleaner, greener world!

Best Nicole

The Female Side of Green

In addition to making nearly 85% of all consumer purchases (on everything from autos to healthcare), a recent study from Frank About Women found that 25% of all products in a woman’s shopping cart today are environmentally friendly.

If a brand isn’t connecting with women through their green messaging, they are missing a very big opportunity. “Women are looking for brands to make it easier for them to help the environment,” says Wendy Cobrda president and founder of Earthsense.

Earthsense recently partnered with Red Kite Business Advisors on the Eco-Insights survey, which will be the focus of their presentation during Good And Green®-The Green Marketing Conference http://www.goodandgreen.biz later this year. The study found that 80% of adult women believe very strongly that individuals can affect the environment. However, nearly 60% believe that they are personally not doing enough to protect it.

So what can your brand do to give women more opportunity to help the planet?

Offer a Green Alternative (and watch the pricing)

Previous research has shown that nearly 50% of women say they want more green choices – a sentiment reflected in the recent Eco-Insights study as well. The study found that women are 21% more likely to report buying green cleaning supplies over the past year and when they can’t buy green it is usually because the price is too high or their favorite brands don’t have a green version.

Have a Cause

And make sure it’s the right one for you and your brand. Women are paying attention to brands that are committed to environmental causes, but you must be authentic with your outreach and mission. “These girls mean business and are not afraid to boycott (26%) or ‘buycott’ (37%),” says Cobrda. “Women will go out of their way to buy from companies whose policies they support.”

Pay Attention to Ingredients

Women are excellent candidates for green products because they are more likely (at any age) to be more concerned about what their products may contain-especially when it comes to food. Women carefully choose their food products for themselves and their family and are concerned about a brand’s use of pesticides, unhealthy bacteria and hormones as well as the safety of food that is imported or could have possibly been contaminated from the environment.

Don’t Forget the Boomers

The Eco-Insights study found the more mature the woman, the more resources she may have to devote to environmental causes. “Golden Girls (65 and getting better!) are 32% more likely to report donating time and money to further green initiatives,” says Cobrda.

If women are not already part of a brand’s green marketing plan, they soon will be. In a recent blog post for TheDailyGreen.com, Diane MacEachern, author of Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World and founder of BigGreenPurse.com, stated, “Women are past the point of letting manufacturers tell them what to buy. We can – and should – tell companies what to make-based on the purchases WE make day after day.”

Canadian Garden Center and Nursey write about some great tips in a new book called “Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How they Buy”, written by Mary Lou Quinlan and published by John Wiley and Sons [ISBN 0-471-36920-9]. What makes this information valuable is that it looks at today’s consumer from a women’s perspective. Men still dominate the business world from a decision making perspective as well as product offering and brand direction in many cases. The facts are clear that we are different genders and understanding each other benefits us all. Having a woman clearly outline what her needs are from a sales perspective, can be helpful to all of us.

Thanks Pam Dangelmaier for forwarding this to our attention. Botanus is 2 for 2!

This is definitely a book worth looking into.

Best Nicole

Written by John Stanley

Best Nicole

Women, many of whom are mothers, wield enormous purchasing power. Today, they are responsible for 85% of all consumer purchases, and many are affluent. In March 2009, the “Marketing to Women Datafile” reported one in five women earn more than twice their significant other’s salary. In 2005, Gallup reported that one quarter of U.S. women live in a household earning more than $75,000 per year.

Combined with the fact that 63% of web users use the Internet to research a product or service before buying a product or service, these statistics demonstrate the importance of effectively appealing to this influential and profitable female market online. Here are five ways you can do just that:

1. Acknowledge that many women are busy with multiple responsibilities. This means keeping your web site’s navigation intuitive and simple – most women don’t have the time or inclination to decipher mysteriously phrased links or wade through nine web pages to find the product they’re seeking. It also means creating a clean, simple design; “visual clutter” can overwhelm busy visitors and drive them away.

2. Appreciate that women are individuals. Throw away the stereotypes! We all know a successful businesswoman whose dream home includes a mahogany-paneled library with sleek club chairs; she could care less about the kitchen. Lavender and pink are the last colors she would choose … and she’s not alone. If you believe a flowery, frilly web site is a surefire way to snag women, you should reconsider.

3. Benefit from the value women place on authenticity. Women over 50 especially appreciate this; the National Federation of Independent Business notes that baby boomer women pay close attention to a company’s practices, especially in terms of giving back to the community, social responsibility, and how respectful and understanding it has been to her in the past. Feature your positive track record and values on your site.

4. Understand that affluent women often expect more. In a Luxury Website Effectiveness Index survey, consumers with an average income of $305,000 said they’ve been turned off by websites that were “sloppy and disorganized.” Instead, you can appeal to affluent women with your website by featuring clean, high-end design. For instance, the use of images on the Vera Wang on Weddings website approaches the level of art.

5. Recognize that women appreciate visual design. You’re more likely to increase sales to women if you present information in a visually pleasing way. “Women are taking it all in-much more so than men,” say the authors of Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy. “They’re noticing the palette of your website, and they’re getting a feeling of your brand by reading your site’s copy.” Don’t scrape by here; invest wisely.

I came across this article from Investors Business Daily. The author, Gloria Lau, provides some great information about selling to women, as well as some key points that could assist you with getting started. We want everyone to be successful by finding new ways to grow your business, increasing access to each and every dollar, and ensuring that the need, want and benefit that make up each challenge can be solved by the intelligent communication of your product, service and brand.

Time to get started!

Best Nicole

Consider these gender numbers: Nearly 80% of all consumer purchases are made or influenced by women. Yet 90% of ad agency creative directors, 97% of Fortune 1000 company CEOs and 66% of chief marketing officers at the 100 biggest advertisers are men.

“There’s a huge gender gap in business,” Bridget Brennan, CEO of consulting firm Female Factor, told IBD. “More than age, income, race and geography, gender has the strongest impact on how people spend money.”

Brennan, who has lectured at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, recently wrote “Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers.”

She and Nancy Fein, vice president for customer relations at Toyota Motor Sales (TM), share tips.

• Learn what they want. Study women the way you would a foreign market. Then figure out how it affects your product sales.

“It’s not taught in business schools or even at corporations,” Brennan said.

Women influence the sale of 91% of new homes, so Ryland Homes, a top 10 builder, has learned to make designs women friendly. If you’re washing dishes, you’ll find a window above the sink that faces the backyard so you can watch your kids at play.

• Emphasize the customer. Women place a premium on good service. Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus, has responded with a roadside assistance program backed by the AAA Auto Club.

If you break down, your dealer will likely come out to help, but in the middle of the night or weekend, AAA takes over.

“If a woman gets a flat tire, she might not (feel safe enough to) get out of the car to change it,” Fein told IBD. “That’s one program our customers say they wouldn’t trade.”

• Offer something substantial. To appeal to women, don’t just paint your standard products pink. “Pink is just style, not substance,” Brennan said. “It sends the message: ‘We haven’t put any thought into this at all.’ ”

Brennan advises being savvy like Procter & Gamble (PG). Design the product to suit women’s needs, as P&G did with the Swiffer WetJet. Its researchers observed how busy working women dealt with housework and gave them what they wanted.

• Leverage demographics. Brennan has identified five global trends related to women that affect sales to them: higher work force participation, older marriage age, higher divorce rates, later retirement and greater longevity, all of which translate to greater spending power and need to consume.

Older women especially are redefining target markets. They have different tastes than do men or younger women. These women are done raising children and are spending money on themselves.

• Recruit. “You wouldn’t consider entering the Chinese market without involving Chinese people on your team,” Brennan said. “It would be equally foolish to embark on major initiatives targeting women without senior-level, female representation on your team.”

Including female executives can help ensure that important details and nuances are not overlooked and will increase your chances of connecting with the target audience. It’s not enough to have junior-level women on the team; they may not have the confidence to tell senior managers that their instincts are off.

Best Nicole

Some marketers and agencies are inadvertently alienating the female bloggers they want to befriend.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In their mad rush to generate brand exposure across the blogosphere, many marketers and their agencies are actually aggravating and alienating the mommy bloggers they hope to partner with. That’s according to Elisa Camahort Page, chief operating officer and co-founder of BlogHer. In this nine-minute video interview before she opens her organization’s fifth national convention in Chicago this week, Ms. Camahort Page went through the most common faux pas committed by marketers and agencies. BlogHer is an online community and content hub that runs an ad-supported network of more than 2,500 female bloggers. It has become the de facto standard bearer for women bloggers nationwide.

There is another stat from the American Marketing Association, which “showed that 91% of women feel misunderstood and misrepresented by advertisers and marketers.” This indicates the huge business opportunity “getting it right” represents. Women are genetically programmed to compare rather than compete, preferring to see the good in both and picking the one that is the best “fit” for her, rather than being sold to based on a brand being No.1 in the market.

Econsultancy.com posted an article with which I have shared our post title, “Are Brands Ignoring Moms? How Should Marketers Use Twitter”. The answer to this question based on both of these stats is a resounding YES. Motrin can certainly vouch for the power of moms and the use of Twitter through the immediate reaction and their response one of their newly launched ads several months back (they pulled the spot). Mom’s spoke out about their outrage to one of Motrin’s ads and it was heard loud and clear!

The moral of this post is two-fold. Firstly, you need to be engaged and connecting with social media to be able to truly understand how to steer and integrate social media into the marketing campaigns you are partnering in with your customers and clients. The changes and the amount of information is so vast, that you can’t afford not to be involved. Secondly the most important target market—WOMEN—are using this format for so many different reasons. Sharing ideas, comparisons, research, opinions and purchases, to name a few.  All of them important—if you want your Share of their dollar. You can find us @bcadgroup. We are eager to see read your tweets and connect with you on Twitter. Follow us and we will follow you!

Best Nicole

According to M2Moms, a report from the Market to Moms Coalition, 60% of moms feel marketers are ignoring their needs, and 73% feel advertisers don’t really understand what it’s like to be a mom. The challenge, says the report, is sensing her distinct, timely needs and responding in a way that truly resonates.

If your company markets to moms you’d best pay attention to the groundswell of moms online.

“In trying to perfect the message, many have forgotten to listen to the very consumer they are trying to woo,” reports Brandweek.

Witness the Motrin Moms debacle that underscored the importance of not just reaching moms, but understanding their value systems. The original video, which was trying to lean on the light side resulted in a revolt capped by this backlash video.

Another example is this post about Mom’s using Twitter from the Silicon Valley Mom’s blog:

While reading my RSS Feeds today, I saw a blog post title coming from my TechCrunch feed – “Oprah’s First Tweet Will Be Tomorrow On Her Show. Soccer Moms To Take Over The Service?”. Anyone following twitter brand maerketing knows that moms use online social networking as a platform to extend their online social and business networking. I have nothing against soccer moms, I will be signing up my twins for another season of AYSO soccer in a few weeks. But generalizing moms into the term “soccer mom” misses out on the fact that social media savvy moms that are not only ALREADY using Twitter, but have huge followings.”

Power Mom would be closer to the mark:

- Moms control 85% of household spending
- Are worth more than $2 trillion to U.S. brands, as reported by the Marketing to Moms Coalition
- Over 78% of moms with children under 18 were employed in 2000 according to the U.S. Department of Labor
- Working out of the home, telecommuting, or running a business from home, media technology and the Internet have become true enablers.  econsultancy