Linda Landers

About Linda Landers

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Why Would Brands Ignore These Women?

Boomer Women Examples

Why Do Brands Ignore Baby Boomer Women?

The other night I got together with several of my friends for an evening of girltalk. One friend is a mom and business owner who recently bought a new car. Another is an empty-nester who just purchased a refrigerator and dryer. A third is a recently-divorced healthcare industry executive who just bought health insurance for herself and her daughter. And finally there’s me: the CEO of a marketing company who last month purchased new office equipment and a widescreen TV. All of these purchases were made by Boomer women, without input from a spouse or significant other.

Because I’m a Boomer woman and specialize in the marketing-to-women space, I’m particularly conscious of how I’m treated by brands. And while I am of a certain age, I’m certainly not ready to be stored in the attic. And neither are my friends. Yet, as Boomer women we’re continually marginalized by brand managers (primarily male) who don’t think any women of value exist over the age of 39.

What they must realize is that those inconsequential 45+ women are the ones that have the most money to spend on everything from vacations, to new homes, and from cars to cosmetics. Some interesting statistics on the purchasing power of Boomer women:

Boomer women buy 65 percent of new cars, and 53 percent of used cars
Boomer women spend more than $55 billion per year on consumer electronics
Boomer women control a net worth of $19 trillion and own more than 3/4 of this country’s financial wealth
Disposable incomes are highest for women aged 45-54
Boomer women are at the peak of their careers, and statistically are the least impacted by the recession

In addition, this group of women will experience the largest population growth over the next 10 years, and the largest transference of wealth from inheritances left by parents and husbands. Yet rarely if ever does one see a marketer’s target audience that extends beyond the age of 49 unless it’s for the senior market. Why?

Marketers Cannot Continue to Ignore Boomer Women

Marketers and the media need to finally realize that the women most ignored are the ones who can do the most good in an economy that continues to struggle. The time of patronizing ads and ignorance is long gone.

Does your brand ignore the largest and fastest-growing spending segment of women? Or are you one of those women that are being ignored?

The Lies Women Tell

A few posts back I touched briefly on how the book What She’s Not Telling You highlights an interesting behavior by the female consumer –– the habit of telling the “half truth” vs. the “whole truth.” Understanding this concept is so important to marketers that I decided to revisit.

Buying into a woman’s “half truth” can cost marketers billions of wasted dollars; not just in concept development and market research, but in the marketplace where it really matters. A half truth is what a woman is willing to admit, while the whole truth is what she really believes, does and buys. For example:

“I am happy with my looks” (half truth); “If given a choice, I’d like to look better than I do” (whole truth).

An example of how a half truth can negatively affected a brand is Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty.” This campaign broke the rules of the beauty business by putting less-than-perfect women in their plain white undies all over billboards, the media and the Internet. Talk shows went crazy and Dove was hailed as the brand that “gets it”. The PR value of the Real Beauty campaign was unparalleled. But soon after, Dove’s sales slowed and eventually flatlined. Why? Because Dove fell for the half truth that women want to feel good about their natural looks. But the whole truth is that women really want to look better than they do, which is why they spend $7 billion annually trying.

On the flip side, Procter & Gamble’s Oil of Olay identified this whole truth: “Just because I’ve earned these facial lines doesn’t mean I want to wear them,” and marketed their Pro-Age Regenerist product based on the whole truth that women want beauty products that really work. They marketed Regenerist as an alternative to invasive cosmetic surgery, and the launch became the biggest skin care launch in the mass market.

Are you identifying the whole truth when marketing to women consumers? What half truths have you told a brand?

Reflections on Tryouts

Reflections on Hockey Tryouts

Here it comes – the annual tryout season for club hockey.

Even for those who have been on a championship team the previous year, it’s still a time of nerves, pressure and stress. While I know tryouts are stressful in all club sports, it’s especially stressful in Southern California hockey, where limited ice results in a limited number of teams and in turn, a limited number of players. The first time I attended one of these tryouts, I swore I’d never go again. Kids outnumbering the available slots 10 to 1. An hour-long wait before the final roster is posted. Kids (and parents) sobbing when they’re not selected. Coaches trying to explain to parents how the decisions were made.

As parents, we must prepare our children for both success and failure, because nothing in life is ever guaranteed.

Tryouts teach many lessons, mostly about how actions speak far louder than words. A coach may have raved about how talented an athlete your child is. You may even have a letter from clubs recruiting your child to play for them. These words mean little for some programs, and a lot for others –– it is the integrity of the people delivering the words that make the difference.

And so to each athlete: you can only control what you can control –– your unrelenting hustle during practice, your passion for the game, and your attitude and commitment to your teammates and coach. Whether you make your first choice team or not, continue to become the best player you can be, and have an amazing relationship with a sport that you love. And remember: no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Our Children’s Earth

Reflections on the BP Oil Spill

Guest Post by M. Nicklin

Tar balls reach Key West. BP Says Tube is Containing One Fifth of the Spill. BP Spill: The Equivalent of One Exxon Valdez Every Four Days. These are just some of the many recent headlines about the oil disaster in the Gulf. I read them daily. And alarmingly, the news is not getting better. It’s filled with pathetic finger pointing (BP-Halliburton-federal regulators) and excuses.

So who is really at fault? I think there’s enough blame to go around — greedy oil companies, greedy politicians, greedy rig owners. But back to my question: who’s at fault? At this stage of the game, it doesn’t reaslly matter. What does matter is a solution. And a fast one at that.

They call it a leak but that’s really a misnomer. It’s actually a massive, gushing environmental disaster. And as a mother, I think about the world we’re leaving for our children. A world where they will be left cleaning up and living with our messes. That’s simply wrong. So, as Washington and the billionaire oil companies continue to talk in circles about who’s to blame and what kind of crazy scheme we can use to plug the mess, I wonder what moms can do.

This Girltalk blog is about the strength of women. So what can we do now to voice our concern and disapproval? What can we do to help ensure that this kind of disaster is not repeated? What can we do to protect the earth our children will inherit?

Women’s Word of Mouth – A Marketer’s Dream

Word of Mouth Marketing

It’s well-known that women control more than 85 percent of consumer household spending. They dominate the marketplace when it comes to referring products and services to their social networks via word of mouth. Ask any woman how she found her hairdresser, doctor, or favorite wine, and she is likely to tell you that it was from a friend. Women are natural word of mouth spreaders –– they’re wired that way. With four times as many connectors between the left and right hemispheres of the brain as men, women tap deeply into that area that is responsible for bonding and connecting with others.

However, there are subtle differences in how marketers should present information when marketing to women influencers if they want them to pass recommendations along to their friends. Marketers need to enable a woman’s ability to spread the word about their brands. They shouldn’t tell women what to offer or what to say – they need to let women create their own offers or pitch themselves. Women are very protective of their relationships, and if a brand impresses them enough to make them want to tell their friends, women will find a much better way to spread the word than a marketer ever could.

So ask them about their lives. Ask for their opinions. Touch them personally. It doesn’t have to be fancy – just something to get their attention and touch their hearts.

Image from here

Marketing to Moms Through Social Media

Using Social Media to Market to Moms

With nearly 40 million U.S. moms online, they are one of the Internet’s most desirable groups. New communities and content sites marketing to moms continue to pop up daily. Social media marketers and advertisers are constantly trying to reach this powerful group, who are not just strong in number, but in purchasing power as well. Although many attempts have been made to use Web 2.0 tools to engage mothers, only a few have been successful. The key to success lies in the approach. Here are a few tips to help you attract and engage moms online.

Do Your Research: Social Media Marketing Takes Work

In addition to being strong online shoppers, moms also spend a great deal of time researching health information, banking, watching video, and even playing games online. Moms are on Twitter, Facebook, and even social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious. They also are reading and writing blogs. But not all moms are created equal, and their online usage patterns vary depending on their life stage (new moms, young moms, moms of teenagers, etc.), geographical location, and interests. So it’s important to do your research because the more you understand the audience and how they are currently using the Internet, the more you can create campaigns and utilize tools that will interest and attract moms.

A Key to Successful Social Media Marketing: Make It Easy

If you’re trying to reach out to mothers, you’re not alone. A recent Google search for “moms online” yields over 25,400,000 results. So make it easy for them to find you and engage with you, by keeping your content fresh and providing user-friendly tools.

Good Housekeeping is an example of a website that skillfully balances traditional and user generated content, as well as user-friendly tools. Not only does the site offer a wide variety of articles and interactive tools, but it also provides a user-generated element with their “On Your Mind” question and answer community, where moms can interact with one another as well as with experts.

A mistake many websites make is requiring mothers to register before gaining access to content or part of a site. Moms are busy and they have a lot of options on the Internet. High drop-off rates occur when making them register, so only require registration if it’s absolutely necessary and even then limit how much you ask of them.

No One Likes a One-Way Conversation on Social Media

Many social media marketing campaigns aimed at engaging moms fail because they’re talking “at” moms – it feels too much like advertising. Create added value by providing information that is both useful and interesting. Then, provide the tools that allow moms to interact not only with your brand, but with each other. Listen to their feedback and make changes accordingly.

What tips do you have for reaching moms more effectively?

My Mission to Stay Connected

Staying Connected with My Son My son used to love nothing better than to hang with me. He was always a cuddler who loved to sit with me for hours watching “Toy Story.” But lately, mom time seems to occur when nothing better is on the horizon.

I know he still loves me, but it’s clear that I’m no longer his favorite companion. So before I blink and he’s gone off to college, I’ve decided to wage an all-out campaign to regain his affections. Here’s what I’ve found works . . . and what doesn’t.

1. Follow his lead. I am a female. I like shopping, pedicures, and massages. Not so crazy about X-Box, rollerblading, or bad fart jokes. But I’ve decided that to engage him I need to learn about the things that are important to him.

2. Don’t try to be cool. You’ve seen them – the moms and dads who dress like their kids and know all of the latest texting lingo. But that’s not me. I’m not the cool parent. I’ll admit it, accept it, and now let’s move on.

3. Quit with the questions already. This is by far my worst offense. I’m constantly lobbing questions at him that I’m sure he sees as incoming hand grenades. I can almost see him duck and cover when I get started. Though it’s against my female nature, I vow to stop interrogating him about his activities, his friends and (worst of all) his feelings.

4. Stop talking. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just stop giving my pre-teen the third degree; I think I actually have to stop talking so much in general. Why? Because maybe if I stop talking, he will start talking. And maybe if my side of the conversation isn’t of the “I’ve told you a million times to put your clothes in the hamper” variety, he’ll actually start opening up a bit more. So I’m going to identify activities that we can participate in without conversation being the main point, like playing board games and letting him teach me the art of playing video games.

5. Redefine “connect.” As parents, we want to know every single thing our child is thinking, feeling, and experiencing. But that simply isn’t realistic once they reach the age where independence is in sight. By wishing for a Siamese-twin relationship, we actually can stunt their emotional growth –– and our own. As painful as it may be, our kids naturally separate from us as they mature. And we need to let them go. That doesn’t mean we can’t stay close; it just means that we need to look for a different kind of connection — one that depends on depth rather than breadth. We may never again know every thought that passes through their heads as they experience the minutiae of their day, but we can know more who they truly are – if we take the time to listen and appreciate the information they are sharing with us.

Where Did Everybody Go?

I became a parent on the later side of the child-bearing age spectrum, and was always comforted by the knowledge that I had virtually unlimited resources to help me through my introduction to parenthood. My husband had been through it before, so he was the expert burper and diaper changer. And I am a consummate researcher, so I was confident that the limitless books, magazine articles, and blogs the world had to offer would answer most any question I could possibly have. And for the most part, they did.

But now we’re coming into the teen years, and here’s where it gets dicey, because the stakes are getting much higher. And with the crush of new issues – puberty, hormones, dances, sexting, drugs, My Space, peer pressure, junior high, etc. – I feel like I need a crash course in this new phase of parenting. So recently I began my research, which soon came to a screeching halt. Where were all the tween parenting books, support groups, magazines, and blogs? The answer is: there aren’t any. I’m not seeing them anywhere. And it’s making me a bit nervous. Because in today’s world, the transition from child to tween and teen is not what it used to be – today’s kids are more knowledgeable, more sophisticated, and . . . more everything.

My husband reminds me that we have a great kid and insists that I have nothing to worry about. He’s probably right, but I have a feeling that parenting through the tween years and beyond is going to be really challenging, even under the best of circumstances. It’s going to be hard work, and I have a feeling I’m going to feel like a failure sometimes. Has anyone been there? Your thoughts?

Female Consumer Behavior and a Word About Half-Truths

What She’s Not Telling You: Notes on Female Consumer Behavior

At this year’s Marketing2Women conference, the authors of “What She’s Not Telling You” unveiled a critical behavior among female consumers: the tendency to disclose Half Truths (what they are willing to admit) and to hide Whole Truths (what they really believe, do and buy).

As the most powerful consumers on the planet, women are the voices on the customer service line, the fingertips on a website, and a brand’s most powerful alliance. Unfortunately, many times they’re only telling a portion of what they’re really feeling.

Female Consumer Behavior: Half Truths vs. Whole Truths

Example: for years women 40 years and older have voiced frustration at not being able to find age-appropriate clothes. Enter the leaders of The Gap, who created “Forth & Towne,” a chain of stores for boomer women with “age appropriate” sizing and styling. Unfortunately, Gap neglected to ask the boomer women the question that would have led to the Whole Truth: What age do you consider yourself? Had they done so, they would have found that lots of those 50-year old women saw themselves as around 35 years of age, which translates to clothes and stores that balance comfort and cool. As the book says, R.I.P. dowdy Forth & Towne.

Another Half Truth told by many women: “I try to be healthy.” The Whole Truth: “I exercise (when I feel like it), watch what I eat (sometimes), don’t smoke (too much), and wear sunscreen (when I remember).”

Half Truths are a habit — they cut the conflict and smooth the way. They are not meant to intentionally deceive, but are shortcuts that allow women to get on with their busy lives. Marketers need to recognize those Half Truths and dig to find the bigger Whole Truth, or the result will be unremarkable products, mediocre communications and mundane retail experiences.

The Purchasing Power of Women: The Marketing2Women Conference

Marketers Learn about Women’s Purchasing Power

Today marks the first day of the 2010 Marketing2Women conference in Chicago. I’m on hand to hear marketing execs from GM, Kodak, Mary Kay, MasterCard, P&G, Aetna and others talk about the purchasing power of women and the importance of building relationships with women in a way that they understand and appreciate.

Smart brands and marketers understand this is not an option, as women control or influence 85% of consumer purchasing in almost every single product category — from automobiles to electronics to pharmaceuticals and everything in between. Yet, despite their dominant role in our consumer economy, women repeatedly say that marketers don’t understand them.

Read my thoughts on a female consumer behavior panel I attended at the conference and how it illustrates just how mighty the purchasing power of women is.

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