Where Is the Tooth Fairy When You Need Her?

Marketing Healthcare to Women I could say my life is full –– but that’s code for frenetically, overwhelmingly busy. Too busy to take care of me –– too busy to be healthy. It’s not that I don’t know what I need to do –– it’s finding the time to do it that’s the problem.

And that’s what brought me here. Last week I had the extremely unpleasant experience of getting my wisdom teeth yanked out of my mouth. I’ve known for years that I needed to address these teeth, but I was always too busy avoiding the inevitable. It was finally a salad and fork that ultimately dealt me this hand.

Whether I’m making healthcare decisions for myself or my family, I’m definitely the one making the decisions. Novocain or anesthesia? Remove one broken wisdom tooth or all of them? Dentist or oral surgeon? Vicodin or Ibuprofen?

I walked back to the Chair Of Doom and the oral surgeon, who injected me with the Propopol that sent me off to wonderland (hello, Michael Jackson). I elected to have my wisdom teeth surgically removed –– which means cutting the gums open and breaking the tooth into pieces and pulling the pieces out. I have to admit –– it hurt, but I was trying not to be a baby in front of my son who I’m sure will eventually have to face this as well.

As a marketing-to-women specialist, I understand the purchasing power of female consumers. And though women make 90% of all consumer healthcare decisions –– some $500 billion a year -–– we are still considered a niche market in the healthcare category. In other words, marketing healthcare to women isn’t a priority for many brands.

What do women want from their healthcare providers? For starters, prescriptions that can be sent electronically to the pharmacy from the doctor’s office. Doctors that can provide resources for answers to a patient’s questions before their appointment. In general –– the same customer attention they demand from other consumer products and services. Now more than ever, healthcare marketers need to understand that women want resources they can trust, and should be looking to create lifetime relationships with these important consumers.

Do you feel your providers are marketing healthcare to you?

The Recession Will Be Over When Moms Say It’s Over

Marketing to Moms During the Recession

Though Warren Buffet recently ruled out a double-dip recession in the U.S., ultimately it’s our country’s moms who will decide when the economy starts showing real signs of recovery.

75 million U.S. moms make or influence 85 percent of all household purchase decisions, representing $2.1 trillion in annual spending power. Brands are counting on American mothers to help them survive the current economic slump, but getting moms to unleash their “purse power” continues to be a struggle.

With up to 45 percent of moms insisting they have “eliminated anything they don’t feel is absolutely necessary from their lives,” and another 29 percent having found ways to cut back on spending in response to the current economic climate, moms are putting brands, products and services under tighter scrutiny than ever before, and making sure every dollar is spent wisely.

According to a BSM Media Study, moms focus on the needs of their families first, and then look for the smaller luxuries they can afford for themselves. Instead of a new pair of boots, in this economy it might be a new magazine or lipgloss. And while nesting was a social issue in the days following 9/11, today it’s an economic one, with 81 percent of moms cutting back on eating out, and 72 percent reducing their out-of-house entertainment altogether, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll.

What does this mean for marketers? It means that moms are interacting with their favorite brands in new ways – like Starbucks on a weekly instead of a daily basis, or Costco pizza instead of Friday night delivery. Experts believe this state-of-mind will continue even after the recession is over for many American families.

Moms have always been more brand loyal than men, but they require more frequent interaction and communications designed specifically for them. Marketers need to make the extra effort to build relationships with their female consumers, whether it’s through social media, influencer recommendations or customer appreciation. They need to start marketing with moms, not at them.

Are moms still loyal to your brand through these economic times?

Back To School Shopping With a Tween Boy

Shopping with a Tween Boy

Back to school shopping can be stressful, particularly when you have a picky fashion conscious tween. My nearly 13-year old son has a very strong sense of his own personal style, and refuses to stray far from it. And while I appreciate his independence, I wish he were more open-minded to trying new things, like mixing patterns and layering.

But boys in middle school know what they want to wear, and that’s usually what the rest of their peers are wearing. And if that’s only khaki, black and camouflage for the entire year, well, that’s what they want to wear. Having clothing that’s similar to others at school is one way they feel they can avoid embarrassment. At the same time, they want to establish their individual needs and style, and this is the time they will begin do so.

My son’s favorite place to shop is Tilly’s, a store that markets clothes with the west-coast lifestyle look and feel. He likes Tilly’s because they “get” him. There is as much space dedicated to boys clothes as there is to girls clothing. And there are lots of accessories and products to sample, smell and experience.

This year’s fashion winners and losers for him are:

Shorts – solid colors only
T-shirts – no yellow and absolutely positively NOTHING close to the entire pink family
Socks – the biggest priority. Lots of them and only of the highest quality (Who knew Nordstrom socks have smaller, more comfortable seams at the toe?)
An umbrella for rainy days – absolutely no way!
Backpack – in “no one can tease me” solid gray
Accessories – belts, hats, etc. – turns out the clothes are simply a backdrop for the accessories
Grooming supplies – loves them: the more the better!
Shoes – not sure why his back-to-school shoes need to cost more than the pool maintenance man, but there you are

And my best kept secret for getting my son to embrace something that I like? I tell him I hate it.

Women Welcome Mobile Shopping

The Perks of Mobile Shopping

So you’re in Banana Republic and see a to-die-for camel coat for fall. But before you make the purchase you check with Gap and J Crew to make sure they don’t have something similar at a better price. Instead of getting into your car and going across town or heading home to your computer, you use your smartphone to get the answer in a matter of seconds – saving you both time and money.

According to a recent survey by miBuys, women are overwhelmingly open to mobile marketing and shopping. Respondents said they love using the mobile web overall; 94% said they use their phones to surf even when they’re at home and can access much more powerful devices, such as laptops and desktop PCs. The survey results send a clear message to advertisers that women are already engaged and eager to explore new cell phone services, and that cell phones and portable devices can play a significant role in helping brands build relationships with their female customers.

That certainly makes sense, as mobile is easy and accessible. New apps such as Twemple (a location-based service for products which transform a users city into a giant store) allow users to share purchases with friends, earn points and become opinion leaders within their social networks.

Women and Mobile Shopping

Here are some other findings from the survey:

85% use the mobile Internet almost daily.
70% expect their mobile Internet usage to increase in the future.
84% notice mobile advertising.
67% are interested in receiving mobile coupons or vouchers.
93% are always on the lookout for bargains.

Do you agree with these findings? Do you like the idea of using your phone for more shopping, or do you have enough social media in your lives already? Are retailers moving in this direction quickly enough?

The Girl Effect – The World’s Greatest Untapped Solution

The Girl Effect

THE GIRL EFFECT, n. — The powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate.

The focus of this blog has been on women’s consumerism and marketing to women. But in looking at the power of today’s women, we can’t ignore the power of the next generation of women around the world. I recently connected with a wonderful program called The Girl Effect – perhaps the greatest untapped solution for young girls in developing nations.

An adolescent girl is uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world and the community in which she lives: she will reinvest her income and knowledge back into her family and her community. As an educated mother and an active citizen, a girl will break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. That’s The Girl Effect. But despite her proven potential, she is also more likely to be uneducated, a child bride, and exposed to HIV/AIDS. Less than two cents of every international development dollar is directed to adolescent girls. And excluding these girls doesn’t just impact them, but the world at large.

The Girl Effect is the powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate. It’s an untapped force in the fight against poverty, and it’s driven by champions around the globe: the Nike Foundation, the NoVo Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, CARE, Plan, the Population Council, ICRW and the Center for Global Development – and many others.

THE GIRL EFFECT DATA

Little research has been done to understand how investments in girls impact economic growth and the health and well-being of developing communities. This lack of data reveals how pervasively girls have been overlooked. For millions of these girls, there have been no systems to record their birth, their citizenship, or even their identity. They are virtually invisible. However, existing research suggests their impact can reach much further than expected.

Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world.
She’s the economic backbone of her family: the chore doer, the caretaker, the insurance policy.
She’s the mother of the next generation. She will reinvest 90 percent of her income into her family, generating a powerful ripple effect. Her brother? Thirty to forty percent.
When she’s educated through secondary school, she’ll bring 25% more income into her family.
When she’s healthy, her community’s health will improve as maternal mortality and child malnutrition drop, and HIV rates decline.
When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school boosts wages by 15 to 25 percent. But one-quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school.
More than one-quarter of the population in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa are girls ages 10 to 24.
One girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15, and 38 percent marry before age 18.
One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18; 14 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in developing countries each year

What can you do? Help make these 600 million girls visible by becoming a fan of The Girl Effect on Facebook. Tell the world that you think these girls deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.

Does “Mancession” Mean Women Will Lead the Recovery?

Mancession

Is Consumer Spending by Women Driving the Economic Recovery?

The 2007-2008 recession has hit men so much harder than women that it has even coined a new phrase: the Mancession, according to a recent Newsweek article.

Men are the victims of two thirds of the 11 million jobs lost since the recession began, primarily because they work in industries like construction and manufacturing that were most severely impacted by the recession. According to economists, they also will face a much more difficult road to recovery than their female counterparts.

American women already are the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two thirds of their households, and it is predicted that by 2024, the average woman in America will make more money than the average man.

The Nuts and Bolts of Women Consumer Spending

American women are responsible for 85 percent of all consumer purchases; they hold 93 percent of U.S. bank accounts, 51 percent of all personal wealth, and are worth more than $7 trillion in consumer spending power—more than the entire economy of Japan. On a global level, women are the biggest emerging market in the history of the planet—more than twice the size of India and China combined. It’s a seismic change, and by all indications it will continue: of the 15 job categories expected to grow the most in the next decade, all but two are filled primarily by women.

Such a drastic shift hopefully will result in corporations sitting up and taking notice—and ensuring their products and services appeal to female consumers. Brands need to pay close attention to how they’re marketing to women, because ultimately it may be the female consumer that pulls us all out of this “mancession.”

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?

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