purchase power of moms

Bic Pens For Women Have Some Laughing

Bic Attempts to Market to Women

Here we go again. Bic is taking quite a hit for its “Bic Cristal For Her” pens. Shocking that a company of this magnitude doesn’t understand how to market to women. With women influencing 85% of all consumer purchase decisions, why is it that marketers won’t take the time to truly understand this important audience, and put the time into building authentic relationships with them?

The Public Reacts to Bic’s “Cristal For Her” Pens

Women (and men) have been mocking the pens on Amazon.com and Twitter. Below are just a few examples:

“Oh my goodness – where have these been all my life? My hands are tiny, delicate and perfectly formed. I have to admit that they’re more suited to activities such as petit point and kitten stroking than writing; in short, they are nothing like a man’s fat, hairy mitt. Up until now I’ve spent countless hours sobbing that there was no writing implement designed especially for ME. I haven’t actually tried one of these BIC beauties yet as they’re just so adorable all I want to go is gaze at them and lick the pink one from time to time.”

“We’re all joking about this, naturally (a woman using a pen – ridiculous!), but this could have serious implications. What’s next, ladies attending universities? Pens to encourage literacy in the lower orders? The modern world is a mad place indeed.”

“I allowed my wife to write the grocery list with one of my pens. Shortly thereafter she went out and bought a bunch of flannel shirts, cut the sleeves off and grew a mullet. While she was writing her feminist manifesto, I secretly switched out the man pen with a BiC For Her. She’s now back to baking apple pies, vacuuming in heels, and popping bennies in order to keep her girlish figure… like a proper American gal.”

“I had my man read me the packaging details because it was so beautiful I just HAD to know what was inside. I discovered that it contained something I did not ever believe possible. A pen. For me! Now I just need some pastel coloured books so I can learn to read and I’ll be able to use them to write by myself. At last! Thank you, thank you bic. My womb is throbbing at the very thought of holding such a thing! My husband says before long I’ll be able to write my very own shopping lists and cake recipes.”

“Someone has answered my gentle prayers and FINALLY designed a pen that I can use all month long! I use it when I’m swimming, riding a horse, walking on the beach and doing yoga. It’s comfortable, leak-proof, non-slip and it makes me feel so feminine and pretty! …

And here’s a great blog post from LikeARollingStone featured on Huffington Post:

Bic Boss: Jenkins, get in here!

Jenkins: Yes sir.

Bic Boss: I’m thinking we need to go after the female market.

Jenkins: Excuse me?

Bic Boss: Women consumers, man! Women do most of the buying in this country so we need pens just for women.

Jenkins: What’s wrong with our regular pens?

Bic Boss: Aren’t you listening? Women want womanly things — pink and purple and flowery and… I don’t know… what are you doing?

Jenkins: Just writing this all down — pink, purple, flowery. Ooooh, diamonds. Women like diamonds.

Bic Boss: That’s good. Work diamonds in there somehow. Only not real diamonds. Just make them diamondy.

Jenkins: Diamondy, right. Anything else?

Bic Boss: Let me think. What does my wife like? Hmmm, cleaning. She loves to clean. No, that doesn’t help. Uh, she’s reading some book about gray shades. Make sure one of the pens writes in gray.

Jenkins: Shade of gray, got it. Should the other pens write in pink?

Bic Boss: Good grief no. We don’t want to be condescending.

Reaching women more effectively can require some extra effort by marketers – but in the long run it is so worth it.

Marketing To Women: 30 Stats To Know

Stats to Know about Marketing to Women

I was really pleased to see the following article by Ekaterina Walter for MediaPost. It’s rare to find such a great compilation of stats (including some from Girlpower Marketing) that drive home the purchasing power of women. Thanks for including us!

Marketing to Women: 30 Stats to Know

Women are earning, spending, and influencing spending at a greater rate than ever before — and they account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the United States, and over the next decade they will control two-thirds of consumer wealth. Women make or influence 85 percent of all purchasing decisions, and purchase over 50 percent of traditional male products, including automobiles, home improvement products and consumer electronics.

But 91% of women say that advertisers don’t understand them.

Recognizing the power and influence of women must be a top priority for marketers if they are going to tap into the market’s full potential. Here are 30 surprising stats to help marketers get a handle on this misunderstood demographic.

Earning Power

1. The average American woman is expected to earn more than the average American male by 2028

2. Fifty-one percent of U.S. private wealth is controlled by women

3. Women account for over 50% of all stock ownership in the U.S.

4. Women control more than 60% of all personal wealth in the U.S.

Spending Power

1. Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases, including everything from autos to health care

2. Women make 80% of healthcare decisions and 68 percent of new car purchase decisions

3. Seventy-five percent of women identified themselves as the primary shoppers for their households

4. Women influenced $90 billion of consumer electronic purchases in 2007

5. Nearly 50% of women say they want more green choices, with 37% are more likely to pay attention to brands that are committed to environmental causes

Women and Cars

1. Women buy more than half of the new cars in the U.S., and influence up to 80% of all car purchases

2. Women request 65% of the service work done at dealerships

3. Women spend over $200 billion on new cars and mechanical servicing of vehicles each year

4. Forty-five percent of all light trucks and SUVs are purchased by women

Mom Power

1. Moms represent a $2.4 trillion market

2. Fifty-five percent of active (daily) social media moms said they made their purchase because of a recommendation from a personal review blog

3. 18.3 million Internet users who are moms read blogs at least once a month

4. In 2014, 63% (nearly 21 million) of all online moms will read blogs

5. Moms mention brands an average of 73 times per week compared with just 57 times per week among males

6. Seventy-seven percent of mom bloggers will only write about products or brands whose reputations they approve of, and another 14% will write about brands or products they boycott

7. Ninety percent of moms are online vs. just 76% of women in general

8. Sixty-four percent of moms ask other mothers for advice before they purchase a new product and 63% of all mothers surveyed consider other moms the most credible experts when they have questions

Women Online

1. As early as 2000, women were found to have surpassed men in Internet usage

2. Seventy-eight percent of women in the U.S. use the Internet for product information before making a purchase

3. Thirty-three percent research products and services online before buying offline

4. Women account for 58% of all total online spending

5. Twenty-two percent shop online at least once a day

6. Ninety-two percent pass along information about deals or finds to others

7. The average number of contacts in their e-mail or mobile lists is 171

8. Seventy-six percent want to be part of a special or select panel

9. Fifty-eight percent would toss a TV if they had to get rid of one digital device (only 11% would ditch their laptops)

The sources for the statistics cited in this article are as follows: She-Economy, Ms Smith Marketing, StartUpNation, Clickz, Inc.com, Girlpower Marketing, Catalyst, Forbes.

Women’s Purchasing Power

How Do Women Wield Their Purchasing Power?

More women are taking the reins with their own finances, holding 60 percent of the country’s personal wealth, and 51 percent of all U.S stocks. In addition, the number of wealthy women in the U.S. is growing twice as fast as the number of wealthy men, according to Virginia Tech.

At home, the majority of women act as “chief purchasing officer,” influencing or managing 85 percent of all consumer purchases. And that’s not just diapers and detergent. Women buy more cars, insurance and consumer electronics than men as well.

See the infographic below from the Business Insider for more fun stats on women’s purchasing power:

It bears repeating that women are the top marketing opportunity in today’s economy. They make 85 percent of all consumer purchasing decisions, and account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending. Savvy marketers understand this, and will continue to look at ways to build relationships with this key consumer.

Marketing to Generation Mom

What Is Generation Mom?

We all know the established generations of Mom: the Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. But are all Moms equal, or do the generations dictate their parenting values and core marketing preferences? My colleague Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of MomCentral Consulting, recently conducted a survey to find out how ages and stages impact Moms.

In looking at generational differences, the survey originally assumed that a Mom’s generational characteristics would deeply influence her parenting style, attitudes about brand messaging, and use of social and traditional media. Surprisingly enough, however, the survey showed that regardless of Boomer, Gen X or Gen Y status, certain universal truths for all Moms emerged in four key areas:

Moms would rather stay at home instead of forging ahead on their career path
Moms would forgo a bigger paycheck to spend more time with their kids
Moms say contentment in kids trumps future success
Moms put parenting ahead of their marriage

When Moms surveyed were asked “What Makes a Great Mom?” and given 25 choices, these Top 3 emerged:

Spending quality time with her children
Raising children with good manners
Setting boundaries and keeping them

When asked about their perceived inadequacies, the Top 3 responses were:

Moms feel guilty for being short-tempered with their family
Moms feel guilty because they don’t play with their children enough
Moms feel guilt for not spending enough time with their kids

All Moms Yearn to Connect

The study also revealed that Moms are feeling more isolated than ever before – due primarily to today’s mobile society and their own attempts to achieve “Super Mom” status. This isolation, coupled with the feelings of guilt, has resulted in Moms seeking alternative ways to reach out and connect. Social media has become the conduit between Moms and their trusted connections to other Moms and brands. Much like Moms want relationships with fellow Moms, they also want relationships with the brands they love – and when they feel engaged, they are more likely to make a purchase, or recommend a brand to their friends.

What’s Important to Generation Mom?

What’s important to Generation Mom? Her family, her passions, her relationships, her children. Generation Mom feels a deep need to connect with the world around her – and social media has become the way in which that happens. Twitter and Facebook now mimic the neighborhood friends of previous decades. They help women expand beyond their immediate worlds and make new friends, while reconnecting with old friends. The Internet also provides Moms with access to ready-made communities that provide support for those who knit, do yoga, need help with potty training, or other issues.

As social media becomes the new “picket fence” for Mom conversations, the age of those Moms appears to be proving irrelevant. Regardless of age, brands will find her online. There may be some slight media preferences by age – Gen X Moms read more magazine articles than Gen Y Moms for example – but all generations surveyed embrace social media. And whether a Mom is 25, 35 or 45 – shared parenting values bring them all together as Generation Mom.

When marketing to moms, is your brand participating in the emergent platforms where Moms are congregating online? Does your messaging map to a Mom’s core values?

Engaging the Mom Market

How to Engage the Mom Market

Recently Maria Bailey created a list of places a brand needs to be in order to engage with moms. Her list was right on the money, so I thought I’d share it here.

We all know moms are constantly on the go, and use numerous technology tools to stay connected. Mobile apps, iPads and Smartphones are just some of the tools that help brands market to moms and engage them at the right time and with the right message. Here are some additional tools that should be part of any marketers toolkit when reaching out to the mom market.

1. Engage Moms on YouTube

As the second largest search engine, YouTube provides moms an easy way to not only search for products, but to also learn how to use them. Create short videos — less than three minutes — that tell moms how to create solutions with your product. Use mom vloggers or mom employees to produce videos in order to create a relevant connection with the female audience.

2. Mothers Can Be Found on Pinterest

If you haven’t discovered this hot, new social media community yet, make it a New Year’s resolution to do so. This is not only where moms are migrating for ideas and product suggestions, but it’s cool to her tween and teenage kids as well. The next time a mom blogger tells you she loves your product, ask her to “pin” it on her Pinterest bulletin board.

3. Find Moms in Their Homes

An article by the Associated Press,“Why Are Toys Selling Out? Might be Mommy Blog Buzz,” focused on the success of LeapPad Explorers and their popularity, thanks to the buzz created by MommyParties. It’s using the fun of in-home Tupperware parties without the pressure to buy items. Allowing moms to test and share your product in a social setting is an effective way to fully engage mothers in peer marketing.

4. Reach a Mother in Her Email Box

We often forget the power of email; however, moms are still reading emails several times a day. In fact, most say they learn about sales and promotions via email. They also say they don’t want numerous emails promoting the same deal or emails that have no relevance to their lives. In other words, don’t send a mother with teenagers an email promoting baby food. An “unsubscribe” is sure to happen, followed by a delete of your company from her buy list.

5. Look for Moms at Smaller Niche Conferences

Brands love to sponsor conferences but often do so without a plan or strategy behind it. Sometimes bigger is not better. There are over 30 mom blogger and social media conferences in 2012. Some of the smaller, more intimate conferences can provide you a better platform to truly engage with the moms in attendance. It’s not about being a logo on a brochure, but rather truly engaging with those who are at the conference. There are conferences for Christian Moms, Frugal Moms, Video Moms and many others. Look for the conference that fits your brand and message.

6. Engage Moms on Their iPads

“There’s an app for that” and moms on average have 31 of them on their iPads. One-third of them is there at the request of her children. Make sure you are among the solution-oriented apps that she downloads to her wireless device in 2012.

7. Connect with Moms on iTunes

More and more moms are listening to podcasts. It’s easy and inexpensive to create a podcast for your brand. Consider what solutions you can offer mom and pull up a microphone. For example, if you are a car company, create product podcasts on travel ideas or destinations for families. If you are a food brand, consider a cooking podcast. If you can’t find a radio guru in your hallways, think about contracting with a mom podcaster to host your show for you.

Utilizing the tools above will help brands build those engaging, ongoing relationships that are so critical in the mom market.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Insights for Marketing to Women

Marketing to Women Insights

Marketing to Women: Helpful Insights

By now we all know that women are the primary consumers in the U.S. today, making over 85 percent of the consumer purchase decisions and influencing over 95 percent of total goods and services purchased. Women’s consumer and business spending is fast approaching $8 trillion – more than the economy of Japan. When marketing to women, businesses need to keep the following in mind:

There is no “women’s market” — there’s your women’s market.

Marketers should not segment women strictly by age. Whether a woman is 28, 39, or 52, she’ll respond more to marketing messages that address her life stage, not her biological age. Unlike previous generations, today’s women are experiencing life in a less linear fashion; women are having babies in their 40s, starting new careers in their 50s, and re-entering the dating scene in their 60s. Marketers need to clearly understand the differentiation in marketing to the different life stages of women, and tailor their messages accordingly.

Pink is not a marketing strategy.

Today’s women are not looking for a watered-down version of a male offering that has been feminized with clichéd colors. Instead, they’re looking for solid information, ease of use, stellar customer service, and brands that are looking to build real relationships with them based on their interests, personal identities and problems that they need to solve.

Instead of relying on outdated assumptions and stereotypes, marketers must do the hard work to be relevant to women consumers – taking the time to learn what motivates them to order to present their brands in a meaningful way. A woman’s b.s. meter is always on – she knows when she’s being addressed in an authentic way…and when she’s not.

Recognize that women think different than men.

All human brains start as female brains, until the male brain is flooded with testosterone. But there they part paths. A woman’s brain has four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres as a man’s. All of those signals hurtle down the superhighway into her right brain – the home of emotional memory, intuition and experience. A woman not only reads – she attaches feelings to what she’s reading. A woman’s heart is in her brain – tell her a story that is filled with emotion, and explain why your brand is relevant to her.

Sounds simple, but many businesses develop and market products without ever asking their female customers what is most important to them and why. Companies such as Best Buy and Volvo have made gaining women’s input a key part of their marketing process, leading to product improvements that both men and women appreciate, along with marketing messages that resonate with both.

Don’t buy into a woman’s “Half Truth.”

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)

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 hurts. Marketers need to take the time to really understand the women they’re talking to – what motivates them and what makes them tick.

How Marketing to Moms Is Like Marketing to Boomers

Marketing to Boomers

In preparing for this year’s M2Moms –The Marketing to Moms Conference, I’ve touched based with a number of the speakers to find out what’s on their minds. I’ve been struck by how much of today’s best practices for marketing to the current batch of Millennial moms can be directly applied to marketing to their Boomer mothers.

Moms are Brand-Disloyal: So are Boomers

Stacy DeBroff founded Mom Central, a consulting firm and online resource for moms and mommy bloggers. Her recent research has shown her that “Moms have become untethered in their brand loyalties, partly as a result of the Recession and partly as a result of the social media culture. Moms are willing to leave brands.

I’ve written before about the willingness of Boomers to leave brands as well. Old stereotypes assumed that brand loyalty, once gained, was never lost as consumers grew older. If that stereotype was true in the past, it isn’t any longer, for Moms or for Boomers. As women find new ways to connect with each other, they also find new brands that meet their ever-changing needs. Or, as DeBroff says, “We’re entering the age of relationship marketing and it’s fascinating but for many brands a real struggle.” The brands that win this struggle are the ones that deliver useful resources online and serve the social platforms where women connect.

Mommy Bloggers: They’re not all 30

Emily Bader from the Zocalo group is bullish on Mommy bloggers; she says that there will be 4.4 million of them by 2014. And if Bader is bullish on Mommy bloggers, I’m even more bullish on Boomer bloggers.

What does the growth of mommy bloggers have to do with Boomers? First, many of these millions of women will keep blogging as they age. So get ready for a giant wave of Boomer bloggers who keep influencing other women after they turn 50. Second, Boomer bloggers deliver the same benefits for marketers as younger Moms. They generate meaningful conversations and they share actionable recommendations around issues meaningful to other women like them. That’s what brands need, whether the blogs reaches women aged 25 or 55.

Bader says there’s no limit to the number of meaningful Mommy blogs as long as each one generates meaningful conversations. That leaves a lot of room for Boomers to launch blogs, and marketers to leverage them for results.

Marketing to Millennial Moms through their Boomer Mothers

Miriam Arond runs Hearst’s Good Housekeeping Research Institute and has been studying female consumers/readers for many years. And she sees that Boomer moms have entirely different relationships with their child-bearing daughters than they had with their own mothers.

This shift has created a new playing field for marketers. “Don’t assume there’s a generation gap” between midlife women and their grown daughters, Arond says. “Moms and their 20-somethings are listening to the same music, shopping together, talking together. What the mom thinks about a product or store really does matter to her daughter.”

The average CPG brand describes its target consumer as a “Mom.” But reaching that young mom is different than it used to be. And increasingly, it looks a lot like marketing to her own midlife mother.

Original post by Stephen Reily for MediaPost

Reaching Women Through the Blogosphere

This spring, BlogHer partnered with Compass Partners to do a social media benchmark study of more than 6,000 women. The results provide an interesting peek into the social media mindset of women:

According to the study, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week. That’s about 15.1 million actually writing blogs, and 21.1 reading or commenting on those posts. Many of these women are so passionate about blogging that large percentages of women said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write:

– 55% would give up alcohol

– 50% would give up their PDAs

– 42% would give up their i-Pod

– 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines

BUT, some things are sacred … only 20% would give up chocolate!

Additional survey results include:

– 24 percent of women surveyed said they watch less television because they’re spending more time blogging

– 25 percent said they read fewer magazines because they’re blogging

– 22 percent said they read fewer newspapers because they’re blogging

– More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of information

– Half of women surveyed said blogs influence their purchase decisions

Smart marketers are building relationships with their female consumers through the blogosphere.

Check out the full study here!

The Marketing Muscle of Women

Women Have Buying Power I was in a new business meeting the other day where I was discussing the immense marketing muscle of women with a brand manager. This brand manager (a man) chimed in that he didn’t necessarily buy it — he wasn’t so sure that women had the buying power that they actually do. Which might explain why his brand (as great as it is) is languishing.

I walked out of the meeting more than a bit frustrated at his assumption that his point of view was the right one. Especially since it was so wrong.

When I got back to my office, my website home page (my screen saver) was staring at me. And so I read it. The facts about the power of women as consumers are indisputable. Their collective buying power exceeds the economy of Japan. They control more than 60 percent of the personal wealth in the U.S., and account for 68 percent of all total online spending.

According to Tom Peters, one of the world’s top marketing gurus, women are the top marketing opportunity for the foreseeable future. And it’s a scientific truth that women and men see and interpret things differently – because their brains work differently. But the reality is that if a product or brand meets the needs of the women, it also exceeds the need of men. Smart marketers understand this, and are willing to look at new ways to translate their brand’s marketing messages to reach this key consumer.

So here’s the skinny: women DO make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions. Women DO feel that marketers don’t understand them. Women DO account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending, which is a lot of buying power. The savvy marketer (and successful brand manager) knows this.

The Buying Power of the Power Moms

Buying Power of Power Moms

Moms Have Buying Power

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that moms are the most coveted consumers in the U.S. market. Their buying power tops $2.4 trillion annually, and they control or influence 85 percent of all household purchases.

Maria Bailey has written a new book called Power Moms that delves into that power of moms. In her book, Bailey acknowledges that mom bloggers are powerful influencers. However, she notes that these bloggers are only a small fraction of the 83 million mothers in the U.S. Which means that marketers reaching out to mom bloggers are leaving a lot of moms untouched – about 70 percent of them to be exact.

Power Moms Have Influence

Power Moms (those influencers that align with a brand’s goals and marketing needs) can be reached by marketers both online and offline. Moms tend to build their sphere of influence around a personal passion – whether it be cooking, entrepreneurship or service to others. The challenge for marketers is to identify that group of moms that aligns with their particular brand’s goals and needs, and then to have the knowledge, awareness and ability to tap this powerful and lucrative market.

Marketers: Does your brand reach moms in a way that is relevant to them? And moms: Do you find that most brands engage with you in a way that makes you feel understood?

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