Happy Women’s Day! Now…Go Think Like a Man. #BicFail

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  GUYS, if you are considering a popular (albeit somewhat over-used) empowerment message for women in your next marketing campaign, please take note: Women do not aspire to be a man, act like a man or think like a man, but merely to be respected as a human.  Bic found this out after posting the above ad to their Facebook page on National Women’s Day in South Africa. In response to the immediate backlash from hundreds on social media, the ad was quickly removed along with all of the irate comments and replaced with an apology. Or rather, their “first” attempt at an apology: We would like

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Male Marketers: Not Listening to Moms, is Not Good for Business

All moms are not the same anymore than all women are the same. Yet, marketers not only continue to lump them all together as one segment, they tend to forget that moms are still women and have needs in addition to being a mom. Nicola Kemp puts it best in an article she authored in Marketing Magazine appropriately titled, “Marketing to Mums is Broken”, “In brands’ persistent, misguided belief that they can market to mothers as a homogeneous group, their characterization of women ranges from the idealized to the absurd.” The article also reveals the disappointing findings shown below from research conducted by

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101 Stats About Digital Moms And Their Shopping Behavior

Digital Shopping Carts

How well do you know today’s Digital Mom? According toPunchbowl®, moms adopt new technologies faster than the average American. They keep their smartphones by their side at all times to look up information on-the-go, post photos of their kids and stay connected with friends and family. They quickly transition to their tablet to shop online, browse family dinner recipes, and search for birthday party ideas. They interact with bloggers, brands, and loved ones. They check email, watch videos, and read the news. They manage their family’s calendar and keep their photo memories. Mom is the ultimate Household CEO and many

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Male Marketers, It’s Time to Grow Up. Marketing to Women is Not Childs Play

Blue vs Pink

Although intended to be humorous, the video below from BuzzFeed that shows how foolish it would look if co-workers were to carry out assumed childhood gender roles in the workplace, is pretty spot on. It also reveals just a few of the stereotypical gender traits that are portrayed in advertising messages daily. All women must like pink, for everything Men should never like, wear or even consider the color pink, for anything Women cannot be mechanically-minded All men are mechanically-minded Only women like cooking, dolls, keeping house, fairytales, unicorns and rainbows Only guys like sports, fast cars, adventure and excitement,

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Nissan Beefs Up Manpower to Reach the Female Consumer

Showgirl

LITERALLY. Male marketers, a word of advice. If you are charged with effectively connecting with the female market, consider putting female marketers in charge – not short dresses. While this might be appealing to men, the majority of women will assume your car cannot stand on it’s own. That you need gimmicks to attain their attention. Quit trying to market to women through male lenses. According to Marketing Magazine, Nissan’s global marketing chief Andy Palmer said: “The rise of the ’empowered female’ is the biggest consumer trend affecting its worldwide marketing plans.” Palmer went on to say that Nissan is reshaping

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John Carter Goes to Mars. But Don’t Tell The Women

Below is an excerpt from an article in Newsweek & The Daily Beast titled, “Disney’s Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco.” In it, Chris Lee, examines marketing missteps for the not yet released movie, JOHN CARTER – originally titled, John Carter of Mars™. “Although the character has been known as “John Carter of Mars” and was envisioned as a movie trilogy under that name, Disney marketers dropped the “of Mars” part because of industry-think holding that female movie fans are more likely to be turned off by such overtly sci-fi elements.”  Right…… and I’m sure I won’t even notice the crater-like topography or the elusive

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When Marketing to Women, Don’t Be A Man: Ask For Directions

To know that brands must target women is great. But can you still mess up? Absolutely. Dawn Billings, founder of The Heart Link Women’s Network, polled women small business professionals from three countries to find mistakes made by businesses when marketing to women. We have actually discussed most all of these at one time or another, but the survey further validates and substantiates that simply knowing women are your market could be more dangerous if you don’t take the extra steps to understand them. “Women work very hard. They wear many hats. Often they are so busy being responsible and reliable

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Sheconomy is Speaking at the 2011 MIMA Summit

I am honored to have been asked to be a featured speaker at the 2011 Annual MIMA Summit. The theme is Celebrating the Digital Decade with a focus on consumer insights. Keynote speakers are Avinash Kaushik, the analytics evangelist for Google and Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. A complete line up of speakers can be found here. I will be presenting on the power of the female consumer in a session titled: Why and How to Effectively Market to Women in Today’s Economic Climate. Are there any topics or questions you feel should be addressed? Also, I would love

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Are Aunts the New Mom?

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Although not mentioned in this iVillage article, which is a preview of next weeks’ coverage on NBC’s report about women’s buying power, I still remain hopeful that they plan to address one of the most overused stereotypes about women. Many male marketers assume that all women are moms. However, while all moms are women, not all women are moms. And there is no one more in tune to that than Melanie Notkin, CEO and founder of the very successful online pharmacy, Savvyauntie.com. I met my friend Melanie on Twitter nearly a year ago and since then she’s been featured in

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Is ATT Missing an Opportunity for an Alley-Oop?

Share/Bookmark

I love this AT&T TV commercial! I have no idea what the media buy is, but I know that I have only seen it when I am watching sports. I am assuming that’s because of the focus on Tyler Hansbrough, the former North Carolina basketball hero who was recently drafted into the NBA by the Indiana Pacers. But this spot is strong even if you don’t know