Pinterest, the incredibly popular online bulletin board/scrapbook/inspiration organizer now has more than 11 million unique monthly users. And according to recent numbers from Internet-monitoring firm comScore, it has more than doubled its audience over the past six months. So, who’s using it? You guessed it. WOMEN. Eighty percent of Pinterest users are female and they are spending more time on there than Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ combined. The rapid growth can certainly be attributed somewhat to a higher acceptance of social networks now. But keep in mind, there are thousands of new startups in the social arena. What makes Pinterest different?

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Filed under: Advertising during recession, Advertising to Women During Recession, Effects of recession, Female Business Owners, Marketing 2.0, Marketing to Boomer Women, Marketing to Women, Marketing-to-Moms, Targeting Women, Viral marketing, Women and Customer Service | 11 Comments »

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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Filed under: Advertising to Women During Recession, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Marketing to Women Myths, Targeting Women | 4 Comments »

Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo. The newly released 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report is a must read. Michael Stelzner, of Social Media Examiner, has been providing this resource for three years now. But I feel this year’s report yields the most telling results because we now have history, indexes and baselines with social media and levels of participation. What I found most interesting is that the data reveals what early adopters have been saying all along. Social media marketing is effective and productive, but it takes time to nurture and mature. It

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Filed under: Advertising to Women During Recession, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 2 Comments »

According to eMarketer, boomers, whose median age is 55, spend more time and money online than any other demographic. Yet, this market is essentially neglected by most advertisers and marketers. It is estimated that 78.2% of this cohort, or nearly 60 million adults, is online. Even as their numbers decline, that penetration rate will remain high through 2015. And they control more than $2 trillion in annual spending. “The baby boomers grew up being chased by marketers and advertisers that tailored products and brands to appeal to them,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst “Now the median age of

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Filed under: Advertising to Women During Recession, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Boomer Women, Targeting Women, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 8 Comments »

Nearly a year ago, I was chatting with the owner of a retail flooring store. He shared that one of the national flooring industry associations had conducted research which revealed “women were their market.” He went on to say that the findings suggested flooring retailers need to better understand and cater to the female audience. I thought to myself, “This guy gets it.” I questioned how he planned to appeal to women. “Simple,” he answered. He would require all of his salesmen (yes, his sales staff is all male) to wear a shirt and tie – preferably a suit. Why,

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Filed under: Advertising during recession, Advertising to Women During Recession, Buying Power of Women, Effects of recession, Marketing to Women, Women and Customer Service | 7 Comments »

When I was comparing September’s “Women at NBCU’s Brand Power Index” with last month’s scores, it felt a bit like watching the BCS countdown last night. Even though I was trying to figure out which teams must win or lose so that my team can go on to win the National Championship, I know things will most likely change dramatically by next week. There’s a reason for that. Some teams will do things right this next week – and some teams won’t. The difference in college football is that there can only be one real winner at the end of

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Filed under: Advertising to Women During Recession, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 2 Comments »

We talk a good bit about how all women are not moms. But it would also be wise for marketers to remember that moms are not just moms. They have other interests, and that is true for mom bloggers as well as mom blog readers. Yes, moms who blog are very influential and according to eMarketer, that trend is expected to steadily increase from 3.9 million today to 4.4 million in 2014. And yes, moms who blog have become important partners for many companies selling their products and services to the nearly 33 million moms who go online in the

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Filed under: Advertising during recession, Advertising to Women During Recession, Blogging, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Marketing-to-Moms, Social Media, Targeting Women, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 4 Comments »

If so, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you most likely have no strategy. You are not alone. A recent survey conducted by Digital Brand Expressions revealed that nearly 60% of companies using social media have entered the space with NO game plan. Yet, of those same companies that entered the space without a strategy, 88% agree that a plan is important. These findings confirm so much of what we are witnessing with online marketing. Companies “know” they must incorporate social media, because “everyone” is doing it. So they do what they “think” everyone is doing.

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Filed under: Advertising to Women During Recession, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Targeting Women, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 3 Comments »

Recently, I’ve received a rash of coupons in the mail. I’m not talking about the Val-Pak kind (although I do like those). I’m talking about serious discounts from specific retailers. The rundown: Victoria’s Secret. Happy birthday to me! $10 off my in-store purchase. Express. $20 off my purchase. $30 if I spend $75. Saks Fifth Avenue. $25 dollars off my $100 purchase. As a “recession-ista,” I’m not about to turn these discounts down. They mean I get stuff I may not have purchased otherwise. Here’s what I mean: Underwear was not on my mind, but now that I can get

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Filed under: Advertising during recession, Advertising to Women During Recession, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Effects of recession, Marketing to Women, Targeting Women | 5 Comments »

Aaron Baar, a writer for Media Post News’ Marketing Daily, called a couple of weeks ago to get my opinion on the newest Virgin Mobile TV spots. At the time, I had not yet seen them, so he gave me a link to the “Shopping” one shown above. At first glance I had very little to say. I did agree that it must be about “guy humor” because there was no connection for me, whatsoever. But to be honest, I simply didn’t get it. So, I watched it again. Still, no connection. What I do get is that they are

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Filed under: Advertising during recession, Advertising to Women During Recession, Connecting with Women, Examples of Bad/Good Advertising, Marketing to Women, Targeting Women | 20 Comments »