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 | 3 Comments »

Women continue to gain control of wealth and purchasing power. Check out the infographic below from an article by @DawnLBillings in the Business Insider.    

Filed under: Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 1 Comment »

Social games have become serious business. In 2011, the total market in North America increased from $1 billion to $1.4 billion, an overall growth of 35%. And of the 13 hours each week that gamers spend on social networks, they play social games for an average of 9.5 hours (study conducted by RockYou® and Interpret, LLC) That is more than one full work day. So who is the average social gamer? According to this recent Infographic created by Flowtown it is 43-year old females. A few other facts: 54% of social gamers are women 43% are college graduates 43% make

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Filed under: Buying Power of Women, Marketing to Boomer Women, Marketing to Single Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | No Comments »

As social networks continue to grow on a daily basis, one thing remains constant: Expectations for transparency and honesty are on the rise. Marketers, please keep in mind: Apologies and/or explanations are more forgiving than cover-ups. Auburn University and Gus Malzahn, Auburn’s Offensive Coordinator are likely going to find this out – the hard way.  Kristi Malzahn, wife of Gus Malzahn, is the subject of a video that went viral a few days ago. Kristi Malzahn spoke at the Summit, a Christian conference, on Oct. 6. and was promoted to speak about “her passion for Christ, through authentic and intentional

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Filed under: Connecting with Women, Social Media, Viral marketing, Web 2.0, Women and the Internet | 1 Comment »

I believe this could possibly be the biggest faux pas or sell out in social media to date.  Below is @aplusk’s first “fake” tweet. I say “fake” because we have no way of knowing if it is really him or not. He has officially handed the management of his Twitter account over to his media team at Katalyst Media to edit and monitor his tweets from now on. So, why did this happen? Ashton Kutcher simply made a mistake. He tweeted based on an assumption. He assumed that Joe Paterno, former Head Coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was

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Filed under: Connecting with Women, Social Media, Women and social media | No Comments »

CREEPY was the first word that came to mind as I watched Toyota‘s new “Family People Person” Prius commercial. Next was “disturbing” and then “I don’t get it.” (I actually do “get it” now or rather, I get what they are “trying” to say after it was explained to me in the “Making of Toyota Prius Family People Person” video.) And while I “get” the Andre Martins de Barros artful concept they were  mimicking, I still think the spot is disturbingly creepy. Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi are, no doubt, attempting to further exploit the success of their 2010 and 2011

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Filed under: Connecting with Women, Examples of Bad/Good Advertising | 3 Comments »

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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Filed under: Buying Power of Women, Marketing to "Green" Women, Marketing to Boomer Women, Marketing to Single Women, Marketing to Women, Marketing to Women Myths, Social Media, Targeting Women, Viral marketing, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | No Comments »

The radical impact Google is making within the social space has reminded me a bit of the early days with Microsoft vs. Apple. Today it’s Facebook vs Google Plus. Much like Microsoft, Facebook captured the bulk of the market early on and rapidly grew on a worldwide basis. And even though Facebook, much like Microsoft has been somewhat discombobulated, they both fulfilled an untapped need. Microsoft redefined productivity in the business world. Facebook revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. Both achieved what needed to be done on a functional level. Apple on the other hand offered equal functionality

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Filed under: Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing 2.0, Marketing to Single Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Targeting Women, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 6 Comments »

Watching the progression of Google’s newest social attempt with Google+  (also referred to as Google Plus), I have noticed a strong similarity with male marketers attempting to get on board with marketing to women. There are two main stages that both must go through to be successful. Acceptance and understanding. STEP I: ACCEPTANCE Google had to first accept that “social” was going to ultimately dictate “search.” The best assessment I have read about this can be found in one of Jay Baer’s recent posts titled: Why Google Has the Hammer to Make Businesses Use Google Plus. It is a must

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Filed under: Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Female Business Owners, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Targeting Women, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 2 Comments »

According to a recent study conducted by BlogFrog and The Social Studies Group, female bloggers receive dozens of pitches from brands each year to work on projects ranging from affiliate programs and direct advertising to guest posts and Twitter parties. But about two-thirds  of female bloggers reject at least half of the pitches they receive. Why? Because some brands do a better job at connecting with them than others. The 2011 Brands and Women Bloggers Influencer Partnership Study reveals what the ideal brand partnership looks like from the female blogger perspective. A few of the key findings include: 58% of

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Filed under: Blogging, Buying Power of Women, Connecting with Women, Marketing to Women, Social Media, Targeting Women, Web 2.0, Women and social media, Women and the Internet | 5 Comments »