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To our Just Ask a Woman Friends,
Our new book, “What She’s Not Telling You, Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It” launched on November 1st and we are having a blast exposing real time cases of Half and Whole Truths in the marketplace. For the next few months, you’ll find us on our Half Truth blog on this site. Click on this link for our latest truth detection and insights.
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Brand Week’s Elaine Wong reports today that consumer demand for new green products were weakened by the recession but that overall, sales of green cleaners are growing at a faster pace than their traditional counterpart.
It is no surprise to me that Clorox’s disinfecting products are giving the company healthy sales. First, you have women’s Good Intentions – In Chapter 3 of our new book, What’s She’s Not Telling You, we share the Half Truth that women want to be healthy – healthy bodies, healthy lives, healthy homes. But the Whole Truth is that while they have the best of intentions in keeping a healthy environment, sometimes the house only gets really clean when company is coming over.
Which leads us into Ego Protection (check out chapter 6!) – Sure, she says she wants to be green, but we have detected that women actually want to be “green-ish”. If it is going to take more time, money or energy, they’d prefer to skip the ‘au natural’ and opt for products like Clorox Green Works, which offer a dose of green while nodding to their strong germ killing brand heritage.
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Big changes this week at the Chapman house. I just returned from maternity leave and Hannah has moved on up to size 2 diapers. Before I gave birth no one told me just how diaper obsessed you become in the first few months of motherhood. I thought the biggest worry would be about diaper rash but these little suckers help you keep track of how well your child is thriving…too few diapers and your baby isn’t eating enough…a mom’s worst nightmare!
So my lifesaver was that little wetness indicator on the front of the Pampers Swaddlers Sensitives. Diapers today are so good at wicking away moisture it can be hard to tell when they are actually wet. It’s no surprise that diaper manufacturers figured out they were selling less diapers and needed to give parents and caretakers a reason to change more frequently. So while I know that a blue line doesn’t necessarily mean you need to change it right away (even if they want you to), that wetness indicator gave me the reassurance that I was doing a good job as Hannah’s mom and that was worth paying extra for!
Now with Hannah at almost 15 lbs, I’m no longer as obsessed with the wetness indicator and dare I say it, willing to extend the life of each diaper. As we move to the next size I am reminded how many of my mom friends swore by Pampers Sensitives for the early months (although they never said why) but suggested going to whatever brand is on sale in the later months. How brand loyal are Moms once the insecurity of early motherhood has worn off? For now we’re sticking with Pampers but I have to say the Huggies at Costco are quietly calling my name.
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Kudos to Haagen-Dazs Five ice cream. So clever and yet so simple at the same time. I knew it was a home-run when out with my Mom and her old boss, a woman always dressed to the nines in Chanel suits and dripping in diamonds. We went to the fanciest restaurant in our town because she was with us and, after glancing at the wonderful dessert menu overflowing with cheesecake, gelato and double-stuffed chocolate cake she said, “lets pass, lets hit up the local grocery store, I have the perfect dessert.”
At the A&P she picked up three different flavors of Five (one for each of us, of course) and exclaimed, “this is delicious and has to be good for you–it only has five ingredients and they’re listed right on the front of the package.” Genius. I never looked at the back of the label, I didn’t have to, Haagen-Dazs gave me permission to eat as much as I want because they know women today are reading packages and they took the hard work out of it. Never mind the calories on the back, I can see there’s no high-fructose corn syrup on the front. Bravo, you’re giving women everywhere the chance to eat ice cream minus the guilt!
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I’ve always known that Japanese women in their 20s are infinitely cooler than I am. Even at my coolest I couldn’t compete with their unbelievable braveness when it came to starting and growing trends. This article in the Wall Street Journal last week has reminded me that these women are enabled in their quest for cool by innovative marketers and outlandish ideas. In a nutshell there are a group of “cafes” called Sample Labs or Lcafe that offer new brand experiences and sampling to their target audience of cool, young Japanese early adopters.
“Once registered, the customers get tokens based on the amount of food or drink they ordered. Those tokens are then brought to a brightly lit “sample bar” where customers redeem the tokens for samples. After being open less than two months, the café has more than 2,000 registered members.”
Women register via mobile phone (is this the future of the screener?) and can come to these cafes (that serve liquor) from 10am until 4:30am! Men are allowed but are outnumbered 9 to 1. Interestingly men aren’t allowed in after midnight, “dubbed Cinderella Time” which I think is a genius name.
In Tokyo the cost to execute this is ridiculously low for marketers and I can’t imagine that being a reality if there were American interpretations of this. But the marketers get awesome exposure, grassroots research and tracking abilities. I know that NYC always has a pop up store popping up but they tend to be unfocused and visited by throngs of tourists waiting to grab as many samples as they can.
Could you imagine this here?
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I’ve recently heard about the concept of a baby Sprinkle (versus a shower, get it?) and I’m torn about what to make of it. Customarily women only get a shower for their first child and any children after that might get celebrated post-birth at a bris, naming, baptism or the new trend called the “Sip and See.” The shower is usually pretty elaborate and the mom-to-be gets to stock up on necessities like car seats and high chairs and niceties like tiny, tiny outfits and personalized bibs. The Sprinkle may be just as elaborate but the idea is that it will help mom-to-be either restock from the first child or prepare for a different gender arrival. Part of me thinks this is a really thoughtful idea because I can imagine that if this pregnancy is 4+ years since the last, the gear you used to have may be gone (given as premature hand me downs) or out of date (old car seat technology, BPA laden bottles). Another part of me thinks it is just another way to torture your friends and rob them of a weekend afternoon. The marketing part of me wonders what opportunities a Sprinkle could present to baby companies. Could Evenflo offer an option to trade in gear for a discount on new models? Could Babies R Us offer a Sprinkle registry? Could formula companies like Similac or Nestle offer a gift box of newly introduced products?
So should the forecast be for showers or sprinkles?
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Today McDonald’s launched its new McCafé coffee line which includes a limited menu of espresso-based bevs. The $100 million, multi-media campaign was featured in an Ad Age article yesterday, and it prompted me to check out the site.
The website boasts, “All the taste and quality of a coffeehouse with the convenience and price of McDonald’s.” I’m not sure I buy into the convenience benefit, as I pass no less than two Starbucks’ for every city block, but a lower price…that’s something I can get behind.
It couldn’t have picked a better time to launch—with everyone trying to trim the fat, it’s getting harder and harder to justify a $5 caffeine fix…twice a day.
But in this era where super-specialized drinks are the norm, I can’t help wondering if your average Starbucks customer will be able to find it within themselves to curb their verbose orders to “small latte, please.” When I asked my roommate, a 3-a-day Starbucks patron, if she would be willing to try it (as we are both constantly setting new budget goals…and subsequently ignoring them), she replied “I would feel snobby asking for non fat milk in McDonald’s…in Starbucks everyone has weird preferences.”
Will the low-priced options and the massive campaign be enough to convert the hard core caffeine addicts to the Golden Arches? What do you think?
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I love to shop. I know it’s best to shop a sale and use coupons, but at the end of the day if I really want something I will buy it and find a way to justify the price-dividing it by the number of projected times I will wear it, calculating a per-day-usage cost, etc. As Stuart Elliott wrote in the Times earlier this week, not only are shoppers today looking for a good deal, they’re looking for a steal. Where the normal sale used to be 50% off consumers are now holding off for much higher percentages, going above and beyond what I imagined a sale could ever be!
While I understand shoppers practicing patience and looking for the best bargain I’ve cut back on shopping for a different reason-SALE OVERLOAD. I can’t walk down the street without seeing huge banners and percentage signs left and right. How do I know which deal is really the best? How can I possibly keep track of every sale? Are there any cheat sheets in the store to quickly calculate the lowest price for me so I can compare it to the competition? Instead of waiting for the right percentage off, I hate to admit I’m waiting for the sales madness to cease.
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Today The Wall Street Journal featured some plucky entrepenours who are making money by selling creative, recession wares. Picture Lance Armstrong bracelets that say LAID OFF NEED A JOB. Or a beer mug that says “This beer is going down like the stock market.” Call me sick but I find this kind of humor HI-larious.
A few weeks ago I swore that I was going to edit my life of negative people who act like Chicken Little (so glad I’m avoiding them now as they are in a tizzy about swine flu!) and now I can replace them with perfectly sarcastic voices of reason. My favorite Tweets are from http://www.someecards.com/ and I wish I could go have a cocktail with those writers! You know someone who writes “Allow me to take some pressure off of your job search, no one is hiring” has to be a lot of fun. I also like http://www.meancards.com/ for saying what we mean.
OUTSIDE: Get well soon.
INSIDE: My patience for your condition is starting to wane.
While I don’t have the guts to send their cards out I love that they take a stab at the traditional Hallmark sentiment (usually insincere anyway).
This kind of humor is tricky though and I worry about marketers who try to copy the wit in their own advertising. Usually backfires. I’m particularly fond of Saturn’s new ad that pokes fun at car companies that promise to take back your car if you lose your job. The Saturn ad points out that it would really stink to lose your job AND your car so they promise to help with your car payments until you get on your feet.
What makes you laugh (even when you aren’t supposed to)?
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As of two weeks ago, I am the proud owner of a beautiful iPhone 3G. My treatment towards it is reminiscent of a stage mother’s obsession over her child prodigy. I’m constantly praising its features to my friends and colleagues (“iPhone is soo clever, it can…”), and I am on a perpetual scavenger hunt for new apps to pull out as party tricks.
Recently, there have been a rash of articles lauding the 1 billion downloads of the 25,000 (and counting) applications available. From Fast Company to the NY Post, everyone has an opinion on the app with the coolest interface, the most efficient time-manager, and the most obscure virtual game.
With the increasing specificity and diversity of apps available, home screens are becoming indicative of their owner’s personality…it’s become a mini facebook page. It certainly has the same stalking potential! It’s easy to tell if you’re a gamer, an audiophile, a news junkie…all from the little square buttons decorating the toy you flash to anyone who will stay still long enough to look. For example, my friend Brendan’s love for obscure microbrews is evident in his BeerBrands app, which will tell you everything there is to know about the local brews in any city you happen to be visiting.
My obsession with filling the face of my phone got me thinking about what my ideal application would be (winner: A Sephora Beauty Insider’s deal list). Out of curiosity, I sent out a short email blast to a group of my friends, all 20-somethings living in the city, asking what their ideal app would do. These are some of the responses I got.
– “An app that finds good scenes and monologues for specific acting situations.”
Aspiring actor
– “One that acts like a TV guide in your pocket so you can see what’s playing when and on what channel. It would also have a search function (so you can see if your favorite made-for-tv movie is playing.)”
MTV employee
– “An application that catalogues all of my items of clothing, like Cher’s closet in ‘Clueless’, and provides outfit suggestions for everyday of the week.”
Jean, Just Ask a Woman
– “An unobtrusive device that continuously records audio such that you always have access to the last 10 minutes of any conversation in which you participated. Can’t believe what you just heard? Need to remember what your boss said? In an argument where your counterpart just contradicted herself? Just play the tape.”
Law student
And my personal favorite, and most applicable for all of us impatient New Yorkers…
– “A really loud honk button, so that if people in front of you on the sidewalk are walking slowly you can honk at them.”
My (very vocal) roommate…
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“The God Box” has grown to include an app, audio book, philanthropic venture and solo show performed by Mary Lou across the US. Now The God Box Project goes global to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Go There
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