If it Ain’t Broke…

by Lily Wagner
Published July 2, 2009 in Tech

A recent AdAge article by Abbey Klaassen describes the growing recognition by marketers of the importance of the “humble product review.”

In research we conducted for a baby gear company, we spoke with both new and experienced moms, asking them how they made their decisions when it came to major purchases for their children—such as strollers and carseats.  Interestingly, nearly all of the women cited online product reviews as primary resources—even though that meant they were heeding the advice of virtual strangers.  The women made the point that it is unlikely someone will take time out of their busy day to sit down and review a product unless they have a passionate opinion (be it negative or positive) that they feel could benefit others.  A kind of ‘pay it forward’ ideology.

This fleshed out, undivided attention to a specific product or service is absent in other, more abbreviated mediums, such as Twitter and Facebook, which are designed to be casual and fast-paced.  Klaassen states, “while Twitter conversation and Facebook chatter is interesting and important, it’s not structured, and can be difficult for marketers to implement into their processes.  Review data, on the other hand, address a particular product- and when a consumer is in the mode to talk about it.”  In short, product reviews are more focused, more in-depth and thus, more actionable.

The article sites Walmart, Samsung and the Oriental Trading Co. as just some of the big name retailers who are taking notice and benefiting from this ‘old school’ feedback.  Samsung says it has started using its reviews to stay in tune with what their customers are thinking and even “enhance the shopping experience for consumers who are increasingly seeking more information,” among other things.  If the reviews are good enough and credible enough for their customers to base their decisions off of, retailers would do well to pay attention to, and act on, the free advice!

Tags: Advertising Age, Product reviews, Twitter

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Is blogging just about seeking approval?

by Jen Drexler
Published June 30, 2009 in Tech

Rambling Warning: Not sure there is a cohesive point to this blog but I needed to get the thoughts out of my head. It gets crowded in there.

So now that we are done writing our new book (coming out in the Fall) I can’t stop thinking about some of the content.  In the book we talk about the lengths women go to when it comes to protecting their egos and seeking approval. In the book we dissect this to understand the marketing implications but right now I just keep thinking about it as it applies to the blogosphere.

The blogosphere sort of reminds me of high school because:

• It’s about finding people just like you: Bloggers need to feel loved or their blogs die a slow death (hear that readers? we want some comments to keep us motivated).  So bloggers work very hard to become part of their own tightly knit e-community. So decorating bloggers find other decorating bloggers who “get them” and so on and so on.  Basically we cling to other bloggers who think like we do ultimately surrounding ourselves with people who think we are swell so that our ego feels supported.
• It’s all about your scores: Feeling loved in the blogosphere can often be quantified by the number of link backs from other blogs, the number of followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook or just the sheer number of comments to a post.  Show me the love by showing me the masses!
• There is a head cheerleader: I read a lot of blogs every day (marketing, products, moms) and I’m starting to see a trend among commenters and links.  The same faces and names come up time and time again.  And there is definitely a popular crowd in each of these communities.  For mommy blogs (I hate that name but I don’t know what else to use) there are invisible heirarchies ruled by queen bee influencer.  Each sect has their own – the queen of natural baby, the queen of slacker moms, the queen of SAHMs… You can watch other bloggers go out of their way to earn her good graces and get her approval by commenting on her posts even if it is just to say a supportive “me too.”
• There are most definitely proms: BlogHer, WOMMA, CES, ANA …

Am I making sense? Can you think of any similarities?

Tags: BlogHer

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Gimme More

by Lily Wagner
Published April 23, 2009 in New Ideas, Tech

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…

Tags: Apple, Favorite Products

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Rekindling Book Love

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published April 22, 2009 in Tech

I love my new Kindle 2. Of course, I have to mention it’s Kindle “2” because that gives me extra points. Already, a very techy friend was impressed that I had one. And another friend’s 16 year old looked at me as if I were cool, instead of just his mom’s friend. So, yes, there’s an outside ego reason to love it. 

But I’ve got an insider reason to love it, too. With the click of a button, I can change the font size and happily read away without tired eyes or the unattractive giveaway of squinting at fine type. I took mine on vacation and could even read it under the Mexican sun on a beach.  

And a charming touch on a modern toy is that the screensavers are a gallery of lovely line-drawn portraits of famous, classic writers like Edith Wharton. Somehow that makes something potentially cold seem kind of cozy.

Of course, I’ve already downloaded the next couple books I want to read and now they sit on my Kindle, like they used to sit on my windowsill. So, next I need a strategy for more reading time…or else I can let it read to me from its text to voice feature.  

Can’t wait for our upcoming book to be on it!…stay tuned for November.

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Seamless Web meets Healthcare

by Jen Drexler
Published April 13, 2009 in Health, Tech

Seamless Web is one of my all time favorite NYC conveniences – go online and order food to be delivered from your favorite restaurants to the office without having to deal with people. I don’t have to call and be put on hold and then give my detailed order while the waiter on the phone sighs impatiently just log in and lunch magically appears.

I was recently intrigued by a company called Hello Health that works sort of the same way.  The company, currently testing in Williamsburg and the West Village of NYC, offers cost effective health care for the uninsured by leveraging modern technology.  For $35 a month you basically can email and text with physicians (office visits can cost $100 – $200 and there is no hospital coverage) to take care of your routine health needs.

PROS

• This kind of convenience totally appeals to my need for speed, my impatience with waiting for return phone calls and the fury I feel when I’m left in a waiting room more than 5 minutes.
• Offers a great choice for freelancers who are generally in good health
• Very cool application of technology 

CONS 

• While I’m all for the streamlining in health care this one has me a little bit worried.  Doesn’t this arrangement make the doctors legal drug dealers? Do they need to see a patient who says they have Strep throat or do they just go ahead and prescribe? When I let my mind wander I think about all of the antibiotic resistant people there will be in 10 years.
• What about preventive care? Could a very serious condition go undetected or be mistreated because of the lack of face to face encounters? I know that traditional doctors are already nervous about losing patients now that Pap tests don’t need to be done every year (Bravo to our former client Qiagen!).

Personally, I’m also keeping my eye on Zocdoc.com which like my favorite reservations website OpenTable lets you find same day appointments with available doctors.  There are patient reviews, bios and pictures of the doctors.  This feels like empowerment to me!

Tags: Healthcare

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My promise

by Jen Drexler
Published March 19, 2009 in Tech

I, Jen Drexler, do solemly swear to get a handle on Twitter, technorati, digg, del.icio.us and the like before my (and Jean’s) birthday in June.  That’s right you heard it here first. I am going to make sense of this mumbo jumbo and see how it can help us share information with our readers, our clients and prospective clients.  Want to be my tutor?

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Waiting to Explode

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published February 5, 2009 in Tech

You’d think in these tight times, retailers would be catering to the few women in their stores. But my friend Molly’s recent experience at a Verizon store is all too typical. 

Molly’s upfront research encouraged an in-person store visit so their on-site device could instantly transfer all of her contacts and pictures onto a new Blackberry. Figuring on 10 minutes tops, she brought along her 3 year old son Brady. An hour and fifteen minutes after saying, “That one, please,” Molly and Brady were still waiting. (If you call torture, ‘waiting.’) “No place to sit, no place to put your winter coat. C’mon, what the heck were they doing, typing and scurrying around for an hour?” 

Like every mother of invention, Molly had suggestions for improvement.  “How about some chairs, a coloring book ,even brand-building toy phones??  How about letting me watch a DVD on how to use my new phone or letting me download a few new ringtones?” Instead, she ended up taking Brady to the bathroom 5 times out of boredom, only to be sent home with “a folder of papers, 2 booklets, a CD, and 3 cords that I will never even try to figure out.”  

What retailers don’t realize is that women, especially moms with kids (or with the babysitter meter ticking) can exact sweet revenge when left waiting. Molly admitted, “I spent the first 15 minutes trying to make sure Brady didn’t break the demo phones, and the rest of the time not caring if he did.” 

In research Just Ask a Woman conducted on car dealerships, one of our favorite moms slyly confided, “When I am in the showroom, I try to control my kids. But once they start the runaround, I don’t control my children anymore.” 

Now is the time for shopkeepers to ‘get it’. You are a stop on her day, not her destination. She’ll buy…and she’ll be back…if you only let her go.

Tags: cell phone

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I was wrong in 2002

by Jen Drexler
Published January 31, 2009 in Moms & Family, Tech

When clients asked me in 2002 about communities online I was bold enough to say “communities are crap.”  I was very, very, very wrong. 

In February of 2006, I found out I was pregnant with twins.  I found myself at www.babycenter.com  looking for other women in my boat.  I found a message board for women expecting multiples in October and started to post about my morning sickness, potential names, cravings … These women (roughly 75 at one point) became my resources for everything. Along the way, one woman caught my attention with her candidness, wisdom and humor.  Her name is Jessica Kate (JK) and her twins were born on October 11 just three weeks after mine.  They were welcomed by their two older brothers and their great father Charley. 

Since 2006 the message board (now a private Yahoo group) has remained an everyday part of my life.  When I travel for work, I try to meet up with some of the women on it and I feel so lucky to call this motley crew my friends.  When I was in Denver this summer I got to meet JK and we had a fantastic girl’s night out including margaritas and lots of laughing. Even though we had met online she was someone that I would have picked out of a crowd to be my friend.

Just a few weeks after I visited, one of her twins, Tuesday, became ill and went to the hospital.  She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma and she went through more than 30 procedures (surgeries, chemo …).  It looked like she had kicked the cancer until suddenly a new and agressive tumor appeared.  This tumor took her life last night while she was at home with her loving family.  My heart is broken that she lost this battle against cancer.  It isn’t fair.  It isn’t fair that a family should have to bury their 2 year old.  She didn’t get enough time on this earth and she will be missed by so many people.

The one shining star of this experience has been how online communities, blogs and generous hearts have shown their strength.  Within minutes of the diagnosis, the women on my board mobilized to raise money and awareness.  T-shirts were made and sold, auctions for bracelets and artwork were held, artists from etsy.com made custom jewelry as a fundraiser.  We each volunteered to send a package to the family on a different Tuesday.  Her friends in Denver used an amazing site called www.lotsofhelpinghands.com  to organize meals and visitors.  My friend JK kept us all posted with her poignant blog http://half12.blogspot.com/ and wrote beautiful stories about her family and about what this experience was teaching them.  Strangers started to follow their journey and in less than 24 hours after Tuesday died there were more than 500 comments posted to the family’s blog.  Many of the posters strangers who found their way to her blog through other people’s blogs or Facebook status. 

So for anyone who sat in a meeting with me in the early 2000s and I said community is crap. I was wrong. Very wrong.

Tags: Psychology

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Keeping Track

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published January 20, 2009 in Health, New Ideas, Tech

Nancy Berk, psychologist/foundation board member/humorist/author (nancyberk.com) is also my friend and partner in the unending search for ways to achieve fitness and lose weight. Today she sent me her latest discovery, one she claims is motivating enough for me to switch from my beloved Blackberry to an iphone.  

“Yesterday I added an iphone app called “Lose It!” she wrote.”It tracks your weight, exercise (lists tons of options), food (it searches for the food and inserts the calories) and it ends up budgeting the calories and exercise and telling you how many calories you have left in your day to still reach your goal weight.  You put in how much you want to lose per week.  Amazing! So much easier than writing everything down and you don’t have to look anything up (they have restaurant calories, generic, and store brands).” 

Perhaps best of all, each pound you lose sends the graph of your weight tracking on a nice, deep plunge. Yeah, Nancy! (However, the next day when she ‘flatlined’, I think she wanted to choke her iphone to death.) 

It struck me that we get a lot of joy out of writing down the precious, hateful pounds we hope to lose. My Mom was a loyal Weight Watchers’ member and carried her little book documenting her goal weight attainment for at least two decades after her accomplishment. I use one of those little moleskin books and find there’s nothing more guilt-inducing than confessing every snack in your own handwriting.  

Diaries, pedometers, body fat scales, and the best, the ‘which black pants fit now that didn’t used to?” test…we are creatures of ‘the number’. For all the lip service we give to loving ourselves the way we are, and how much it’s all about how healthy we feel, let’s face it. We’re keeping count. We’re taking names. The toys and tools just get fancier. Nothing changes, (except maybe a smaller size, if we’re lucky.) And even if the techno trackers of today are meant to keep us honest and give us inspiration, I’d rather leave that up to a good friend.  At the same time, if Nancy significantly “loses it”–I might be switching my phone service.

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Our Favorite Shopping Sites:

by Jen Drexler
Published December 15, 2008 in Retail, Tech

Since the urban legend is that all women like to shop we thought we would play along and tell you what online stores are making us happy right now. 

Jen: My favorite site right now is www.myluckyrewards.com. This is a discount portal offered to subscribers of Lucky magazine (fittingly a magazine about shopping).  When I feel like shopping I go to this site and can get cash back when I shop at some of my favorite stores.  All I do is click on a link and it takes me to my store’s site and just by shopping I get a percentage of my purchase back in cash and often free shipping as a bonus.  The cash comes quarterly in the form of a cash card and I have collected more than $500 back since I joined a few years ago.   My everyday shopping really adds up and I get deals like 7% back at drugstore.com, 5% at Target and Barnes & Noble and even higher paybacks from smaller, specialty retailers.  I’ve also found that retailers that don’t normally offer coupons like William Sonoma Home or Land of Nod participate in these programs which motivates me to buy from them.  Other magazines have similar programs and I also use Parenting Magazine’s site www.parentingprivileges.com   and Allure’s www.myallurerewards.com.   

Mary Lou: Ruelala.com is like having a friend who’s a fashion insider who takes you to secret pop up sample sale boutiques without leaving your desk and if you don’t buy, no one’s offended. As much we are curtailing our shopping this season (and forever, if this economic nightmare keeps up—or down), I’m lured in to their revolving, virtual ‘boutiques’ from James Perse to Lululemon, because they are only open for 48 hours. The pressure of a ticking clock and the “just two left” banners get my adrenaline pumping, plus I can tell what’s hot by which items sell first, so I’m clued in to scoop the best deals even in a backup color. And Ruelala.com celebrates your retail ‘victory’ with a big graphic hurrah and they score some great brands at decent discounts, even if a $1000 Judith Lieber bag is an expensive “bargain” for someone just needing a little retail therapy. I feel like a smart insider, even if I’m only a desktop voyeur in the sample sale world.  

Tracy: My favorite site right now is oldnavy.com. While there is a store right down the block from us, I love the fact that online I can get out-of-season clothing any time of year. As my holiday vacation to Hawaii quickly approaches, OldNavy was the perfect, inexpensive place to look for new bathing suits.  And with free shipping and free returns (pays to have a luxe card!) I don’t have to worry about not trying them on before I buy. This has taken the pressure off of buying in season. I love the flexibility… And speaking of flexibility, one of the new features on the website allows you to not only shop at OldNavy but also at The Gap, Banana Republic, and Piperlime – 4 stores, 1 check-out and 1 flat shipping rate (and again, luxe is free!) Because they’ve made it so easy I have definitely found myself wandering onto the other store’s pages.  

Jean: Not since my custom fit Levi’s jeans (which I still wish would comeback) have I had such a made-just-for-me shopping experience until www.shopittome.com . As a weary internet consumer I almost passed up the opportunity to sign up for the glory that is true personalized online shopping-because you create the content. While making my profile I chose which specific designers I wanted to see deals from and any clothing needs I had as well as my size details (pant length, shoe width, bra size, etc.). Every morning I receive an e-mail presenting the best deals organized by shopping site. It takes my favorites such as shopbop.com , nordstrom.com, endless.com  and bluefly.com and does all the leg work for me to find the best deals on pieces I’m guaranteed to like. 

Amy: When buying shoes or boots, I always check out Zappos. For me it comes down to a very large choice of styles and brands in one place that I can’t find at my neighborhood store. And, most importantly, FREE shipping and FREE returns. Plus they are FAST which fulfills my desire for immediate shopping gratification (They recently ended free overnight shipping which is a bummer but you still get the merchandise within just a couple of days). Shopping for shoes can be a real hit or miss proposition but I have my system for success. I usually have them send a size up and a size down as well as few different styles/colors/brands. I get them really fast, keep what works for me and return everything else, no problem, no hassles, no extra costs. And I check their sale selection first as I can often find the brand and style I want with only a minor variation from the full price item– like last season’s color or a small style difference. Also, their peer reviews are excellent. Other shoppers give really honest feedback on the shoes and help steer me in the right direction.

Tags: Online Shopping

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