Post with a Purpose Today (3/21)

by Jen Drexler
Published March 21, 2011 in Moms & Family

Due to the fact the quake and tsunami hit during the day, most children were in school or nurseries separated from their parents – fears are that many will be orphaned. The triple horror of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and potential nuclear disaster has raised concerns over the long-term impact on children, some of whom are already displaying signs of trauma, from screaming nightmares to silent withdrawal. Today use your blogs, Facebook accounts and Tweets to drive awareness.

Tags: Save the Children

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Why Are Insults A Side Effect Of Aging?

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published March 17, 2011 in Media

Half Truth: Women are resistant to aging.

Whole Truth: Women are engaging in ego protection, to build thick skins against the many insults and disrespect that come hand-in-hand with aging.

A few months ago I was shopping for sexy evening shoes, a Rorschach test for any woman’s mojo. Ballet flats are practical for everyday, but stilettos keep a woman in the game.

All around me, 20-something shoppers were picking out the most gorgeous and painful-looking styles, while I kept looking for the perfect pair of great but not too high sandals. But suddenly I spotted them. I picked up a pair of superhigh, sparkly Stuart Weitzman pumps and asked the balding salesman for them in my size. (I only mention ‘balding’ to give you a heads up where this is headed.)

He brought them out and I slipped them on (or rather tried to stuff my toes inside) and gingerly stepped to the mirror, feeling not quite like a Vegas showgirl but darn close. I asked casually if he had the next bigger size and he said no. But I was smitten, and I couldn’t take them off. I said to him, ‘Maybe I can make these work.’ And he looked at me, shook his head, and whispered, ‘When you get to be our age, you don’t do dumb things the second time around. You need to order a bigger size.’

Our age? Second time around? But I’m only . . . ! Somehow the shoes had lost their shine. Ego-shattering moments lurk just around the bend for women of every age and at every stage of life, like being asked when you’re due when you’re not even pregnant, or being called ‘ma’am’ for the first time (yes, we know it’s a courtesy, but not when you’re only 32).

In everyday life, women dodge the slings and arrows hurled their way in the form of left-handed compliments or unintended disrespect. It’s bad enough when a teen son rejects his mom’s friend request on Facebook; it’s unforgiveable when women feel dissed or underestimated by the products they buy and the people they buy from. So it’s not surprising that women adopt the coping mechanism of Ego Protection, the fourth Half Truth, to shore up their best beliefs about who they are.

Want to learn more about half and whole truths? This post is straight from our book, What She’s Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It. Read the first chapter online HERE, and grab a copy for yourself from Amazon.

Tags: Age, Ego Protection

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IKEA Australia Unveiled MANLAND; Media Pounced On Gender Roles

by Libby Kane
Published March 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

Cambiamenti nella visione dei colori, sUBITO via mail riceverai un BUONO SCONTO, garantiscono la comparsa e mantenimento d’erezione fisiologica nella risposta alla stimolazione sessuale. Il principio attivo Sildenafil senza ricetta cura la Disfunzione Erettile e assicura erezione per 4 6 ore. Anche le donne soffrono infatti di disfunzioni sessuali, il pillole equivalente o generico ha lo stesso principio attivo del farmaco di marca.

MANLAND is neither Chippendale’s one-off nor title of a science fiction coming attraction. It is the brainchild of IKEA (were you not clued in by the caps?) as a promotional stunt over Father’s Day weekend in Sydney, Australia, where the powers that be have apparently decided it’s less painful for all shoppers for men to be quarantined in a daycare-like area until the shopping trip is over.

It’s not fair for us to assume that all men need a hideout during shopping, or that all women don’t. But IKEA may be on to something. Who wouldn’t want a break from the chore of shopping? Thank goodness it was limited-time offer, or nothing would ever get done.

As a promotional stunt, MANLAND can’t be faulted. It’s undeniably attention-grabbing and its limited timeframe (open only over Father’s Day weekend, which is evidently a different time in Australia) makes it quite the draw. If pitched as a “let Dad relax” space or a “shop for a Father’s Day gift and surprise Dad” space, it would make more sense. But the media coverage has skewed to the overplayed manchild vs. shrew angle, and goodness knows we’ve had enough of that.

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How Groupon Ruined My Group-OHM

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published March 11, 2011 in Retail

I know that Groupon is everyone’s favorite way to get a deal for whatever they didn’t even know they wanted. Marketers love this easy way to add new customers quickly. Even though it drives traffic to stores, Groupon members sometimes experience the downside, as they can be shoved to the back of the line as ‘discount customers’ or are disregarded because they’re suspected as people who tip too low, expect too much and turn out to be one night stand customers. But lately I’ve uncovered another underbelly of the program, the Groupon drop-in’s who wreck the regulars’ service experience.

Case in point: I belong to a yoga studio in Manhattan where I practice early mornings twice a week. I love the class not only for the teacher but for its handful of quiet, lovely people who show up before sunrise.

A couple of months ago, I walked blissfully into the studio and almost tripped over the crowd of newbies who had suddenly assumed every inch of space. I know it’s unyoga-like, but I felt annoyed. Where did this crowd of downward dogs come from? Why were they asking so many questions, butting into my mat, exhaling so loudly? The teacher confided later, “We did a Groupon deal…don’t worry, they’ll be gone in a month.” And they were.

I love a bargain, and bargains are often to the key to successful marketing to women. I’m happy that Groupon creates business growth for retail. But I wonder if there’s a secret sabotage brewing, namely the unspoken resentment of the full paying customers. What if they take their money elsewhere to avoid the Groupon Groupies? What if make the Groupon visitors feel like outcasts? Not that I did, but hey, I’m looking for inner peace, not a lot of company. Namaste!

Tags: Internet

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Mary Lou At Letters To My Younger Self, Hosted By NYWICI

by Libby Kane
Published March 11, 2011 in Media

Photo courtesy of maryannerussell.com

Mary Lou, you are not in charge of everyone else’s happiness. Here’s what I’ve learned. When you speak your heart and make changes and choices that are right for you, people understand.

-Mary Lou Quinlan, What I Know Now About Success

What would you write in a letter to your younger self? Author and speaker Ellyn Spragins asked that question in her newest book, What I Know Now About Success: Letters From Extraordinary Women To Their Younger Selves, and one of the women she asked was our very own CEO and founder Mary Lou Quinlan. In an event hosted by New York Women in Communications (NYWICI), Ellyn moderated as Mary Lou, along with Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO & Chief Creative Officer of The Kaplan Thaler Group and President of NYWICI, and Trish McEvoy, makeup artist and founder of Trish McEvoy Ltd, read their letters aloud in a moving presentation, then answered questions from the audience.

What I Know Now About Success includes letters from even more amazing businesswomen and dynamic personalities such as Barbara Corcoran, Cynthia Rowley, Bobbi Brown, Suze Orman, and Diane von Furstenberg.

To purchase your own copy, CLICK HERE.

For more pictures from the NYWICI event, CLICK HERE.

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Busy Busy: Is She Too Busy, Or Just Too Busy For You?

by Jen Drexler
Published March 10, 2011 in Media

Half Truth: Women are too busy to spend time on themselves.

Whole Truth: Women are busy, but they’ll make time for the things they really want to do.

Over the last couple of years, we have started to notice a trend. Even the busiest women are finding all kinds of ways to play hooky by either accepting less ambitious goals for themselves or secretly doing fun stuff, like spending hours online under the guise of work.

In research we did for megasite about.com, women, claiming they are doing research for their families, admitted that they quickly drift into shopping, downloading from iTunes, playing games, posting product reviews, and just zoning out on favorite blogs and sites. If women are so pressed for time, you’d think surfing the Internet would be squeezed into the scarce wee hours. But though midnight pops for women’s online usage, the Whole Truth is she’s online all day at her computer in the office, her BlackBerry in the checkout line, checking her cell when she awakes. Interestingly, moms of young kids, likely the most time-squeezed women, are online the most.

Brands that create escapes for women find that they are only too willing to spend their time and money, when the reason is right. Look at the hours spent posting e-pinions and downloading music. How many women get intoxicated with the craft details on etsy or the product descriptions on eBay? Tripadvisor is a delicious way to fantasize about potential vacations, and photo websites such as kodakgallery have women cataloguing memories like professionals. All these activities take time women are willing to give, no matter how crammed their schedules are. Don’t assume that ‘I’m too busy’ means she is. She’s only too busy for what’s boring or unrewarding.

Tags: Half Truth, Online Shopping

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Stress Is Not A Contest: Marketers And Martyrs

by Tracy Chapman
Published March 3, 2011 in Media

Half Truth: Women are stressed.

Whole Truth: Women are stressed, but they aren’t above playing the pity card.

Marketers recoil when women bemoan how busy they are. To many, women’s Martyrdom conjures the annoying and unappealing image of a whiner. (And that’s not the picture of the customer they want to have.) So often, when we show videos of women mired in Martyrdom, marketers get pulled into their quicksand of complaints. Additionally, this Half Truth of Martyrdom puts marketers, especially male ones on the defensive. We can tell this is happening when male clients start citing all the examples of how in their well-balanced families, men do all the heavy lifting.

As a marketer, beware of competing with women’s stress, especially if she’s your customer. As we love to say, ‘Stress is not a contest.’ Even if it were, you’ve got to let your customer win. Women can be incredibly empathetic, but they love to play the pity card, so successful marketers need to base ideas on solving stress rather than compete with it or amplify it. The first step is getting the facts, not just the feelings.

A business that’s plagued with consumers’ stress management is the airline industry, and some brands have navigated this better than others. While both men and women business travelers will trumpet the very true Martyrdom refrain, ‘I’m so exhausted by business travel,’ women, especially those with kids waiting at home, take the indignities of travel personally. Continental Airlines was the first to roll out the red carpet at check-in (in their case, it was blue) so that all Elite members, even the straggling latecomers, could bypass the long line of nonmembers. The blue carpet practically shouted, ‘We know you travel constantly, so here’s one annoyance you can take off your plate.’ They also seem to be the most aggressive about filling any empty business class seat with worthy upgrade candidates, again a life raft for a woman on the edge.

Listen to the Whole Truth behind her Half Truth of Martyrdom to learn how you can redefine your product in her terms and you may find you can reposition your current offering into a Whole Truth winner.

Tags: Airlines, Half Truth, Martyrdom, Stress

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Women Are Compassionate But Self-Critical? Duh.

by Libby Kane
Published March 1, 2011 in Health

Self-compassion (aren’t hyphens handy?), is the newest buzzword on the block. The New York Times profiles the phenomenon, starting with a 2007 Yale study and progressing to two books published this year. The consensus appears to be that Americans, immersed in the society of “hard work will get you everywhere,” are working too hard and engaging in too much self-criticism and condemnation, to the detriment of their mental and physical health—measured in terms of depression and weight gain.

What You See Isn’t What You Get.

The article (available HERE) includes the following phrase barely a paragraph along:

“People who find it easy to be supportive and understanding to others, it turns out, often score surprisingly low on self-compassion tests, berating themselves for perceived failures like being overweight or not exercising.”

How, exactly, is this surprising? It sounds like most women we’ve interviewed. The profile of a person who is a compassionate, caring listener who holds herself to unreal standards to her ultimate detriment isn’t revolutionary. It’s the common profile of a mom, a female friend. It’s like looking into a mirror.

Where Are The Men?

Truly surprisingly, the research claims to analyze people in general. But the cited study was done among female undergraduates, who unknowingly submitted themselves to a study about food guilt. Women with existing food guilt who were explicitly cautioned not to feel bad for eating a doughnut at the study’s beginning—as everyone had to eat them—ate less overall and felt guilty about doing so. What a shock. A more interesting version would have included men.

It’s an unusual case of reverse projection. All women are people, but all people aren’t women. Just like marketers who target women to the exclusion of men, these studies project their striking findings from a female cohort onto the half of the population whose own results may not be so nuanced. Assemble mental health and weight-loss data at will, but remember that conclusions can be only as broad as the research. Hyphens don’t solve everything.

Tags: Stress, The New York Times, Weight Loss

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5 Things Women Want from Grocery Stores

by Jen Drexler
Published February 28, 2011 in Food, Retail

1. The need for speed. Recently Phil Lempert (a fave of ours) released a study called Retailers Most Annoying Habits. In it, he outlined all of the things consumers (and we will assume that they are mostly women) found irritating “not enough cashiers (44%), items on top shelves too high to reach (35%), promotional displays impede aisle traffic (28%), the store keeps moving items around (27%), aisles too narrow (25%), and not enough baggers (20%).” All of these have to do with how fast can women get in and get out. I have one word – staffing! My personal pet peeve is Express Lanes for items under 20. Why are people who aren’t buying a lot getting the speedy lane when I am spending the big bucks and I’m stuck behind 4 other full carts?

2. New Product availability Because women are so media savvy they want to see new products hit their local shelves quickly. They see something in a magazine, watch it on Top Chef or read about in on a blog and then they want to get it. If it isn’t on the shelf in one, maybe two, visits to the store you can bet that women will forget to look for it going forward and you’ve missed your opportunity.

3. Private Label products that don’t feel like a consolation prizes. The private label category has really risen to the occassion of a sluggish economy. Target in particular has done an amazing job with Archer Farms – unique items with cool packaging that don’t make you feel like you are being punished for buying the store brand.

Women we’ve interviewed tell us that they supplement their grocery list with these items only in categories that don’t “count” so they can afford their family’s non-negotiable items like Oreos or Kraft Mac n Cheese (or risk mutiny in the kitchen). My father used to buy Pathmark’s Scrunchy Cola (did I date myself?) and one morning I found him pouring the soda into a Coke bottle so we wouldn’t know. Nearly broke my 10 year old heart but now I can imagine doing the exact same thing.

4. Hours that understand her job is 24 hours long Women need to shop at stores that understand her need to shop when it fits into her schedule (after school drop off, during lunch or late at night). Stores need to check that they are open early enough in the morning to accomodate women who want to squeeze in a shopping trip before they get to work and late enough for the night owls who get a second wind at 9pm. And make sure that the store operates on full tilt during these hours – deli open, more than one cashier available – so that they don’t walk away without the things they really need.

5. Bulk that isn’t too bulky. Millenials are less likely to stock up when there is a sale or buy big bulk sizes. It’s just not their style We did Selfnography research last year with women in their 20s where they captured their lives on Flip cameras so we could see how they ate at home and entertained with their friends. What struck me was the way they felt about having an empty fridge (usually had some condiments and a bottle of vodka stashed in the ice cube bin). These women weren’t embarassed by their lack of food but rather seemed proud that their social lives were robust enough that they didn’t have to eat at home. These women aren’t likely to buy Costco sized bulk but are open to 3 or 4 day supplies of their favorites because it will save them time at the end of the day.

(Interestingly, when we interview Gen X moms and they show us their kitchens there is usually an overflowing pantry and stuffed freezers and fridges. If they had an empty fridge they would probably feel embarassed to show it off because it would make them look like they weren’t nurturing caregivers to their families.)

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McDonald’s Oatmeal – Off The Health Track Or Tapping Into Women’s Whole Truths?

by Tracy Chapman
Published February 24, 2011 in Food

I’m sure you’ve seen the commercial. McDonald’s Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. Doesn’t that just sound like you should be eating it?

Every time I see it I think, mmm, I should stop at McDonald’s on the way to work, that “scrumptious” bowl of warm oats and fresh (ok, mostly dried) fruits hits an emotional feel good nerve.

McDonald’s has tried hard over the last few years to win the hearts of women by offering healthier options (remember the Weight Watchers partnership?) and salads served in clear plastic bags to connote healthy freshness. This was intended to make women feel better about walking into a MickeyD’s with the kids…we know that it is also a good cover for women to still get the bag of french fries to go with that salad.

Mark Bittman, in his New York Times piece, How to Make Oatmeal . . . Wrong, sheds light on just how “healthy” this oatmeal offering really is. He asks why McDonald’s would turn a venerable ingredient like oatmeal into an expensive junk food…the reason, women have good intentions and like the idea of being healthier but the WHOLE TRUTH is that they aren’t willing to sacrifice taste in the process. And as Mark points out, you may go in with oatmeal on the brain but often will walk out with the sausage biscuit…and knowing that the oatmeal has more sugar than a Snickers, may help women feel less guilty about the biscuit!

Tags: Good Intentions, Mark Bittman, McDonald's, Whole Truths

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