Anita Roddick - pioneer of smart marketing to women

Long before Dove woo-ed the world with it's 'campaign for real beauty', long before we all discovered that women make or influence up to 80% of all purchase decisions, long before the phrase 'marketing to women' was thrown about in every ad agency across town, there was Anita Roddick and The Body Shop.

Although Roddick was one of the world's great entrepreneurs who made millions by establishing The Body Shop as a sucessfull retail brand across the globe, she was first and foremost a woman and an activist...someone who spoke her mind, cared about the world around her and who never underestimated the power of 'one'. In her own memorable words: "one mosquito can do a lot of damage in a room full of people".

Roddick didn't like the beauty industry, calling it 'the nastiest in the world'. And she didn't like the direction in which, during the late seventies and early eighties, globalized commerce was spreading its first tentacles across vunerable countries and cultures at the expense of all in its way, refusing to play the game by the new rules. Instead, she swam upstream, and founded a company that held values such as respect, sustainability and environmentally-friendly at its core, long before they became fashionable labels most companies wanted to stamp across their brands.

And thus, long before marketing to women became the goose-that-lay-the-golden-egg it is today, Roddick made millions by tapping into those values which we now know women hold dear: be brave, be real, show value.

May her example as individual, woman and entrepreneur shine bright for generations of women to come.

Lessons in Seduction

It must be my all-time favourite lingerie ad campaign: Aubade Lingerie's 'Lessons in Seduction'.

Tongue-in-cheek humour, beautiful photography and a very clear brand and campaign identity that no-one ever confuses for another brand.

But here's the really surprising thing in the oh-so-fleeting world of ad campaigns: this campaign has been running since 1992. Yep..you read it right...that's a 15-year campaign!

Seeking to revitalize the then-flagging brand, CEO Ann-Charlotte Pasquier fell in love with a publicist's idea to market each new set of underwear as a “lesson” in seducing men. The idea took off, and Pasquier now spends over 12 percent of the company's annual budget on marketing and communication. Sales have soared from €15 million (US$18M) in1992, when the lessons campaign first launched, to $50 million (US$60M) in 2002.

So why does this sexy campaign appeal to women as much as it appeals to men?

Simple: It provides a light-hearted look at the game of love, without being tacky or pornographic. And women (all women) identify with the tongue-in-cheek tips they are given to seduce a man. The tasteful black-and-white photos further help position Aubade as a luxury brand. And the campaign also hits home in drawing together women by the sharing of tips, which are clearly worded from a female perspective.

The campaign's message is clear: create desire, and give consumers (both men and women) a way to fulfill that desire through purchase of the product.

Talk about a win-win situation for both men and women! ...And Aubade of course!

A woman's guide to thriving in the corporate jungle

Any career woman worth her salt will tell you that it’s no easy job surviving in the corporate jungle. Standing your man – or your woman in this case – is not only a question of education, experience and sheer determination, but also of finely honed inter-personal skills.

First Impressions Count – for more than you may think.They say it takes us about 10 seconds to form an opinion of some-one we meet for the first time. In business, make that 3 seconds. Like it or not, people will have judged you on the way you dress, the way you move, the way you do your hair and your hand-shake before you’ve had the time to introduce yourself.The key to a positive first impression is so obvious; we almost always forget to mention it: pose. Nothing beats grace, style and finesse. The best way to convey your sense of ease in the corporate jungle is by dressing appropriately. Emulating your male counter-parts in the way they dress may sound ridiculous, but it will instil in them a subconscious recognition: she is one of us. Invest in a clean-cut black or grey pant-suit; add a splash of colour by donning a bright shirt or t-shirt. Always round off the out-fit with appropriate shoes: polished, black, mid-level heels. …and keep your hairstyle slick and conservative. Tied back in a low pony-tail if long, immaculately combed if short. The corporate world is no place to experiment with creatively brushed, wispy hairstyles or long bouncy tresses cascading over your shoulders. Also keep make-up and perfume minimal and subdued. Going in as Cleopatra incarnate conveys the wrong message altogether.

Body language – the unspoken conversation
Psychologists say that 80% of all communication between people is non-verbal. But what does this imply for women in the business world? Simply said, it means that our spoken words count for a mere 20% of the stimuli on which our conversation partner bases his or her opinion of us. So what are all those unspoken things they use to construct an opinion of us?During a business introduction, our conversation partner will judge us on things such as the firmness of our hand-shake, the way in which we look at them (or try to avoid looking at them), the tonality and pitch of our voice as well as the way we walk and stand. We in turn, will judge the other party’s frame of mind, their attitude (submissive, overpowering, and indifferent) by looking at their body language too. Taking this into consideration, it is worthwhile to train your body in the many little nuances of assertive body language.

A few handy hints:
- Walk the walk! Ever noticed how you form an opinion of a stranger you are about to meet as they walk toward you? The way they look at you, the way they move their body tells us more than the few polite words we will exchange during our introduction! Walk proudly and with purpose. Don’t fiddle with your clothes or files you are carrying to mask nervousness. Remember: 80% of all communication is non-verbal! People first pick up any nervousness from your body language…not your words.

- When meeting someone for the first time, don’t wait for them to extend their hand in introduction. Take charge! Extend your hand first and introduce yourself - it gives a clear signal that you are both self confident and at ease in the situation!

- Be prepared: always have business cards ready. Know the purpose of the meeting you are attending as well as the roles and names of the people attending. (Understanding their role in the decision making process may come in handy too). Make sure you have a pen and writing paper handy. Nothing leaves a worse impression than entering a meeting unprepared. Knowing the agenda of the meeting up front allows you to once again take charge and open the meeting with a targeted question or remark related to the topic at hand.

Choose thy words carefully
People who are trained to analyze our personality type be listening to the words we use can tell a lot from sentences such as “I feel that the deadline you are suggesting is a little unrealistic”, or “I sense that you want to change the day’s agenda”. Using words like feel and sense indicate that the person speaking is very much emotionally driven. Women, who are intrinsically more emotional than men, tend to use such words more often than men do. As a woman in a man’s world, it is best to avoid emotionally loaded words. Notice the difference if the words feel and sense are replaced by less emotional words: “I think that the deadline you are suggesting is a little unrealistic”, or “Do I understand you correctly when you say that you would prefer to change the day’s agenda?”. Words such as think, understand and comprehend immediately make your sentence sound more factual and logical, and thus more suitable to a business environment.

Life in the corporate jungle is cut-throat – even at the best of times. As a woman, surviving (and thriving) requires a lot of guts and finely honed inter-personal skills. But regardless how high our educational pedigree or carefully chosen our words, if our demeanour and body language convey a different message, we loose credibility. Remember…the devil’s in the details!

Holiday season food for thought

A quote I received from a client recently that is well worth sharing...

Il est difficile d'être une femme
il faut penser comme un homme,
avoir la dignité d'une dame,
ressembler à une jeune fille,
et travailler comme un cheval.

Dove "Evolution" campaign wins at Cannes

It's official! The Dove 'Evolution' campaign walked away with the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Lions advertising festival!

Congratulations to OGILVY & MATHER (Toronto, Canada), the agency responsible for this brilliant campaign.

For those who don't know the background to this campaign, here's some more info:

The film was developed as extention to Dove's well-known 'Campaign For Real Beauty'. The goal of the film: to drive traffic to the company's www.campaignforrealbeauty.com website. First posted on Youtube 8 months ago, the Evolution film as been viewed well over 4 million times! (talk about a great word-of-mouth tool!)

But here's the really amazing thing about Dove's "campaign for real beauty" and its spin-offs: Although the campaign was launched a mere 3 years ago, it has single-handedly taken Dove from 'just another cosmetics brand' to 'vanguard, promoter and protector of realistic, individual female beauty'. And in doing so, it has won the attention, the hearts and no doubt the purses of millions of women world-wide!

Dove campaigns:
www.campaignforrealbeauty.com
Evolution campaign
www.doveproage.com

Cannes Lions 2007...And the winner is?

As the industry rats amongst us will know, the Oscars of the advertising world are awarded in Cannes, France each year...and right now the Cannes Lions 2007 are in full swing.

As the usual crowd of creative directors, agency CEOs, designers and account directors descend on Cannes for a few fun-filled days of sun, networking and of course the odd party or two, the biggest question remains: who will be this year's big winner?

The contest, according to leading industry sources, is clearly between 2 very worthy contenders: The Sony Bravia Campaign and the Dove "Evolution" campaign.

As a strong advocate smart marketing to women you can guess which one of the two I'm hoping will win...

The reason I like the Evolution campaign so much - because it is such an obvious rebellion against the stress-inducing ideals served up by the advertising industry - may seem a little odd given my profession. But of course it's not, because no matter what I choose to do professionally, I am a woman first, and no matter how much experience or professional insight I have into the ways of the industry, I remain susceptable to the joys (and irritations) of advertising, just like all women do.

Professionally and personally, here's why I'm hoping the Evolution campaign will win:

1. If we judge the sucess of a campaign not merely by the accolades it is awarded by industry peers, but primarily by whether it positively influences a) the perception and positioning of the brand and b) the sales of a product, then the 'Evolution' campaign can certainly be considered sucessful.

2. This campaign is a sign of the times in the advertising world. Consumers (not just women) have become more than a little rebellious about the blatantly manipulative sales messages so often thrown at them...They're clever, media-savvy and they know they have the power to make the ultimate decision of whether they listen to your message or buy your product, regardless of what they are told (also see the post on the ClueTrain Manifesto). They want you to treat them with respect - a lot of respect. They will not forgive their intellingence being underestimated. What they want to know is "do you get me and what is really important to me here, in the real world?...And do you know what I want...as opposed to what you think I want?"

3. And personally, I hope the campaign wins because of the positive, reaffirming message it sends to all women, young and old, out there. Dove becomes the magician that reveals the way in which it performs the age-old trick that has kept us spellbound for so long. And in doing so, they broke through all our insecurities, our doubts and our anxieties by saying: "relax ladies, we'll show you how an ordinary woman, just like you, is transformed into a killer-babe...with the help of loads of stylists, truckloads of hairspray, buckets of make-up and of course, technology!"

And so, dear reader, Dove gets the respect (and the sales!) of millions of women world-wide. And respect is what it's all about when you want to connect with female consumers in a real, meaningful way.

Women love luxury cars

Women like cars as much as men do - but in a different way.
A recent North American survey confirms the fact that I'm apparently not the only woman in the universe to like sexy, racy cars (that offer style, class, safety and comfort too, of course).

What did surprise me, however, is the brand and model which holds the top spot on this list:
the BMW Z4.
Apparently there are a lot of women out there who like sports cars A LOT more than I do...
Of course the Z4 would be a lovely car to drive - on a sunny mid-summer sunday. I never expected it to be in prime position on the list though.

However, let me not keep you in suspense any longer. The 10 finalists (in order of priority):
1. BMW Z4
2. Audi A3
3. Volvo S60
4. Volvo V70 and C70
5. Lincoln Zephyr
6. Volvo S40
7. Audi A6
8. Land Rover Range Rover Sport
9. Cadillac SRX
10. Lexus IS

Kudoz to Volvo for the 4 models it has on the list (which confirms how important safety is to women)!

Of course this is a North American survey, and some of the models would not end up in a European top-10 list. But still: the Audi A3, the Volvos, the Audi A6 and the Lexus would no doubt also score well here.

And the BMW Z4?
Well of course we like the fluid organic lines and the power, but it would take a lot of convincing before I believe this would top European women's luxury car list. Maybe we are just a little too realistic (about European weather, bumper-to-bumper traffic, our hair, the family, ...) to put this zippy little monster in the nr 1 spot.

But hey, the 'Thelma and Louise" in every girl will still wish she had one!

(For those of you who like things rational and quantified: "This list includes the top 10 luxury vehicles with the highest percentage of female primary drivers based on CNW Marketing Research survey data. The firm conducted more than 15,000 phone surveys during 2006 on a range of topics about car buying and ownership. The list does not account for yearly vehicle sales volumes. Rather, it measures which vehicles have the highest percentage of female drivers based on the number of respondents who said they were the primary driver of a particular model." - Forbes Autos.com)

New print ad for WE hits the spot

I saw an absolutely great piece of 'smart marketing to women' today!
It's the new print ad for the Belgian fashion label 'WE'. Now I know WE isn't the coolest brand around, but this ad really hits the spot. (grab a copy of this month's Feeling magazine to check it out).

The concept is based on a song called "I'm a bitch" by Alanis Morissette, so in itself not an original, attention-grabbing concept, but it's still so well executed that I didn't even judge the ad for a second for borrowing inspiration from Morissette.

I don't want to spoil the fun you will have discovering this one for yourself by blabbing on about it here, so all I can add is this: go buy Feeling magazine and tell me that's not a campaign very woman between the age of 14 and 84 can relate to!

Kudoz to the agency that came up with this concept and executed it so beautifully!

Mom, Dad and technology

Those of you who are, as I, generation-Xers (or generation-Y), will no doubt be able to relate to the following scenario:

It's 9:30pm on a cold monday night. You're snuggled up on the couch after a hard day at work, totally engrossed in the latest episode of Heroes, when suddenly, your mobile rings....

A little miffled to be disturbed just as the hero-guy is about to paint another future-predicting mindscape, you consider not picking up. But then you glance at the phone's display and see it's Mom calling...so you think that, Mom being almost 60, it must be urgent and decide to pick up.

Me: "Hey Mom" (one eye and ear focused on the TV)
Mom (with a stressed voice...bad sign nr 1): "Sabine, it's Mom"
Me: "Hi Mom......"
Mom: "Sabine, I have a problem." (no chit-chat to start...bad sign nr 2)
Me: "Hmmmm" (still watching the TV)
Mom: "I'm sitting infront of the computer..." (very bad sign...)
"and I can't send and receive mails. I've tried rebooting the pc, I've checked my connection to the internet....I've been to the hotmail website...I don't understand...I keep getting this message that says 'send and receive error'."
Me (very worried because I can sense this is going to mean the end of Heroes for me): "That's strange..."
Mom (in a very stressed voice now): "I urgently need to send an email (at 9:30pm????) and I don't know what to do. Can you please come over...I've tried everything and really can't solve this."

So much for Heroes tonight then.

I'm sure many of you will relate to this scenario. As our Boomer parents have discovered the wonderful, wonderful world of the world wide web, email and all things affiliated, we, their Gen-X and Y offspring, have become their personal IT departments. My mom and dad truely believe my brothers and I can answer all their internet/computer-related questions, fix all their problems (even at 10pm) and buy them the perfect computer. Without me knowing, my parents have promoted us to network specialists, hardware analysists/troubleshooters, not to mention software programmers or IT purchasers.

One thing's for sure: Boomers have discovered what technology can do for them in a big way and they are here to stay (and consume). According to Imago Creative's article Boomers 2.0 "Baby Boomers currently account for one-third of the 195.3 million Web users in the U.S., making them the Web's largest constituency". I bet Europe's boomers aren't far behind...

According to the article "...despite their size, purchasing power, and experience with all things digital, Boomers remain one of the most underserved technology audiences when it comes to customized destinations, products and services."(I smell opportunities for many companies in many, many different sectors here...)

Suggestion from a gen-X daughter: 24-hour telephonic support hotlines.

Women don't ask - how to succeed at negotiating

It seems that we women have a problem negotiating...Apparently we're not as vocal or as demanding as men when it comes to asking...for a promotion, a raise, or even a 'golden handshake' (also read 'Get Fired like a Man').

According to a new book called 'Women don't ask - negotiating and the gender divide', women fall into one of three categories:

- "I don't knows" - women who unaware of opportunities and their rights
- "I don't asks" - women who think asking will jeopardize getting the job or promotion
- "I don't boasts" - women who feel it is impolite to spotlight their accomplishments

Most of us will recognize ourselves in one of these profiles. But that's not the point really. The question is: what are we going to do about it?

There are lessons to be learnt here:
- Know your market value before you negotiate a new job
- Ask while you still can. It is a well-known fact that you are in the strongest position to negotiate your pay-check, perks, etc BEFORE you sign on the dotted line. Once you're in, negotiation becomes even harder...
- Keep on knowing your market value...even after 2 or 3 or more years in a job. Experience and proven performance are worth money to companies. Know your evolved market value as well as your internal value!
- Sh*t happens. If you are retrenched, don't take it lying down. Don't take the first offer you are presented. Negotiate your severance package until you are happy with it too.

A well-known female executive puts it so well:
"We often take what we can get. We compromise instead of negotiating."

Compromise vs negotiating...that's a thought to ponder...