HOT OFF THE PRESS: launch of WOMEN-omics.com website

WOMEN-omics ( www.WOMEN-omics.com), provides exclusive global reporting on women's growing economic impact on companies and countries, and aggregates the best information, ideas, and insight in the field, updated daily. A one-stop portal, the site is designed for corporate leaders, top executives, policymakers, journalists, researchers, business schools, and women in the workplace. The site brings together news updates, case studies, rankings, exclusive CEO profiles, research reports, statistics, and other resources.

MUSE COMMUNICATION CONTRIBUTES!

As one of Europe's only communication agencies specialized in marketing-to-women, Muse Communication was also asked to contribute an article for the launch of the new portal. Titled "Marketing Needs a Woman's Touch", you can find it here.

December Newsletter Out Today!

We've put together our best newsletter yet - a compilation of the best and the worst (and the funniest) in the world of marketing to women. Chock full of videos, insight and inspiration, we hope you enjoy this review of 2008.

As always, we would love to hear your feedback. Agree? Disagree? Have a different campaign to suggest?

Don't forget - to sign up, email us at newsletter@musecommunication.com! Enjoy.

Tales of passion

I recently discovered the TED conference: an annual event that brings together some of the world's greatest thinkers and doers, and challenges them to "give the talk of their lives" — in only 18 minutes.

I also discovered Isabel Allende, novelist and memoirist and author of the enormously successful "The House of Spirits". Allende gives a wonderfully funny, moving and very inspiring talk that all women should hear.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to the Queen of Pop

Today's post comes to you compliments of guest blogger and fellow modern feminist, Jesse, over at FashionLimbo.

I confess: I have been a Madonna fan since the age of five. I have all the albums, singles, calendars, posters and books. I troubled my parents and made my conservative aunts blush covering my walls with her Erotica pictures when I was only 10. I learnt about love, sex and life from her, and she remains my role model.

Madonna began with nothing. She is an icon of the 80s, the 90s, and she is still an idol today. She has sold millions of records, topped the charts more times than Elvis, received dozens of awards. She created her own record and production company, and has written books and a directed a film. Her latest album is a global hit, and her upcoming world tour is selling out as I write.
She is the ultimate businesswoman, has defended femininity and girl power worldwide, telling women to take control of their lives, live their dreams and ignore male-imposed principles. Yet, all the headlines are saying right now is that she is 50, young no more, and really: isn’t it time she stopped? And who does she think she is walking around in skimpy underwear for her latest video? And what about all the surgery she has had done?

Relationships and motherhood proved to be two more battle grounds of principles for our Queen of Pop. Madonna has not only been portrayed as a sperm shopper, but also recently as baby snatcher for falling in love with a Malawian boy at an orphanage. She is portrayed as an unfaithful wife because she keeps working, travelling abroad, networking and leaving her husband to do his own thing. Her latest offence? Turning 50 and releasing a raunchy album, daring to dance alongside young Justin Timberlake. The media is covering the milestone over and over again: just Google “Madonna turns 50” and you will see what I mean. It is everywhere.

My question is this: when Brad Pitt turns 50 (he is 45), will we all make the fuss we do today? Will we be debating whether he should start toning it down and covering up, will we question his ability to do his job?

Why is it that women have an expiry date to their career, their femininity or motherhood? Why is it that beauty products still use teenagers to sell anti-wrinkle products, and apart from Dove (and Jane Fonda), older female models have yet to enter the media and marketing landscape. We still live in a world that teaches us every day: “if you are a woman and wrinkled, cover up, because nobody wants to see it”.

The purpose of this post? To congratulate my idol on her beautifully successful existence. To tell women out there that we owe her a lot, that we still need her to remind this world of the need for change, and to publicly proclaim that she is the sexiest woman on this planet at 50, 55 or 65. This post is for all those women who are turning 50, or who are 60 and older and still feel sexy and refuse to slow down.

And last but not least: this one is for Madonna…For contributing to who I am, for opening the worlds’ eyes to erotica, female sexuality without guilt, music and artistic integrity, in the 80s, 90s, noughties and beyond.

Happy birthday Madonna.

You are beautiful - just the way you are.

I was gonna blog about women and technology today. BUT: Sex In The City goes into premiere in Belgium this week (oh God, I can't wait!!!), so the topic today will be the much asked question in the media lately (sigh...): "Can a woman be a Sex In the City fan AND a feminist?"

Speaking to women around me and judging by the sighs it induces, this question must rate as one of the silliest questions asked of many modern women - regardless of their age - today.

Why? Because it implies the following:

1. You can't be a feminist and love fashion or shoes.
2. You can't be a feminist and be attractive or dress sexy.
3. You can't be a feminist and have a Brazilian wax.
4. You can't be a feminist and be a single, flirty, vivacious woman.
5. You can't be a feminist and be a career girl.
5. And you certainly can't be a feminist and be a highly-sexed, bi-sexual woman like Samantha!

The problem with this question is that by its sheer composition, it is based on the definition of feminism as we know it from the sixties: grow all bodily hair, burn your bra, debase men and write lots of angry poetry.

But the feminism of today is no longer the feminism of the sixties.

Today's feminist can be a stay-at-home mother of 28, or the career girl of 47 without partner or kids. But she can just as well be an aid-worker in Burkina Faso or the editor of Vogue.

Today's feminist can even be a bi-sexual student, or a grand-mother of 88. And today's feminist can also be the career woman with a husband and 3 kids who wants it all.

Feminism today is all about standing tall, proudly looking the world in the eye and stating:

"I am who I am, and I won't make excuses for it."

Being a feminist today is about the freedom to choose.

It's about living, and letting live.

It's about the beauty of human diversity.

It's about being a woman, and being beautiful...Whoever you are, and just the way you are.

Monday memo: gutsy women and great blogs

A short post on a busy busy busy monday morning:

1. this weekend I discovered 'Diablo Cody'....(It's a name, by the way). I know...it didn't mean much to me either when I first read it. Cody is the Oscar-winning writer of this season's big indy movie hit 'Juno'. Interesting thing is, Cody is 29 years old and as so often mentioned in press surrounding her: an ex-stripper. What's very intestesing is that this very outspoken girl (I won't mention her own description of her "occupation" here, for fear of offending more sensitive souls), but have a look at her blog on myspace to see the amount of support she gets from her mostly female fans! Young women are very obviously totally supportive of this girl...and so am I! Kudoz to Cody for living her life by her own rules!

2. Belgian blog awards - women's blogs win the top prizes!
These are the winners:
First place: zattemadammen.be
Second place: talesfromthecrib.be
Third place: asfaltkonijn.be

Happy reading!

Inspiration for all women

In 1934 she dropped out of school at the age of fourteen. In 2007, two weeks short of her 88th birthday, Doris Lessing, one of the great female intellectuals of our century, is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Although I could never be as presumptious as to put myself in the same category as Lessing, I can relate to her life and experiences as a woman, and she has served as a great source of reading-satisfaction and inspiration to me over the past years.

Lessing is a largely self-taught author who has drawn heavily from her time living in Africa, exploring the divide between whites and blacks, in much of her writing. Because of her criticism of the South Africa's former apartheid system, she was even prohibited from entering the country between 1956 and 1995.

Lessing however, is probably best known for her exploration of the male-female relationship in "The Golden Notebook", published in 1962 and considered by many a feminist classic, although Lessing does not consider the book to be a political statement.

Personally, I think Lessing deserves our respect not only for winning the world's foremost prize in literature, but also for the example she sets as a woman. For the way in which she has led her life, always questioning the status-quo, never taking 'the path of least resistance', always expecting the best of herself and living her life to the full - regardless of society's views of her choices. In this alone, she is already a memorable example to us all.

Here some memorable quotes by Doris Lessing

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.

Unashamedly Woman

When I tell people that I run an agency specialized in marketing to women, they often think I'm a feminist. And a feminist, I discovered throughout many conversations, is still defined by many people as a woman who 'wants to be equal to a man'.

I would like to correct this persistent misconception about what it means to be a 'feminist'.
It is not about being 'equal to men'. Nor is it about being 'more like a man'. Women are women, and they will always be different from men in many ways, with their own strengths and their own weaknesses.
And no, modern feministic girls don't burn their bras or hate men. That is soooo sixties, my dear!

But the best way to dispell any misconceptions there may be about what it means to be a strong, independent and if you want to add the label 'feministic' woman, is to introduce you to one.... Murielle Scherre, founder/owner of the lingerie label "La Fille D'O". Now this girl is unashamedly woman! No excuses, no nice girl demeanor, no safe and unconfrontational image. This girl is who she is: sexy, daring, outspoken, revolutionary.

Some may find her style just a little too confrontational, her imagery and language just a little too explicit, but I put my money on this: this girl is no doubt a role-model to many generation-X and Y women out there...Mark my words!