keychain with GPS. Sound silly? Think again...

When I first read about the keychain with GPS early this morning, I thought "nope...".But that's because I thought about it as answer to the question "where did I park my car?", which made me feel rather stupid.

But the more I thought about it, I realized that it could indeed be very, very handy little gadget.
On a city trip to Prague, for example, as one wanders through unfamiliar streets and neighborhoods and you need to get back to your hotel. Lock in "hotel" as starting point and when needed, it will navigate you back to that point. Or (for the boys) use it to find your tent between a million others at Werchter this year.



The gadget also stores up to 3 locations so you can enter the starting point together with two more on-the-way locations, in effect planning your route back. The gps also has a display with directional arrow, which always points out the general direction you should head in. And, both direction and distance counts down as you move closer to your saved location and counts up as you move farther away.

Barcelona, London, New York, Singapore here I come! With its worldwide range, this little gadget really is a traveler's dream!

Features:
• Tracks up to 32 satellites within 60 seconds.
• Tracking distance up to 9999 miles.
• Store up to 3 locations
• Rechargeable battery USB connection at home, computer, or in your car.
• Highly sensitive GPS receiver provides faster acquisition times and improved tracking capabilities.
• Built in electronic compass that provides bearing information while you’re standing still, always pointing you in the general direction.
• Display directional arrow, direction and distance counts down as you move closer to your saved location and counts up as you move farther away.
• No service fees.
• Global range.
• Smallest personal GPS system that fits on a keychain.

Marketing to women: getting it wrong.

It is still amazing to see how many brands get it wrong in their effort to attract female consumers. I've blogged about Philip's USB-stick necklace before, and now Dell is creating a storm with the launch of their site aimed at women, called "Della".

I'm not sure which consultancy helped Dell develop the strategy for this project (not to mention the look & feel or content of the site), but marketing-to-women wasn't one of their strengths. One of the comments on the "Tech tips" page says it all:

"Does anyone else find that these so called "tech tips" are incredibly simplistic? ... This is a load of fluff that only serves to provide insight into how Dell perceives my demographic. Essentially, we women will buy anything if it comes in pink and fits in our purse. Come on Dell! Treat us like intelligent consumers and not like trained monkeys."

Here are my suggestions to Dell in order to reach their female consumer effectively:

1. Marketing to women doesn't mean marketing to all women.
Before you start, make sure you understand who the women are that buy your product. Who are they? What are their purchase motivators? How does your product integrate in their lives?

2. Gender exclusivity doesn't work.
Women don't demand a separate, overtly female-focused website (that speaks to them in a condescending manner!). Like any consumer, they want ease-of-use, relevant information and respect.

3. Don't stereotype.
And certainly don't 'dumb-down' your message because you think women won't understand. "5 Ways to use a laptop" is an insulting way to speak to any customer, let alone the over-simplified tips that are offered in this section. There's more to women than planning a vacation or going shopping.

My advice? Take the site offline and start all over again. There's no saving this sinking ship.

And as Lydia Sung says: Now if you'll excuse me, I need to give my Asus Eee PC a well-deserved hug.

Sins and Virtues at BGGD

I attended another great edition of Brussels Geek Girl Dinner last night!
Taking time out of our busy daily lives to meet up with friends & likeminded souls to talk, discuss and be inspired, BGGD should be a compulsary 'destress' moment for all modern girls!

The theme of this edition was "Sin" (and therefore by association also "Virtues") - topics close to my heart as they often come to play in the way we as women view ourselves.

Murielle Scherre of La Fille D'O spoke freely with the 100 attending ladies about sin, virtue and everything in between. As always, she pointed out that as women we should decide for ourselves whether the so-called sins really are sins, and the virtues really virtues before feeling guilty about too many things we think or do. She also pointed out that women should not put themselves in either of the two camps of "sinner" or "saint". Instead they should be comfortable with both facets - and more - within themselves. I couldn't agree more!

The theme of sin continued throughout the night with sponsorship by MariaBingo - an online gaming site, as well as more virtuous sins in the form of low-fat Belvita cookies (yummy-yummy).

With many of my female friends actively thinking about or making a living from things related to 'sin', I will blog more on the topic soon.....

Marketing to Moms Must Read.

Rasorfish and Cafemom recently issued a report called "Digital Mom".

It contains a wealth of information about how technologies are affecting the behavior of moms - from how they parent, socialize and keep in touch, to how they shop.

Reading the report really brings home the fact that the way in which moms communicate and whom they trust is changing fundamentally. As marketeers, it is imperative we understand how to leverage emerging technologies as well as the growing social influence of the digital mom in a changing media landscape.

So, if you're marketing your product/service also to Moms (and really, who isn't?), then you should read this report!

Do You Believe in the Power of One?

I like to think one person CAN make a difference – in the real world, the virtual world – even the corporate world. One of my favorite books is The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. It’s a tale of inner strength, making strong personal connections and being as real and authentic as possible.



These same core beliefs; inner strength, real friendship and authenticity, don’t merely belong in fiction but also apply to the world we live in, including the virtual one. The concept of living meaningfully resonates with a wide, varied online audience. Find non-profit jobs and volunteer opportunities on idealist.org, read tips on simplifying life at zenhabits.com, learn how to live greener with idealbite.com or watch inspiring videos at karmatube.org.

The Internet allows beauty and idealism to prosper in a variety of forms, most notably with the strength of the people using the Internet. Just like the book Groundswell by Li and Bernoff states, the power of the people has never been more evident than online. A great organization to harness this power and altruistic enthusiasm is the inventive Carrotmob. I saw a ten-minute video a few months back of their work in CA. Here’s the shorter four minute clip

The Concept: Carrotmob approached a number of convenience stores in one town to find the shop willing to donate the highest percentage of income from the sales of one day to a charity. The motivation for the stores to participate was the promise of extra customers courtesy of Carrotmob promotions.

End result? HUNDREDS of customer flooded the chosen store on the set date, exceeding all expectations of the shop owner, giving them a boon of profit PLUS a big chunk of money was donated towards making the store more energy efficient!



Reason it works? It’s being able to do good by doing what you were planning on doing anyway, without any extra effort. We all have to buy things. Given the choice of buying batteries and a carton of juice at a regular shop or at a shop that offers the same thing, for the same price but gives a portion of your money to a good cause? No contest! It’s going with green with no effort. It’s being better with out having to break a sweat.

It’s the power of one by simply being you! What a brilliant concept.

I see the Carrotmob idea – motivating corporations to do well – easily catching on. It empowers the individual. It gives control back to the person making the purchase. And it potentially increases the profit of the company. Everybody wins!

What do you think - can this idea work across the world? In the corporate jungle or in globalized commerce initiatives? Would you make a conscious effort to make your purchases with companies donating towards a worthy cause?

News, views and a breath-taking video

The summer vacation is almost at an end and it's been a busy period for us, preparing for the months ahead.

There's much happening that I want to share with you in the coming weeks, not least of all our upcoming talk "Why women own 19 pairs of shoes (and other secrets revealed)" at the Brussels Geek Girl Dinner on August 20th.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Courtney Davis, one of the newest members of Muse Communication, who'll be blogging here with me from now on.

I met Courtney in March this year, in my search for a person to strengthen our management team. I knew Courtney was the person I was looking for when I arranged to meet her in Ghent, and we both arrived wearing all black with red accessories and both ordered a glass dry white wine, which we finished while talking non-stop about life, universe and everything else over the next two hours. It's difficult for me to describe Courtney in a few words, suffice it to say that she is a very competent, switched-on woman and marketeer who brings invaluable knowledge and insight to the company. I leave it up to Courtney to explain the garlic, the barefoot hippy and the other parts here.

To wrap up for today there is this video, which won the short film award at Cannes and shows the power of getting the message just right. It will take your breath away...

My Monday Memo (on a tuesday)

There's so much happening in the M2W arena at the moment, a quick between work update on some must-reads:

The second edition of the Muse Newsletter is due out this thursday. Subscribe now if you want to receive it!

Lady Geek - Discovered this a few weeks ago...a wonderful blog about women and technology! Short, quick, funny reads...Bookmark it!

Less is More
Talking of women and technology, check out this interesting report by Jitterbug.

Some topline findings:

Feature Overload is “Out”
o 73% of respondents prefer to pay only for what they believe they will actually use,
compared to only 27% who want all the bells and whistles
o 32% of cell phone users say their current cell phone service has more features than
they know what to do with
Personalized Services are “In”
o 71% said they would be interested in 24-hour access to a personal telephone
assistant who could give them tailored service
o 34% would prefer to have someone else set up their phone features and services for
them

Soon to be released book worth checking out: "Satisfied customers tell three friends, angry customers tell 3,000". More here
(Double or triple those figures - on both positive & negative sides - for women!)

And last but not least, an article on Essensis, the new "wonder" yoghurt by Danone (in Flemish). The product's claim: "feeds your skin from the inside" came across as unbelievable to me when I first heard it. Apparently I'm not the only one.
Time waits for no (wo)man. Gravity is taking hold. No way one yoghurt is gonna solve that. You can read the full article here.

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.