Time To Talk Straight

It's here! Holly Buchanan and Michelle Miller - two pioneers of great marketing to women - have written a new book called 'The Soccer Mom Myth'.

I love the blogs of both these ladies: down to earth, funny, no fancy blah-blah and always hitting the nail right on the head. I can't wait to read the book! Have a look at the website - you can download some chapters for free.

My order's been placed - I'll let you know my thoughts once I've read it!

2008 - the year of banishing Bullsh*t

"Naiveté is rare today. Your customer is equipped with a bullshit detector that is highly sensitive and amazingly accurate. And the younger the customer, the more accurate their bullshit detector.

When selling, remember: If you don’t admit the downside, they won’t believe the upside." - Roy H. Willaims.

Can I emphasise this fact enough to my clients? NO.

I advise you to read it again, because it's very, very true...and if you don't believe it, or think you can smooze your way around it with fancy PR or advertising, you're taking a very dangerous Jérôme Kerviel-like gamble with your company's future.

There's a reason why the blog belonging to the man who spoke these simple but very true words is read by many, many people across the world, and the reason is this: without any marketing blah-blah or trendy industry slang, he gets it so very right...it's worth giving up 15 minutes to read his The Monday Morning Memo.

In his post '2008 - The Year of Transition' he highlights what he thinks will be the big consumer trends for the coming years. It's an interesting post, which I think anyone interested in consumer behaviour or marketing...hell, anyone in the business of selling something to someone (that makes all of us) should read it!

Below is an excerpt of the main points. The full post you can find here

Here’s what to remember when selling in 2008:

1. Efficiency is the new Service.
Your customer is saying, “Quality and price and quick, please. I’ve got things to do. Thanks.” Service and selection still matter, but not nearly so much as they once did. Inefficient organizations built on high-touch “relationship” selling will decline. Today’s customer is magnetically drawn to efficiency. This attraction will increase over the next few years.

2. Authenticity is essential.
Listen to the street. “Being cool” has become “Keepin’ it real.”

Naiveté is rare today. Your customer is equipped with a bullshit detector that is highly sensitive and amazingly accurate. And the younger the customer, the more accurate their bullshit detector.

When selling, remember: If you don’t admit the downside, they won’t believe the upside.

3. A Horizontal Connectedness is replacing yesterday’s vertical, social hierarchy. Labels like “white collar” and “blue collar” sound almost racist today. The new American dream isn’t about pulling ahead and leaving the others behind. It’s about becoming a productive member of the team.

“Winning” has become less important than “belonging.”

Listen to the streets. “I’m number one,” gets the response, “You ain’t all that, dog. You ain’t all that.”

4. Word-of-Mouth is the new Mass Media. Video games and cable TV stripped our kids of their innocence at an early age, but the Technology that robbed them of idyllic childhood also empowered them with cell phones, blogs and blackberries.

Viral marketing wasn’t created by the advertising community. It’s simply the result of a horizontally-connected generation (1.) sharing their happy discoveries with each other and (2.) trying to protect one another from mistakes.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS: It’s no longer enough just to have great advertising. When your customers carry cell phones and can email all their friends with a single click, you need to be exceptionally good at what you do.

5. Boasting is a waste of time.
Your customer is saying, “Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words.
Don’t tell me what you believe. Show me.”

IN YOUR ADS, do you include “proofs of claim” your reader, listener or viewer can experience for themselves?

6. Everyone is broken a little.
And the most broken are those who pretend they are not.

It’s time to take the advice of Bill Bernbach, “I’ve got a great gimmick. Let’s tell the truth.”

7. Keep in mind that during the next 12 months, as we complete the transition from the Idealist outlook to the Civic perspective, these trends will be accelerated by the facts that:
(1.) Access to information is going up and
(2.) Access to money is going down.

2007 - the good, the bad, the ugly

One has until the end of January to wish people well for the new year. Taking that reasoning and stretching it a bit, I also have time until the end of January to make my personal review of 2007...the good, the bad and the ugly in a nutshell.

THE GOOD:
A much needed break of 4 days in sunny Barcelona (a luxury in the first year of starting a business)

Attending the James Nachtwey photo exhibition in Amsterdam

Growing Muse faster than I thought possible in my wildest dreams

Finally getting round to sending a 5-year overdue 'thank you' letter to Jack & Val Leone in Australia...just in the nick of time. Which proves: ALWAYS say thank you to those you really love...before it's too late.

Meeting Isabella & Caroline...It's going to be a great year, ladies!

Having our "Big Bear St Bernard" spend another year with us

"Prutske" joining the family

A sunny, sunny, sunny April

Being able to take my 82-year old granny to Cirque Du Soleil for her birthday

Reading 'Shantaram' and 'Eat, Pray, Love' - two life-changing books

Surviving Pukkelpop (without any major injuries)

THE BAD:
Loosing Val Leone, my surrogate mom while I lived in Australia, to cancer on August 14th.

Falling very ill while visiting Amsterdam and spending 4 days in the hotel, in bed.

Burning my fingers trying to help someone

Promising myself I'd give up smoking in 2007 and not sticking to my promise.

THE UGLY:
Rediscovering how ugly money can make people (you know who you are)

Seeing too many animals put down at the rescue centre.

Tearing my calf-muscle in the middle of my first day at Rock Werchter. Arrival at 12 noon by car, departure at 5pm by ambulance. Yeah, Werchter in an ambulance really ROCKS!

Connecting is what matters

Yvonne over at Lip-Sticking said something so true in her blog, I'm sorry I didn't think to say it myself first...She says: "I'm tired of that old phrase 'reaching female consumers'. It doesn't work anymore. You can "reach" us in a myriad of ways - it's connecting with us that counts."

Oh man, does Yvonne nail the nail on the head there. What she says is so simple, it's almost not worth mentioning, and on the other hand what she said is also so profoundly true, it should be written in ALL CAPS for everyone to notice.

It's not about 'reaching out'..that's exactly where companies go wrong. They do reach out - ok, some in totally inappropriate ways that don't appeal to us, and others in relatively appropriate ways but without being really 'real' about it or 'walking the walk', so to speak (see my post "Dove - a not so ethical brand").

Which brings me to the most difficult part about consulting companies on how to connect with female consumers. We can help brands design really appropriate campaigns with an appropriate positioning, the right messaging and all the rest, but if this campaign is an isolated effort and not part of an entire company philosophy, then really, it's just 'reaching out'. Connecting only happens when you live your 'marketing to women' ethos in (here come the all caps) EVERY SINGLE FACET OF YOUR BRAND ETHOS - from the way in which you treat your employees to the service your sales staff gives customers at the point of sale. Easier said than done, I know. But I have just three words for those who think this to be an almost impossible task: The Body Shop.

But in the spirit of looking forward, not back, here are my very humble recommendations to help you connect with your female consumers:

1. BE REAL.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: all those great creative campaigns and awards mean nothing if we catch you out to be lying to us, ignoring our requests or minimizing our demands. Again, think Dove. Very 'female-friendly'communication. Pity they torture and kill animals to give us all those sumptuous little creams and soaps.

2. MAKE US A PART OF YOUR BRAND.
If we buy your brand, it's because we believe in it. Hey, we're women, we like connecting with like-minded souls...we'll talk about your product and recommend it to our friends - all you have to do is bring us together and ask us to promote you!

3. SHOW US YOU CARE - ABOUT EVERYTHING
Don't just show us you care about us and our dollars. Show us you also care about your employees, the community we live in, the future of our children, the well-being of our planet. Give something back -it matters to us.

4. MAKE SURE YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE HAPPY
This statement may sound totally irrelevant in this list of tips to connect with your female consumers, but believe me, it's not. Your front-line staff (sales & service people) are often the only 'human link' to your brand. One bad experience with a grumpy sales person can ruin a relationship with a brand forever. Your staff are your first brand ambassadors. If they don't believe in your brand, how do you expect them to convey anything positive about it to us? Oh, and train them. Your car salesman talking to my husband while looking at my butt when I'm the one shopping for a new car means someone else will get the business - guaranteed.

5. DON'T PATRONISE US
See the car salesman incident above. Ditto goes for the computer sales guy and the bank director who phones me up asking to speak to my husband about what to do about optimizing our joing savings account. Think I don't have a huge impact on that decision? Think again.

6. DON'T TAKE YOURSELF (OR US) TOO SERIOUSLY
Don't get me wrong: be respectful, but golly gosh, let's all laugh a little more often, shall we? Life's serious enough as it is. How about adding some light-hearted fun to it? Research has shown that women prefer laughing at situations pertaining to themselves, while men prefer laughing about stories about others. We don't take ourselves too seriously so why not make us laugh once in a while?

7. UNDER PROMISE, OVER DELIVER
There's nothing that puts a smile on any cynical consumer's face (male or female!) as getting more than what you bargained for. The thing with women is, they'll talk (and talk and talk and talk) about it to all who will listen!

A song to remind us of what's really important

As I was rushing through another monday morning filled with little 'to do lists', urgent phone calls, impatient clients and forgetful suppliers, I heard this beautiful song on the radio. It made me stop and think about things for a few minutes.

It's so beautiful (and so true) I wanted to share it with you all.

STOP for a few minutes to listen to it.
It's your day, your life. Everything REALLY can wait that long.

Happy Monday!

Dove - A not so ethical brand

I used to be a real fan of the Dove campaigns. Effective, socially responsible marketing that appealed to women all over the world, regardless of age or culture. The key here however, is 'used to be'.

Dove's award-winning campaigns - and associated initiatives such as the 'real beauty' TV shows, pro-age calendars, etc convinced us ('us' being women) that the brand really cares about women. That it wants to correct, protect and educate us and our daughters about realistic expectations of beauty, a healthy self-esteem, about self-worth. I was impressed by what I thought was one of the very few socially responsible brands who shouts out for what it believes in against the stream of cosmetic brands toting airbrushed, Photoshopped perfection above all else.

But it seems I was wrong. Dove actually isn't a very socially responsible brand. It just developed some good marketing campaigns. So what's my problem with Dove you wonder?
Simply this: it tests its products on animals. (Dove belongs to the Unilever group, which is black-listed by many animal rights activist groups for testing on animals.)
I wonder how many of Dove's female consumers know this...

If Dove really was a socially responsible brand; if it really wanted to take its 'campaing for real beauty' to the next level, it would also take a stand and stop testing its products on animals.

If only Dove realised the opportunity it is missing. It could become The Bodyshop of the 21st century, the vanguard of all the values we hold dear privately but miss so often in this age of want-more-for-less globalism.

So don't believe Dove just yet. They may have an ethically responsible approach to women and beauty, but behind the scenes they do not accord the same principles of ethical behaviour toward animals. So until Dove stops using animals to test and develop the products that pamper, cleanse and moisturize our bodies into a ripe (and hopefully beautiful) old age, they are nothing more than just another brand that has some great advertising campaigns.

It's time to get real, Dove!

Female Fever

This TrendWatching report give a pretty detailed overview of the exponential growth in the number of 'marketing to women' initiatives in various industry sectors.

Looking at the various products aimed at women being launched in so many different industries, my first thought was "wow! Companies are finally waking up to the enormous (sales) potential of marketing products specifically designed for women."
But as I kept reading, my frustration kept growing. It seems some stereotypes - very irritating stereotypes, by the way - die hard. As I kept scrolling through the photos and texts on each product I kept thinking "why do I see PINK everywhere? And what's with all the curly-thingies all over the place?" So even though some of the initiatives really hit the spot (check out the ABN AMRO 'Lady Delight'(bad name, great concept) investment fund!) many just 'paint it pink' - both literally and proverbially - in order to attract the attention of female consumers.

A fluorescent pink Swiss-Army Knife? Hummmm...no thanks.
A pink road-side safety kit for women? And exactly why would I want that in pink???
A beer called 'Hoegaarden Rosee'?
Pink taxis, pink shoes, pink yoghurt tubs, pink, pink, pink, pink. Really guys: some of the ideas are great, but the (pink) marketing really kills it!
Its quite an eye-opener to realise many brands are still stuck in the 'pink phase' when it comes to marketing to women.

But ok, Rome wasn't built in a day, they say...so here's hoping we all move out of the pink phase really soon...before I go completely crazy.

Mercator Insurance - funny or not?

When this ad first came on TV and I began to watch it, I found it quite funny. I could so totally imagine myself trying to drill a hole in the wall - with very little success (and a lot of damage to the wall). But then, as the ad comes to an end and the tagline is shown, I ain't laughing no more. I'm not going to give away the tagline here, you'll have to judge for yourself whether you think it's funny...or not.

NO MORE marketing to women

...well at least for today. As some of you who know me will know, I am madly in love with South Africa (a marriage of the soul "through good and bad times"). But very few of you will know that deep down at heart, this girl is a HUGE rugby fan (I hide it well). And at the moment, the World Cup Rugby is being played in France. Tomorrow is the finals....and guess who's playing???? South Africa! (Against England, if it should interest you). But don't worry about the details, that's not what this is about. Here we go: For once this closet-rugby-fan comes steps proudly into the public spotlight with her hidden boy-side. It's World Cup Finals and my team is playing!!! Out comes the green-and-yellow warpaint, the scarves, and god forbid, I'll even drink a Castle Lager if I could find one right now.... But even if rugby doesn't interest you one hoot (as I suspect it does), at least you can have a good laugh at this ad in support of the South African rugby team. ...And now here's hoping we win....!

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