Yummy Mummies RULE!

For the record: I don't have kids (yet) and I'm not pregnant.
But I simply must do a plug for HOTmilk - the lingerie brand from way, way down under in New Zealand that has come up with the most stunning line of maternity and nursing lingerie.

Classy, sexy, it empowers women and doesn't take itself too seriously! I love it! Kudoz to you ladies!

YES! To giving pregnant women and nursing mums a choice of flattering, sexy underwear!

YES! To the sexy, sultry, powerful promo photos!

YES! To reminding women that they can be beautiful and sexy while pregnant!

YES! To the "Men Only" section on the website and it's informal way of helping men understand how to buy lingerie for women.

YES! To standing up for what you believe in and having the guts to live your dream!

HOTmilk is available in Belgium in Ghent at Lingeriet. All other outlets world-wide can be found on the HOTmilk website.

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.

Don't pile on the puppies

We've been talking about the whole 'fuzzy-warm' issue in marketing to women a lot at the office lately.

There seems to be a widespread perception out there that if a brand wants to connect with female consumers, it's all and ONLY about being able to form an emotional bond with her. We call this the 'fuzzy-warm' syndrome and it makes our hair stand on end.

What frustrates us (and no doubt many, many other women out there) is the concept that a woman is ALL about emotions. (It's a little degrading, you know). Show us a puppy and we'll ohhhh and ahhhhhh over it and of course buy your product. Put the song "Unchained Melody" in your ad and you've got us - for the remainder of our consuming days. Show us a woman having fun, laughing with her girlfriends and we're right there, ready to pull out our over-flowing wallets! Do the warm and fuzzy on us and nothing else matters anymore.


Right.

The current hype surrounding the 'power' of the female consumer means there is great interest, albeit often misguided, in understanding women as consumers. We've all heard it - numerous times: connecting with female consumers emotionally is what it's all about.

I think this needs a little clarification.

Yes, an emotional connection with a brand is important to us. Yes, what Seth Godin said "women don't buy a brand, they join it" can be true.

HOWEVER:

We can only be great brand ambassadors IF many other criteria (and herein lies the crux of the matter!) are fulfilled too.

IF your product delivers what it promises

IF it helps solve the problem I want solved

IF price / quality makes sense to me

IF your service is outstanding - time and time again

IF you give us the information we want: where we want it, when we want it and in all the detail we want it

IF we sense you're being honest and care about more than just us and our money.

And yes, IF your marketing is inspiring and empowering, then we'll connect with your brand.
But don't underestimate us: this is no irrational relationship in which (to use a soppy song) "Love lifts us up where we belong", and one bad experience can still ruin the relationship forever.

Marketeers should remember that women's purchasing behavior is complex, and never based solely on an emotional connection.

As I've always said: Be Brave. Be Real. Show Value.

BE your audience.

Yesterday, a journalist who will be interviewing me next week on the topic of marketing to women sent me some questions, one of which really got me thinking.

This was it: "Do you think there need to be more female marketers?"

My answer to this question (Yes!) is the easy part. The difficult part may be the "why?"... but let me explain:

As women think, behave and consume differently than men do, so do female marketers approach marketing a little differently than their male counterparts.

Men, both in life and in business, tend to think in linear, hierarchical terms: "give me the facts / what are the numbers / show me the stats". Same goes for male marketeers.

Overlay this very linear approach to marketing with the female consumers' complex, non-linear, web-based thinking (and consuming) patterns, and things don't quite match up, do they?

Now, I am in no way saying that products for women can only be marketed to by women. I am saying that a product for women marketed ONLY by men is inherently lacking. Exclusion of either gender is never a good idea. To market a product well to either gender, women need to be included in the process (it seems like very common sense, not?). Men and women have many similarities but also differences. To honor the variety in gender, a marketing campaign that includes every perspective will strengthen the outcome.

Female marketers, by the sheer fact that they are, well...female, will approach marketing a little differently - the way they approach life: as a holistically, interconnected, "we notice the itsy-bitsy stuff you're not even mentioning too" kind of way. And to dispell the "warm-fuzzy feeling" this sentence may have wrongly instilled in some readers, remember that women also LOVE details and information. Yes, as female marketers we like the statistics and facts and numbers as much as the guys do, but for us these are not all defining in our marketing approach. We will often follow a gut-feeling or react on something we sense but which is not confirmed in the statistics, because we just know - the way women do - that it holds an important element of truth.

So yes, yes, absolutely: we need more women marketers. Women think differently than men do, so they must be marketed to differently than men. Who better to understand the audience, to relate to the market than someone who is part of it? While I am sure that most of the men who came up the sometimes brilliant, mostly creative campaigns for a variety of tampons (see my earlier post on the topic), I think women were able to more accurately relay which ones worked and which ones were cringe inducing. Sometimes its only a gut reaction, an undefined feeling, a hint, a nuance... but sometimes that is all it takes at the point of purchase for a women to decide to buy or to keep on walking.

Cardinal rule- know your audience. And when you can, when its possible, BE your audience.

A smart product is a battle half won

Smart marketing to women is not just about smart marketing. It's also about smart products.

Rexona has just come up with a very simple yet effective product that illustrates this point. It is a solution to a problem we've all encountered, yet never demanded to be solved: the dry roll-on ball in our roll-on stick.

Let me explain:

Those of us who use a roll-on stick know this scenario:
1. Walk to bathroom cupboard,
2. take out roll-on stick,
3. shake vigorously to lubricate the ball,
4. shake vigorously again with frustrated frown on forehead
5. turn ball of roll-on with finger to expose lubricated area
6. roll onto armpit vigorously for 30 seconds causing chafing before lotion dislodges onto skin

Infuriating, isn't it, that we have to do the whole shake-shake-shake, scrape-across-skin, roll thing before we can get any anti-perspirant lotion onto our skin?

Well ladies, in 2008 our problem is no more.

Rexona has developed a roll-on stick - wait for it - that stands on it's head, so to speak.

No more shaking, no more dislodging the ball before lathering on the anti-perspirant. Just a simple roll-on stick that is made to stand on its head and of which the roll-on ball is lubricated at all times.

Wow! How simple is that?!

Makes you wonder how it took us until 2008 to come up with it, doesn't it?

Now that's 'smart marketing' to women in terms of product development.
And the TV commercial isn't half bad either.)

What can we learn from the Rexona example?
1. The answer to developing an effective, successful product is often much more obvious than we (marketers) think.
2. Use your product the way your consumer does, you'll learn a lot
3. ASK. Ask your consumers what they think of your product: how they use it, what they like, what frustrates them, what they would change if they could. Surely someone must have mentioned their frustration with dry roll-on sticks?

Smart marketing to women indeed isn't just about smart markting. It's also about smart products that answer real needs!

Want to bet this one's going to sell like hot cakes?

Spring is HERE!!!

Apologies for the short absence: work has been enormously busy and in the little free time I had the past two weeks was dedicated to being OUTSIDE in the sun.(Belgians will understand. After a loooong, dreary winter, there's no stopping us). Priorities are priorities, people.

Having said that: there's a lot happening in the exciting world of M2W!

The first issue of the Muse newsletter is due out later this week. If you haven't yet subscribed and you'd like to receive it, drop us a line (link at top of blog)!

First up: A GREAT new site on all matters/blogs related to women (and I'm not talking lipstick and hairspray here!) Have a look here
I much prefer this site to Yahoo's new "female portal", Shine.

Secondly: Clo, here's one for you! US-based TechGirlz is doing a survey on women in technology. How about we give them some European stats too? Take the survey here Let's spread the word!

A great book just out: "What men don't tell women about business" and M2W colleague Andrea Learned's review of the book here.

And last but certainly not least for today: Michelle & Holly, authors of 'The Soccer Mom Myth' and two M2W pioneers, put out a weekly newsletter with tips on how to think about marketing differently. Subscribe here!

The Dove Onslaught begins...

I've blogged about Dove before...About how I think they're just paying lip-service to the idea of smart marketing to women...About the fact that they test on animals and that they should be aware of the fact that at some point in time, people will start noticing that their Campaign For Real Beauty is just that: a campaign. Well...it's begun. Have a look at this Greenpeace ad: a spoof of the original Dove ad that highlights things Dove doesn't want us to know.

Phase 2 of the onslaught not to be minimized: online conversations around the brand. Have a look at this post on The Independent, one of the UK's leading newspapers.

Here's my bet: within 6 months we'll find an animal right organization making a similar spoof showing Unilever (Dove's parent company) testing its products on animals.

To be continued...

Communicating about "that"

"Female hygiene products" have never been an easy topic to communicate about. Some ads are a bit too 'visually creative', others are plain infuriating (have a look at the ad called "Something to cheer about" on InventorSpot). Love it or hate it?
Can you guess my reaction?

I do love this one about the man's perspective though. Women will understand.

Monday Morning Memo

Ok, it's no longer monday morning, I know. But it's still monday, so it's still memo time! Here's a quick round-up of what's happening out there that caught my attention over the past few days:

About social Media, gender and a storm in a cyber teacup:
There's loads being said on the value (or lack of it) of social media out there right now, this post on Lipsticking being just one of them. What else is interesting on social media & gender? This McCann study is worth a read, as is this study on the effects of age and gender on blogging.
Definitively read the post on social media on my good friend Caroline's blog!

Boomer women online
For those interested in how the boomer generation uses technology, the internet and social media, read this post over on Lipsticking and bookmark 'The Boomer Blog'! It has loads of interesting information!
Interesting fact: 80% of boomers use computers, one third of them go on-line every day! (US statistics)

How are buying decisions made?
An interesting post well worth a read (check out this chart that documents the basic characteristics of life development stages!) Helpful reading in understanding what drives us as humans (and consumers) during various life-stages.

How to Shower: Women vs. Men

...because laughing at ourselves once in a while is healthy!