Segments, Shmegments

Audience segmentation. It's one of the "Big Five" I often (ok, always) need to clarify when speaking of marketing-to-women.
I always need to explain that traditional segmentation methods are very linear, not to mention based on very outdated stereotypes and definitions. Audience segments such as 28-35, A-B, 1-4 have become grossly outdated in their ability to correctly define an audience. And certainly women can no longer be pushed into such irrelevant categories.

And then I read this earlier today: "Women aren’t well behaved and they don’t obey when you tell them to stay in their little boxes." Ah, now that made me smile!

It's an excerpt from an article called "Segments, Shmegments" by the team of Just Ask A Woman.

The article goes on to say "If you say she is a Beauty Obsessive, is she allowed to be a shlump on Sundays? If she falls into the segment of being Financially Negligent and she pays her taxes on time will she get the boot? What about Jane, the overstressed working mother? Does she mess up the numbers when she has a relaxing day?

This is not to say that segmentation is misguided overall but I do wish that marketers would keep in mind that women can fall into multiple segments all at once and while that doesn’t make forecasting easier it is the truth. Personally I’d like to see segmentation that allows for more fluidity and flexibility."

As woman, consumer AND marketer, I've been experiencing the disconnect between traditional segmentation and the REAL consumer for years. Indeed: the female consumer is not a static entity that fits neatly into one specific box. As Jen illustrates so well in her article, we can put all the cutesy, creative labels we want on our female consumer, if we don't consider the fact that she is a multidimensional being that will exhibit traits of various 'categories' at different times, we won't understand her, or her thinking or her behavior well enough to reap the long-term benefits of our psycho analysis.

Signed,
A Beauty Obsessive (still in pyjamas), a Controlling Perfectionist (about to embark on a 3-week rally through Africa) and a Conflict Averse Creative (who just told the world's biggest agency exactly what she thought of them).

Friday fun: How to put on a bra

WomensLab - new creative collaboration platform launches

It's a dream I've had for many years: to get women together to the benefit of the individual and the group and together make a difference to the world we live in. It's a dream many told me is not realistic, too 'grand', too time-intensive etc etc etc. A million and one reasons not to do it.

And yet....almost 3 years later, it has become a reality! WomensLab is born!

WomensLab is a collaboration with Jan van Mol of AddictLab, a global creative think tank that already counts over 4.000 creatives and aims to generate innovation across all platforms. Jan and I have known each other since I arrived back in Belgium in 2001 and as we've crossed paths several times over the last years, it was only a matter of time until we decided to bundle our strengths to focus on our common beliefs and goals.

We've defined WomensLab as follows:

WomensLab is a LABORATORY for women across all creative disciplines - a PLAYGROUND for female artists - an ACCELERATOR for creative talent - an INSPIRATION pool for people, projects, brands, a KNOWLEDGE center for gender related marketing, a GENERATOR for female-inspired INNOVATION.

With the launch of WomensLab Muse Communication offers its clients a multi-cultural pool of creatives to tap into to help develop and test everything from new products to innovative and creative communication concepts or campaigns.

You can read the full press release here

Feel free to join us! Register at www.womenslab.org and upload your work! Or follow us via www.womenslab.blogspot.com

Learn from the Future

Last night I attended a VEPEC event where some of Belgium's foremost business leaders from the publishing & media world and politicians discussed the current crisis and its effects on our industry: disastrous to say the least. Some publishers said that income generated by advertising was down by as much as 30% (at least that's what they'll admit to in public). The CEO of the Alfacam Group and founder of the soon to launch television channel "EXQI" went even further, saying that "the 30-second spot will disappear completely in the foreseeable future."
Now if these two small snippets from an evening marked by unspoken unease and questions filled with fear or bewilderment don't spell "dawn of a new world order", then I don't know what it will take to wake people up.
Some people have been "awake" to the new realities for a while, including MIT professor Otto Scharmer. Author of "Theory U", Scharmer is an action researcher who creates innovations in learning and leadership that he delivers through classes and lectures across the globe.
In this 7-minute video he succinctly explains what the revolutionary statement "learn from the future" means. As I watched the video, it struck me that the requirements and method for innovation were based on a right-brain approach, of course also known to be more 'female' in that it requires unbounded qualitative patterns rather than linear sequences. 

Suffice it to say that I am curious to see how a largely hierarchal, linear, male-dominated business world will respond to these new non-linear rules for true innovation.

Welcome to the future of business: 100 companies that will change the world

I've been saying it to anyone who will listen: the current economic crisis will change the way in which we do business - for ever.

But I'm certainly not the first to notice the fundamental societal shifts that are currently shaking up our lives. The signs have been there for all to notice: our unbalanced lifestyles that have lead to countless broken families and stress-related afflictions, the youth of today being dubbed the "work-to-live, not live-to-work generation" or the almost irreversible damage our "Me-myself-and-I" globalized consumerism has caused over the past few decades. Let's be honest: how much longer did we think this excessive and self-obsessed way of living could last?

How will these shifts impact the way we live and do business? Fundamentally, if you ask me.
We will need to (re)find a balance between that has been lost for many decades.

What a refreshing, inspiring discovery it was when I came upon Striding Out's "Future 100" list this morning. The Future 100 list is a compilation of talented young entrepreneurs aged 18-35 who demonstrate entrepreneurial flair and innovation in progressing a responsible business venture. Responsible business is defined as one which demonstrates a balance between economic, environmental and social goals to achieve ultimate business success.

"The future of our world is in the hands of individuals who are committed to generating commercial and ethical returns. Challenging economic times can offer opportunities to question the way we operate as both a business community and a society. We are looking for the 'Future 100' young entrepreneurs who are changing the face of everyday business and improve commerce's impact on the wider world," says Striding Out founder Heather Wilkinson.

Some of the companies that caught our attention:
http://www.thisisredbutton.co.uk/ - design company developing products exclusively for the Aid and Humanitarian markets.
Fair Gift - Fair Trade gifts from Asia, Africa and South America.
TribeWanted - inspirational holidays with a purpose
LM3Online - helps you measure your organization's economic contribution to its community.
Women Like Us - helps Mom's reintegrate into the working community
The Hub - connecting 'the new entrepreneurs' with each other across the globe.
Journeys For Change - takes extraordinary leaders on interactive expeditions to learn from the world's most inspiring social and environmental entrepreneurs.

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!

Survey: Help Us Better Meet Your Business Travel Needs

Ad!dict Creative Lab is a global think-tank that brings together over 4,000 creatives from around the world on innovation and design challenges that need a broader perspective.

They're currently doing a survey on business travel. More specifically: the likes and dislikes thereof with seasoned business travelers. Over the past few decades, women have also become frequent business travelers, and as such, it is important that we share our likes and dislikes - from a woman's perspective!

The team at Ad!dict would really appreciate it if you could take the short 3-minute survey here.

As soon as the project wraps and the findings & recommendations are made public, we'll share a selection of them here! So, stay tuned in the coming months...!

The future of marketing to women = great marketing to everyone?

How about that: an ad that uses humor and gets it right for both sexes!
Well done Heineken!

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.

A video you will never forget.

It's Friday, and as some of my posts here sometimes do, this one has nothing to do with marketing-to-women and everything to do with life.

It's a video I just found on the blog of author Tim Ferriss.

It's a video about self-doubt, something we're all guilty of at some point.
So this video is for all of us, no-one can say "this doesn't apply to me"... To put things back into perspective when we need it most.