Word Of Mouth Marketing To Women

The Power of Voice to Build Buzz, Brand and WOM

During the 2006 holiday season, gift cards sales reached $27.8 Billion , exceeding the estimated of the National Retail Federation by 3 Billion dollars! So how do you make plastic gift cards more personal? The answer comes not from a well known card company such as Hallmark, but from Wisconsin retailer - Lands End. 

What Can Product Development Learn from a Purse?

Over the long holiday weekend, I took time to catch up on a number of articles that have been piling up on my "to read" file. Over the next few posting I will be talking about a wide variety of topics, but today I want to mention a comprehensive study which was done on the inside articles found in your average women's purse. Part ethnography, part qualitative and very informative, this hands on activity can teach us plenty.

Using Time To Differentiate

Mix one part necessity (getting your hair done), one part convenience ("after hours" service) and one part social networking event (live DJ's, cocktails...) and what do you get - a company that is earning word of mouth praise from the busy Manhattan business woman and the trendy, late party goer who wants to look her best for that same night, late night happening.

Using Education to Build WOM And Sales

How do you get people interested in products that they have little experience with? What do you do when the cost of your products represent a real monetary risk if your buyer is makes an uneducated purchase? And what if your product requires an environmental condition to deliver the experience that you are selling? Educational based WOM strategies may be your magic bullet.

Personas & Second City

I read an article in AdAge on 4/9 by Lisa Sanders discussing Persona building, their origin in the web design arena and Cooper's "The Inmates are Running the Asylum". Like many articles over the last two years which discuss the use of personas, Best Buy is mentioned along with its customer centricity push, AKA Jill, Barry and a host of other personas that guide their buyer segmentation and customer centricity efforts. So, with all this effort to build personas, why is it when I get with a group of fellow business women and our discussion turns to our technical needs the comments about Best Buy turn ugly?

Bloomingdales Yummy Mommies - The Right Formula?

The Gap's, Forth & Towne has come and gone. Ditto, for Gymboree Corp's Janeville. Why did these stores fail? Does Bloomingdales , Quotation boutique hold the key to success in the 35-45 year old market? Depending on who you read, Forth & Towne and Janeville's efforts failed due to declining demographics, too wide a demographic segment, and in the case of the Gap, systemic problems in the parent that distracted them from supporting the launch of a new product. Lets take a quick look at what Bloomingdales is saying will keep Quotation from suffering the same fate as those that went before.   

The Painless Tummy Tuck

Thousands of women are finding help for their middle age spread, not from the cosmetic surgery industry, but from the retail clothing industry. While the majority of fashion designers and retail stores continue their "head in the sand" approach to fashion design and marketing, a few entrepreneurial business women have embraced the girth challenged and female Boomer segments. One brave designer turned retailer - Tummy Tuck jeans, alias, Not Your Daughter's Jeans - or NYDJ- has seized upon the new business opportunity presented by the more full figured women and they are reaping huge financial rewards.

Training- The Missing Link In Electronics Marketing

CES 2007 (the annual Consumer Electronics show) is over. Anyone that has read a paper or listened to the news knows that Apples, iphone was  THE hit of the show. Yesterday, Michelle Miller, from WonderBranding did a post women and technology. The data clearly points to women's purchasing power regarding technology, now Radio Shack has taken a first step to turn women from just interested, to evangelistic about technology.

What the Fashion Industry Can Learn from Dove

The fashion industry is finally looking at the role they play in creating a view of beauty that sometimes can do great harm to their employees and customers. How could this new awareness gain global support in the designer, female fashion retailers and female buyer communities? Taking a page from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty could be a great place to start.

Female Affluents - Send Cash Not Gifts!

The American Affluence Research Center's (AARC's) recent survey uncovered an interesting item regarding the preferences of affluent women and gifts - guess what - they want cash instead of gifts. The AARC's president stated in an interview that "its like they (women) don't have confidence that their husband is going to pick the right kind of clothes for them," - while this may be one factor influencing the preference for cash (and we believe a very  minor one at that) the desire for cash versus a gift goes much deeper than clothing for a women, it speaks to what often makes women and men very different in how they view wealth and its benefits.