andHow To Reach Women

Clinton And Palin Interchangeable? The Idea Is Simply Mad

Last night's episode of Mad Men on AMC featured a plot line which included a team of neanderthalesque ad account executives explaining to their sole female colleague that women wear bras solely to please men, fit and comfort be damned, and that all women can be neatly categorized as either "Jackies" or "Marilyns." When she suggests there may be women who don't fit into either group, they shoot her patronizing looks that indicate how little she understands her own gender.  The scene is entertaining in the sheer level of ridiculousness.  Can you believe people ever thought this way?, the writers seem to ask.    

There is much speculation that John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate as a strategy to pick up disenfranchised Hillary Clinton supporters.  The idea here being that regardless of political views or experience, in the minds of female voters across the country, one woman is as good as another.  That women are so intent on helping one of their own get into the White House they would do so at the expense of their own convictions and values. If McCain is hoping to engage social conservative women, then perhaps he is on the right track, though the news that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is 5 months pregnant can't be good on that front.  But the idea that Hillary supporters will jump on the Palin bandwagon simply because she is a woman brings that Mad Men strategy room to mind.  Can't you just picture it:  "Hey guys, at the end of the day, all women are either Hillarys or Sarahs.  They just want to see another girl up there."

The biggest block of women voters are those who don't identify strongly with either Clinton or Palin. These women are looking for answers on key issues such as the economy, healthcare, energy and national security and they'll vote for the candidate who makes the best case.  

Netflix looks to delight....will Starbucks do the same?

The thing about inviting customers to give you their opinion is that it gives them the impression that you plan to respond, particularly to feedback that is consistent and overwhelming.  Starbucks new social media site, www.mystarbucksidea.com, designed to create an open and visible communication with the brand has received loads of feedback that the company's new Pike Place brand is not strong enough for many coffee lovers tastes and they would like a stronger option available in the afternoons, which now only offers Pike Place as an option. Not get rid of the brew altogether, but offer an additional CHOICE.  In response, the company is beginning to sell a second, stronger coffee option in the afternoon, but only in select locations, and touts the successful attraction of new customers with the more accessible Pike Place blend.  Trading old customers for new is risky at best and the company seems uncertain whether to return to its connoisseur roots or challenge McDonald's head on, which is a brand cheapener if you ask me. Kudos to McDonald's for framing themselves as a true challenger to Starbucks and getting the brand to bite...Check out this WSJ article for more on the Pike Place controversy.

Netflix has no such robust and transparent communication tool but certainly responded when the announcement that they planned to remove their Profiles feature, which allows different family members to create their own queues, lists, etc. was met with a barrage of phone calls and emails.  In my email inbox came the following message yesterday under the simple and straight-forward subject line: We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

	Dear Tami, You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.  -Your friends at Netflix

For Brand Enhancement In Challenging Times: Fill The Service Gaps

This morning on the way into work I heard a radio ad for Whole Foods, the first I've ever heard, and the message wasn't around their to-die-for meat department, or organic wine selection, or artisan cheeses or chemical-free household cleansers.  Instead it squarely took on the price issue, pointing out that Whole Foods, and their private label 365 brand in particular, is actually priced much lower than you'd expect, and cited a couple of examples: sparkling water: $1.29 or free-range eggs at $2.49.  The brand clearly is reaching out to a wider audience and why not at least give Whole Foods a spin if the prices are comparable to conventional grocery stores, whose self checkout lines that NEVER work properly are enough to drive anyone over the edge. It may not be more for less, but more for the same sounds pretty darn appealing.

Brands in all sorts of categories are filling the service gap and creating opportunities to attract new customers and build loyalty.  Consider the new program Marriott just launched for their Marriott Rewards members which allows them to bypass the new luggage charges American Airlines has instituted (and which others are sure to follow) by allowing members to use rewards points to have their luggage picked up from their home or office and shipped round-trip, free of charge, including skis and other awkward or heavy items. If Marriott is one of the hotels where you normally stay, isn't this a nice incentive to make it the main place you stay?

And, once again, I have to give kudos to Apple Store for delivering 100% on the increased service level promised in the Ad Age article I recently blogged about. Shopping for a new computer for my step-daughter this past weekend I was impressed by the amount of staff on the sales floor and friendly, knowledgeable service, including quickly completing the rebate form online so I didn't have to later.  When a customer service survey arrived in my inbox the next day I took the time to fill it out while still high on all those good shopping vibes.  If you haven't been to an Apple Store - go.  These guys are setting the service standard and any type of retailer could benefit from this approach.  

  

PC Has A Cool New BFF. Should Mac Be Worried?

The June issue of Fast Company features a cover story on ultra-hipster ad shop, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and the company's new $300mm mission to make Microsoft cool.  Alex Bogusky, clad in black t-shirt and jeans, gives a confident smile from the magazine's cover looking legitimately cooler than Mac (from the infamous Mac vs. PC ads) himself.  If anyone can do it, this guy can.  If advertising is the main issue, which, by many accounts, it is.  As Danielle Sacks reported in her story, Apple's humorous and popular 2-year-old "Mac vs. PC" campaign has been widely credited by industry analysts with rebranding Microsoft:

Nothing is doing more to carve away at Microsoft's reputation -- and contribute to its loss of market share -- than the assault launched by Apple two years ago in the form of the "Mac vs. PC" spots featuring The Daily Show satirist John Hodgman. The ads became immediate pop-culture fixtures, spawning more than 1,000 video spoofs on YouTube and taking home last year's Grand Effie, the ad industry's highest honor for effectiveness. "Nobody messes with anyone in the tech industry the way Apple has messed with Microsoft," says Enderle. "It's the first time I've ever seen a major national campaign that disparages a competitor, and the competitor just sits back and takes it. If somebody tried to do that to Oracle, you wouldn't be able to find the body." Gartner media research analyst Andrew Frank credits Apple -- whose annual media spend is less than half of Microsoft's nearly $1 billion budget -- with single-handedly rebranding Microsoft "as a kind of self-conscious and self-absorbed nerd that is out of touch with the normal lives and needs of its users."

I would propose that one thing has done more to carve away at Microsoft's reputation and contribute to its loss of market share and that is Microsoft itself.  The ads wouldn't strike such a chord if the content didn't contain multiple grains of truth.  And those truths can be tracked back to the way Microsoft has chosen to conduct business - releasing Vista when it was buggy and far from ready for prime time and, in some cases, forcing distrusting consumers to make the switch when they purchased new PC's by making Vista the only option. (A major reason we, quite happily now I might add, switched to Macs last summer...)  The huge marketing push behind Vista only served to further infuriate customers who felt the company had misled them as to the operating system's benefits, which sorely disappointed when it came to compatibility and ease-of-use.  

Apple didn't rebrand Microsoft.  They exploited key weaknesses. And rather than addressing those weaknesses, Microsoft, seemingly, has chosen instead to invest millions in creating a new image.  But while Microsoft and Bogusky explore new frontiers of cool, Apple has dialed up the heat again. This time by pouring resources into making superior customer service a key element of their marketing and brand.  See this Ad Age article to get the details...

Can we expect to see PC kicking Mac to the curb anytime soon?  Not unless Microsoft is willing to invest at least an equal amount of capital in making sure their products and service exceed the expectations the market, and this new campaign, will set.  At the very least, they should try to meet them.

Will Avon's New Cause Campaign Hit The Mark?

When big brands get behind causes, it is amazing what they can do.  The Lance Armstrong Foundation's LiveStrong wristband campaign raised $6mm for cancer research ($5 mm from sales, $1mm from Nike donation) and, according to the LAF website, the wristbands are worn by more than 55mm people worldwide in support of cancer survivors.  The American Heart Association's Go Red campaign raised awareness about heart disease in women (typically assumed to be a man's disease, which causes very different symptoms in women) and resulted in $60mm raised and a 55% increase in awareness and, most importantly, inspired 430,000 people to get a check-up.  Susan G. Komen's breast cancer movement is perhaps the most famous, inspiring a range of brands - from BMW to Campbell's to Lee Jeans - to paint their marketing campaigns pink in a (mostly) good way every October, raising huge awareness and funds.  

So, I was excited to read in Women's Wear Daily today that Mark, an Avon brand targeted to the Gen Y set, has developed a cause campaign to help prevent dating abuse and partner violence.  Reality show star and campaign spokesperson Lauren Conrad has designed a special "Have a Heart" necklace, retailing for $22, to raise funds.  The kind of disappointing disconnect is that Ms. Conrad's comment regarding the collaboration makes her seem either woefully unaware of the seriousness of the cause or just unaware that her collaboration is related to the cause at all.  As reported in WWD:

Conrad said, "It's a great collaboration since it empowers women to do what they want and encouraging them to go out there and be their own person."

For whatever reason, Lauren Conrad has become a celebrity in her own right with a huge amount of influence with young girls and teens.  Hopefully by the time the campaign launches in September, her talking points will be back on track because violence against women and girls is a worldwide problem that has reached epidemic proportions as evidenced by yesterday's announcement from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he will soon appoint a Messenger of Peace tasked entirely with advocacy for ending violence against women in response to "an increasing and alarming number of women and girls are falling victim to sexual violence in conflict."

One of the benefits, and responsibility, of celebrity is the opportunity to use your influence to bring attention to important causes.  Ms. Conrad and Mark have the opportunity to engage a hard-to-reach group with an important and timely message and I'm hopeful they will make an impact that goes far beyond a pretty necklace.

How Funny Is Your Sports Bra?

Women's Wear Daily posted this article on a new campaign from compression athletic gear manufacturer CW-X, known to date in the sports bra world for their print campaigns which display cringe-inducing images, (such a female torso clad in multiple sports bras and duct tape) to represent all that well-endowed women go through to get proper support when they run.  Their newest viral campaign, which ran online in May, "The Apology Letter" takes a humorous shot at minimizing the lechery factor of inadequately supported breasts by featuring a young woman reading an apology letter to all the men (and one woman) who gawk at her on her running route who will no longer have the opportunity now that she is well supported by her CW-X bra.  

When you've only got a few seconds to get someone's attention, humor can be a hugely effective tool.  It's interesting that in many years of working in women's sports apparel, gawking wasn't an issue customers tended to bring up about sports bras.  Mostly they referenced the need for comfort as the bounce factor is just plain painful.  Although I do have a DD friend who needed new running shoes and didn't feel comfortable running on the store treadmill to be evaluated because she didn't have the right bra on and was embarrassed to bounce even though it was just she and the saleswoman in the store - not a gawker in sight.  

The most effective thing about the ad is that the woman runs in place and you can see first-hand that her breasts stay put. However, she is of average size and it would be interesting to see the company extend the campaign with women of a range of sizes.  Seeing a D or above woman pass the bounce test - now that'd sell a ton of bras. A last thought on the creative - including male runners in the gawker category, which was peopled with the "hot dog vendor," "construction worker" high school students waiting for a bus and other over-the-top stereotypes seemed to take a little of the joke edge off and push it into the "all guys are sexist jerks" category and the whole girls-against-the-boys thing in sports is kind of tired at this point.

It was a bit of a challenge to find, but you can check out the ad here.  Note to CW-X: just because the ad buy is over, doesn't mean you should bury it on your website, where I would have sent this traffic had I been able to easily locate it...

.

The New Menopause: It Ain't What It Used To Be, But It's Still No Disneyland

Women's Voices For Change is a blog I've followed for a while that provides smart writing and analysis on a variety of topics with a perspective relevant to women over 40 - their tagline is "News, Opinion & Commentary for Women Over 40 - Defining The New Menopause," which is why I was inspired to write a post for them that I would normally post here about the dismal job many companies are doing in connecting with Boomer women.  Grab your sunscreen and a fruity beverage, we're going to Menopauseland! 

Fortune 500 Board Diversity Directly Linked to Business Success

Catalyst, a non-profit advisory group working toward inclusivity in business, released the results of a study where it looked at the relationship between women's representation in corporate-officer positions and board-of-director positions in the U.S. Fortune 500 companies. The results leave no doubt that including women in the boardroom has a direct effect on business performance. As reported in Canada's Financial Post some of their findings include:

On average, companies with the highest representation of women in corporate-officer positions financially outperformed those with the lowest representation. In fact, return on equity was 35.1% higher. Total return to shareholders was 34% higher

The numbers jumped for women serving as directors on Fortune 500 boards. On average, return on equity was 53% higher for those boards with a high representation of women than those with the least women; return on sales was 42% higher; and return on invested capital was 66% higher

So in these don't-say-the-R-word times, when shareholders are clamoring for solutions, perhaps one smart step would be to reach out to a couple of female board members. The numbers certainly add up.
,

Is "Boomer" The New B-Word?

Ann Taylor has decided that now isn't the time to pursue a special store offering for style-starved Boomer women, citing sluggish sales of Chico's and Talbot's as the reason behind their decision to shelve the new concept they'd planned to launch this fall to serve a market they once called "significantly underserved." Certainly focusing in on improving sales of their core Ann Taylor and Loft brands is a smart move, but the assumption that because Chico's and Talbot's are experiencing slower sales means the boomer women's market isn't viable is not sound thinking. Perhaps sales are slowing because the merchandise has become predictable and doesn't hold the same appeal it did a few years back. When you see Madonna, almost 50, staring out at you from the cover of Vanity Fair in a skimpy bodysuit the idea of the Chico's "garanimals for grandmas" (bash my anonymous friend for this phrase, not me) mix-and-match outfits doesn't quite hit the mark. Not that all boomer women want to dress like Madonna, clearly, but some style and sophisticated sex appeal would be welcome. Come on, we know there is a retailer out there ready to serve this disposable-income-bearing, savvy market with stylish apparel and stellar service. Hint- just don't say you're a "boomer women's store" - then the markets, and the public might actually give you a shot.

Have You Watched A Ford Ad Lately?

There is something about marketing that companies can learn from Ford. Yes, I typed that right - Ford, the US automaker who has been bleeding money for years now. But I'm not talking about running a business - yet. What I am referring to is their new marketing campaign, "Ford. Drive One," which leverages three key lessons in marketing to women extremely well - and not at the expense of alienating men.

1) The campaign is centered around the consumer, featuring multiple spots addressing 4 specific needs: Quality, Green, Safety, Smart (or technology)

2) Employees deliver the messages - not actors or scion Bill Ford (remember how bad those were?) - who work in the areas featured and can tell of the benefits in their own words, connecting the consumers to the real people behind the products vs. some faceless, out-of-touch corporation.

3) The nods to women's needs are there, but they are subtle and contextual. For example, the Quality spot features Elizabeth Baron, a virtual reality and advanced visualisation technical expert at the company, talking about the Ford Fusion and how her work allows them to experience the vehicle how the consumer sees it. As she speaks a young man wearing goggles reaches for a virtual rear view mirror. "Now try it as a small female," Baron instructs. "Different, huh?" she says. Then the action moves on, but the point is made - we're thinking about ALL drivers. And it wasn't about the vehicle color or room for kids or any of the other typical women/mom areas. Pure functionality. Nice.

Not a surprise that this smarter approach to marketing comes with the hire of former Toyota marketing veteran James Farley as Ford CMO. The spots even directly reference Toyota, stating that Ford now matches them in quality. If their product can live up to the campaign, we may see a turnaround yet. Read more about the campaign here.