andHow To Reach Women

Best Buy Evolves Jill Initiative With Help From Their WoLF Pack

Three years ago Best Buy launched the Jill Initiative (read the Washington Post article here) as part of a larger customer profiling and segmenting strategy designed to target the most profitable segments with a customized approach that would appeal to each.  Men were divided into three customer segments - Buzz (the young tech enthusiast), Barry (the wealthy professional man), Ray (the family man).  Women were identified as Jill - a suburban soccer mom and CEO of her family's household - and only Jill. Particular stores were targeted to better serve Jills, which included things like pink and red balloons at the entrance, a special customer service desk festooned with fake purple flowers and stuffed animals and specially-trained associates in pastel shirts vs. the traditional royal blue.  Best Buy reported that sales to Jills had increased 30% as a result of the new approach, though some questioned if the company missed out on the opportunity to reach, say, Maries (tech savvy entrepreneurs) or Tracys (post-college, pre-family professional women) by directing all of their efforts to Jill.  Over 50% of the population who make the majority of electronics purchases represented with one profile? It didn't add up. Then the whole thing sort of went quietly away and Jill wasn't heard from or referenced again.

Recently, Springwise reported on a new "for and by women" Best Buy store in Aurora, CO which is the result of feedback from 40 local women as well at the company's Women's Leadership Forum or WoLF Pack, which is an internal movement to develop female leadership within the organization.  Earth tones and products grouped into living areas as well as family-friendly restrooms and racecar shaped shopping carts are some of the adjustments.  No pink balloons or pastel shirts and no mention of Jill at all.  Love this idea but wonder if it was necessary to call this a "women's store."  Is there any reason men wouldn't want to shop there?  Likely not, with the exception of some guys being turned off by the idea of shopping in a women's electronic store. And that's a shame.  Perhaps like Jill herself the women's store tag will simply fade away and Best Buy will just become the best place to shop for home entertainment and electronics overall.

Marketing to Women In The Bags?

This tale of two bags is about opportunities yet to be realized.  The first is an occasion looking for a great bag.  This Brandweek article documents the increase in brown bag lunches spurred by recent economic challenges and the CPG companies capitalizing on it.  Pair this growing trend with "green" grocery shopping habits that include selecting paper or bringing your own bag and add to it the fact that traditional brown bags themselves often don't stand up well in crowded office fridges (which tend to include one or two spilled mystery liquid incidents per day) and there's a great opportunity for a store-to-desk bag solution.  Companies could make it easy to bring your own lunch and tout their own sustainable policies with branded bags for new employees.  A little hot/cold innovation, easy cleanup and perhaps even some killer style...Tar-jay are you listening? 

The second tale relies on the idea that if you put something in a woman's bag, she will come to find it necessary, perhaps even essential.  Last week Nintendo announced a partnership with Bags to Riches, an online handbag rental site, where the new Nintendo DS will be inserted in some handbag rentals through the end of this year.  The idea is that status created by the bag and the fashionable items you carry in it will rub off on the new gadget, making the DS the new "it" accessory.  According to the Sept. 19 MediaPost article: 

Samuel Mangiere, chairman and co-founder of the online handbag rental site, calls the Nintendo DS this year's must-have fashion accessory that goes well with handbags. "Carrying the Nintendo DS in your purse makes a statement because I truly believe there's a link between the DS and any belt, sunglasses or pair of shoes," he says. "It tells people: 'I'm up-to-date. I like electronics. I probably have a BlackBerry or an Apple iPhone in my purse, too.'"

This approach, both targeted and grassroots, stands every chance of being successful - if the DS proves itself to be a useful item that the women take out of their purses so others can spot it, check it out (and I include entertainment in the useful category) and hopefully pop for one themselves.  

Who's Really Driving The Green Product Boom?

Unless you've been living under a plastic rock surrounded by ethanol fumes, it's clear that green products are growing like the proverbial (free range) weed.  Several young Hollywood mothers, such as Josie Maran and Jenny McCarthy are launching eco-friendly make-up (Maran) and non-toxic surroundings for kids (McCarthy) and groups such as EcoMoms and Teens for Safe Cosmetics are gaining media attention for their efforts to use social networks to promote more responsible choices. It may surprise you to note however, that none of these groups include members of the demographic which actually accounts for the leading users of green products today. 

According to a recent survey by ICOM Information & Communications, women 55-59 are more than twice as likely than the average consumer to use green products.  Surely Gen X or Y women came in second, right? Actually, men 65-69 years old took that spot, 1.7 times as likely to use green products than the average American. These are your core influencers and early adopters.  Does your green marketing outreach include them?

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.  

  

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.

"Big Green Purse" Gives Women (And Men) Practical Advice To Smarter Eco-Friendly Shopping

One of the most challenging aspects of our country's new green consciousness is that it can be impossible sometimes to determine if what you're buying is really doing more good than harm. For example, did you know that "hypoallergenic," a word many cosmetic companies use to assure women their products are gentle, has, in fact, nothing to do with allergens and no regulations at all as to its meaning? Or that a company can claim its chickens are free-range if they let them out of their cages for just five minutes a day? Or that plastic shopping bags are easier on the environment than paper (though the best solution is, of course, to bring your own)? Diane MacEachern's new book "Big Green Purse" was written on the premise that as the people responsible for 85% of all consumer purchases, women are ideally suited to influence the direction of our planet, simply by voting with our pocketbooks. Here are a few reasons to pick it up:

*Practical, easy-to-understand, guides on which certifications mean something, and which ones are totally bogus
*Advice by spend category (food, gas/cars, cosmetics, household cleansers, etc.) on how to, cost-effectively, shop for green alternatives
*Contact information for companies in a range of consumer categories so you can let them know that responsible business practices matter
*Web addresses for tons of companies Ms. MacEachern has vetted and determined to be eco-friendly, from coffee to wine to household cleansers to home decor and gardening supplies

This is a great guide to have in any household, and something marketers should become familiar with to ensure their brand doesn't inadvertently stray into greenwashing. Best of all, this isn't green for the wealthy, Ms. MacEachern is very conscious of the realities of limited time and money in the majority of U.S. households and offers smart tips for going green on a budget.

Victoria's Secret To Back Off Sexy

In an analyst call reported on by the Wall Street Journal, Victoria's Secret CEO, Sharon Turney, announced that she felt the company had strayed too far from their original message of "ultra-feminine" by over-leveraging the success of their youth-oriented Pink brand to shift all their brands to appeal to a younger (and ever younger - my words, not hers) demographic of girls who aspire to be SEXY, SEXY, SEXY. Victoria's Secret, once a purveyor of elegance and sophistication, became what one friend coined Victoria's Shout Out, and the pulsating music combined with the clusters of fourteen year-olds rummaging through tables of brightly colored padded bras and glittery thongs drove most adult women to shop elsewhere. We've had a few years of this in-your-face sexuality, beginning with Britney's belly button and punctuated by her over-documented uncovered nether-regions. Add to that a series of scandals of young actresses whose nude photos meant for one or more crushes ended up on TMZ, risque Maxim photo spreads, Girls Gone Wild videos, and a push-up bra just doesn't seem all that over the top (bad pun intended) anymore. It's becoming ever more clear that no matter how SEXY a girl might look all dolled up in her skivvies on MySpace, there's another one, and another one and another one, who's body looks just as good and who's willing to display more of it. At a certain point, it actually becomes a little boring (which may be why Victoria's Secret's sales dropped 8% in Q4). Even Playboy is promoting a Miss Playboy Mobile contest where they are asking entrants to only post clothed photos.

This is all indicative of a larger trend that will continue to build as election time nears and likely long afterward - the idea of substance and nuance over proclamations and narcissism. Now that's sexy.

Another Take On Sustainable Business

No, they're not made from 95% post-consumer waste or developed from all organic ingredients, but make no mistake, these business ideas are definitely sustainable, in the green way and the business way. Bag, Borrow or Steal, Netflix and a new toy rental company called Baby Plays are all built on the very appealing idea that consumers want to enjoy items with a short shelf life without seeing their shelves fill up with hardly used items long past their prime. Toys is an absolutely brilliant extension of this concept (founded by a mom, of course), the company allows parents to subscribe at different fee levels to receive a certain amount of toys per month, which they can exchange on a rotating basis. Considering how fast children progress developmentally between the infant and toddler years, and how quickly a new toy becomes old (during the holidays almost in a matter of moments), it makes sense to not have closets full of toys, which you tell yourself you'll save for the next kid or your cousin's kid who, it turns out, both want the new stuff as much as your kid does. How is this sustainable? Part of protecting the environment is simply putting less in it.

Your Best Brand Asset? A Little Humanity

Found this incredible story about Zappos on Michele Miller's Blog. In the quest for efficiency, the human being is often taken out of the customer service equation. A myriad of marketing articles and books bemoan the lack of brand loyalty among today's supposedly fickle consumers, some even going as far as calling women brand sluts. Classy. Want to build loyalty that lasts? Try hiring caring people and give them the latitude to treat their customers like human beings instead of transactions. This one gesture of kindness has brought Zappos untold free publicity and lots of new customers. Why? Because, clearly, we're all STARVED for some kind of acknowledgement of our humanity. Companies talk about "low hanging fruit." This is as low as it gets people - grab it.