Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

I have talked with lots of multi-tasking/multi-minding moms this week on the topic of, no surprise, shopping. According to the news reports, Black Friday and Cyber Monday both did fairly well (Cyber Monday better), but the value of individual purchases is down across the board.

The angle I continue to be most interested in is the time element. Shopping takes so much time we've practically become too busy to shop, right?! While I am a dedicated online shopper b/c it saves so much time, so many of the moms I talked to got up at ungodly hours on Friday morning (after preparing Thanksgiving dinners the day before) and went in search of good deals.

How do you make time to do your holiday shopping?

Do You Multi-Mind or Mini-Task?

Many of the women and experts I interviewed for my book and much of the research that I've seen and done over recent years explored how women have bypassed multi-tasking and are multi-minding, or mentally juggling the many dimensions of our robust lives.

Have now seen coverage and books on the idea of mini-tasking, or breaking down tasks into bit-sized parts, in come cases to the extent of writing down all of those steps, to make a task more easily accomplished.
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/06/22/smallb2.html

What's your approach -- mental juggling or itemizing?

In Praise of Slowness or Too Busy to Shop?

I love the concept behind Carl Honore's new book, In Praise of Slowness. See story from Huff Post here: http://tinyurl.com/ybm4cff. Given all of the data I saw to write Too Busy to Shop, lives are getting busier and women, for the most part, are embracing that busyness.

I think slowing down in parts of your life has merit -- you just have to pick your battles --or change your lifestyle, which many women won't be doing anytime soon.

What do you think?

Women of Personality

Rohit Bhargava's Women of Personality 2nd Edition ebook has officially launched and is now live at:http://www.thepersonalityproject.com/wop2. Check it out. My thanks to Rohit for including me in this inspiration effort.

In less than 24 hours, the ebook already have nearly 500 views and hundreds of tweets pointing to the effort and was featured as the Top Presentation Of The Day on Slideshare.net!

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the M2Moms Conference, www.m2moms.com, in Chicago on Oct. 21 and 22.

Harvard Business Review: Women Now Drive the World Economy

having done the research myself, in conjunction with Ketchum, and watching many other studies of the past five years, I can say that I am not surprised to see the recent headline in the Harvard Business Review that women now drive the world economy. See preview here: http://tinyurl.com/ltjzumy.

The entire article is brief and worth the read. It cites global consumer spending, missteps by companies like Dell and fact that "most companies have much to learn about selling to women." Sad, but true.

Too Busy to Shop starts with that premise and provides a framework for solutions with case examples. If you are a marketer or business, go to www.amazon.com and buy a copy of the book. If you are a female consumer, I continue to collect examples, good and bad, of what marketers are doing from your POV. Please send along your thoughts.

I look forward to hearing from you.

NYTimes Magazine: Why Women's Rights Are the Cause of Our Time

If you have not read the Aug. 23rd New York Times Sunday Magazine about Women's Rights, click this link now and read it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html#

I've worked in the marketing to women business for many years and read avidly about issues affecting women. But, after reading the series if articles in the NYT Magazine yesterday (which I read cover to cover), I was reminded of the many, serious issues facing women worldwide and of my responsibility as a woman to help other women become educated and succeed in business, as well as in life.

There are tips in the articles about how we can support important causes and organizations and, over time,I have supported many of them. I am particularly proud of Ketchum's efforts to support an organization called Room to Read, www.roomtoread.org, whose mission is to educate girls. Room to Read works with local villages in many developing countries to establish schools, libraries and do local language publishing with an emphasis on girls' education.

Please join me in considering, and then acting upon, things we can all do to help, like providing microfunding for women trying to start businesses in developing countries through www.kiva.org, sponsoring a girl or woman through www.womenforwomen.org, donating to Room to Read at www.roomtoread.org or some other action that will positively impact women globally.

WSJ: The Fans Know Best

In my book, I talk a good deal about how "too busy to shop"consumers are flocking to online/social networking sites and using those sites as a filter for credibility and a short-cut for making purchase decisions. Consumers are not going to branded sites nearly as much. In fact, in my book, I predict that visits to branded sites "will slow to a trickle" compared to these other sites.

The Wall Street Journal had a great article in today's edition called "The Fan Knows Best" by two marketing researchers that illustrates that point. The article calls out: 1. Stop Controlling Everything 2. Welcome Diversity. 3. Give Visitors Ways of Interacting and 4. if you can't be like the fan sites, at least monitor and support them.

See full text here.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204482304574222062946162306.html

Social Media "Lite?"

I have heard so many multi-minding women say that they have social media "fatigue." You know, that condition where you toggle between FB, Twitter and your favorite blogs and you just get tired of or can't find the time to keep up. I've heard many women say they want more "aggregators," or places they can go for more of a one-stop shop that would cut down on time and effort.

Here's an interesting approach being explored by Facebook from this morning's Daily Beast...

Facebook To Launch 'Lite' Version
Do you yearn for the good old days, when Facebook did not have all those annoying applications? Well yearn no longer. Facebook has just tested a 'Lite' version of its site that strips down all the complicated features and leaves only the basics: the wall, the photos, the status updates, and the friends. The site was designed so that it could be accessed from parts of the world with limited broadband speed, but may well have appeal to the average user. It is as yet unclear, however, whether the site will be available in the United States. News of the streamlined site was leaked late last night when Facebook mistakenly sent invites to a wide range of users. Commentators are already suggests that this is a move by Facebook to better compete with Twitter, which it failed the purchase last year.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/?cid=hp:topnav:cs

Just as many marketers are jumping on board FB with applications like fan pages and stores, the game changes.

Back to School: Are You Ready?

As a multi-minding mom, you can't escape the topic of "back to school." Online sites, news articles, conversations at family or community picnics are all abuzz with "are you ready for back to school?"

My son suppresses the thought of going back to school, so I try to hide back to school prep from him. I order the kids' school uniforms from www.landsend.com because it's so easy... I measure the kids, order everything online, have it delivered to my door step and, they provide a return mailing address slip so I can make returns without having to look up addresses and write out a label. The box of uniforms arrives and my son didn't have to go try on clothes or even think about school before school starts.

On the other hand, I am having the darnedest time trying to find cute, size 1 shoes in any shade of purple (her favorite color) online for my daughter. I may have to actually visit a shoe store. Oh no!

What do you do to prep for back to school and how do you do it? Is any marketer or retailer making it really easy for you? Marketers -- are you doing something for back to school that you want moms to know? Let me know.

The Advertising Show Interview and #9 on Kindle

Will do a fun interview with Ray and Brad, hosts of Ad Age's The Advertising Show. http://www.theadvertisingshow.com/. It's an audio interview that will run this Sunday, Aug. 9 at 5 p.m. ET. Listen in or download it from the site at a later date. The show has great content and you may be interested in some of the past interviews, as well.

The book has been getting some terrific coverage which helped propel it to the #9 spot, in it's category of Business/Marketing/Research, in the Kindle store (8.5.09)!

BlogHer: Deep Discussions and Lots of Fun

BlogHer '09 was an unbelievably energetic gathering of nearly 1,400 bloggers, influentials, media and marketing folks that covered topics ranging from disclosure and the FTC guidelines to fall fashion and makeovers onthe trade show floor.

I was there to attend the business conference (definitely worthwhile), sign Too Busy to Shop books (see me with Forbes Woman reporter, Heidi Brown at left), and meet and greet the wonderful cadre of bloghers.

Key takeaways from the business conference:

- Don't try to go t from zero to 60 in social media. Listen and take logical next steps. Avoid "cool tools" until they are the logical next step.

- LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN, before, during and after the program. Do nothing before listening.

- Get your organization on board internally, including legal.

- Measure the quality and quantity of online engagement.

- Approach bloggers with an authentic and relevant theme.

- Disclosure and the FTC Guidelines are a hot topic, with disclosure being the key.

By far, the best part was the interaction with other marketers, bloggers and media. What a great group that I am honored to be a part of.

More to come later on the main BlogHer conference.

Great Stats Coming out of BlogHer09

Hello from BlogHer 09 where over 1,000 bloggers are gathered. What a great atmosphere with great stats coming out of it for marketers.

Next year BlogHer '10 will be held in NY on Aug 6 and 7!

With over 42 million women blogging every week and 30 percent of women ditching newspapers for online news, there is more reason than ever for marketers to be connecting with and engaging bloggers.

More to come!

BlogHer Business '09 Covering Hot Topics

The room is packed with marketers and companies interested in engaging the women online here at BlogHer Business '09 in Chicago. If you missed it this year, book early for next year.

Up first was the topic of the State of the Social Media World, including paid product reviews and the importance of disclosure. Listening now to Lizzie Schreier, the woman in charge of Internet marketing at AllState. Lessons learned so far:
- the importance of taking small steps
- getting buy-in from legal, educating internal audiences
- analyzing what other industries and companies have done.

Looking forward to upcoming cases that include Fiskaars, Prego, Coachand Trop 50.

Check out my more frequent updates and key takeaways @toobusytoshop.

Heading Out to BlogHer '09

Can't wait to see many friends and colleagues at BlogHer '09, http://www.blogher.com/. I will be attending the BlogHer Business conference on Thursday, May 23 and will tweet from the conference for those of you who can't make it.

Ketchum is a sponsor of the morning break on Day One (Friday, July 24) from 10 to 10:30. Stop in to the "Ketchum Mixer" and make some new contacts. I will also be participating in the book signings for Too Busy to Shop in the BlogHer bookstore from noon to 1 on Friday. Stop by and say hello!

Engagement Report by Charlene Li

Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, and research partner Wetpaint, today released the Engagement Report, an analysis of the ranking of the Top 100 brands that correlates deep social media engagement with financial performance. research done by Ketchum in the past clearly shows that online AND offline engagement are keys to reaching multi-minding women, so I am looking forward to digging into this new report.

Check it out at www.engagementdb.com

Join the Cause at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares

If you haven’t already heard the news – Kellogg Company has announced a transformational partnership with Katalyst, Ashton Kutcher’s social media studio, to raise awareness of the growing hunger epidemic in the U.S. and encourage consumers to donate to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization.

At the forefront of the partnership is a new “people-powered” Web video, directed by Demi Moore and produced by Ashton Kutcher. The video features user-generated content submitted by consumers moved to end hunger following requests that @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) and @mrskutcher (Demi Moore) posted on their respective Twitter feeds and Facebook Pages. The video can be found on the KelloggCares Facebook® Page at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares.

Please check it out and tell anyone you know to join the cause at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares.

The video and partnership is all part of Kellogg Company’s ongoing commitment to fight hunger. In April, the Company announced that it is donating an entire day’s worth of cereal production – more than 55 million cereal servings – to Feeding America. The donation of 3.5 million pounds of cereal is worth approximately $10 million.

Good for Kellogg and please join!

Tom Peters Cites Too Busy to Shop Stats on His Blog

Marketing guru Tom Peters cites stats from Too Busy to Shop on his blog. Check it out here: http://www.tompeters.com/

Tom, a big proponent of marketing to women, then poses the question "so?" as in so what are we going to do about marketing to women in a better way. If you've read Tom's books or blog, you know he's about marketing excellence, particularly when it comes to women. As he said in his book Trends, which he co-authored with my friend Marti Barletta, "women buy damn near everything."

So, as marketers and business owners, what are we going to do about it?

Chicago Event for Ketchum and Too Busy to Shop

If you are in Chicago, please join me at a Too Busy to Shop book event hosted by Ketchum. The event is at 5:30 at the Mars Gallery on W. Fulton Market. RSVP to kelly.mcarthur@ketchum.com.

If you have not seen the fantastic article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Marketing to the Modern Woman by Joyce Gannon, check it out here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09130/968829-28.stm?cmpid=newspanel3

Happy Mother's Day to All of My friends

Wishing all of my friends and colleagues a very happy Mother's Day. Hope you are not "too busy" to enjoy yourself and your families and take some time to relax.

I wanted to share a story that appeared in Forbes.com this week about mothers as role models. My mon, Patty Murray, and I are included. Check it out here: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/mothers-daughters-relationships-forbes-woman-power-careers.html

Enjoy!

Too Busy to Shop Book Tour Hits Chicago This Week

The book event in Dallas last week was fantastic. Lots of friends from Ketchum and wonderful guests. A great crowd. Wine tasting of Stagecoach Vineyards' Veraison Synchrony (2004) was just yummy. I highly recommend it.

This week, the I'll be in Chicago on May 29 and 30 at the M2W Conference, www.m2w.biz, the largest marketing to women conference in the country. Can't wait to see my many friends there. I'll be speaking about the book on the morning of April 29.

Check out my guest blog post that just appeared on cnbc.com. http://www.cnbc.com/id/30389508.

Let me know if you are attending M2W. Hope to see you there.

Too Busy to Shop Book Tour in NY and Dallas

Had a ball in NY last week at the Too Busy to Shop launch event at the Ketchum office in NY. We had a great turn out at the event, including industry luminaries like Marti Barletta of the Trendsight Group, Emily McKhann of themotherhood.com and Stacy DeBroff of momcentral.com. Also met with ForbesWoman while I was in the city.

This week brings trips to New York and Dallas for the book tour. Will be doing an interview with the NYTimes tomorrow and them off to Dallas for an event for the Ketchum office there.

Lots of exciting coverage of the book. Check out the release on wsj.com http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20090406-904569.html.

More to come!

Check Out Special Mommytrackd.com Promotion

I have been a fan of mommytrackd.com for a long time. With the theme of "managing the chaos of modern motherhood," mommytrackd.com always seems to have something that helps me, or at least makes me think or laugh.

From April 13 - 27, mommytrackd.com is featuring a promotion for my book, Too Busy to Shop. Enter here http://www.mommytrackd.com/to register to win a great prize package for, you guessed it, those women who are too busy to shop.

Check it out and let me know how you enjoyed mommytrackd.com

Too Busy to Shop Book Officially Launched

As of yesterday, Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women has officially been launched! Check out the news release here: http://www.ketchum.com/Kelley_Skoloda_Too_Busy_to_Shop_news_release. Input from women who have contributed to this blog was used tow write two chapters in the book.

Lots of exciting launch activities planned, including a launch event in Ketchum's NY offices on April 16. Interviews scheduled with ForbesWoman and the New York Times.

Check out www.kelleymurrayskoloda.com for calendar of events and more details.

Too Busy to Shop? Try Good Apples

Grocery shopping has become such a drag for a busy woman, especially since my family seems to be drinking up the milk at a record pace. What was once a week is now at least a twice a week stop. I try to stock up on canned and staple items for my pantry, but it always seems to be a losing battle.

That's why I've come to love Good Apples, the Virtual Farmers Market. https://www.goodapples.org/index.html. I order select items on a Monday or Tuesday and they are delivered to my office on Thursday. It saves me from that extra, very aggravating stop at the grocery store and the products offered are fresh and organic.

What are you doing to save time when shopping for groceries?

Big Green Purse: Great Place if You Are Too Busy to Shop

If you have not visited www.biggreenpurse.com or read the book by the same name, now is the time. Diane MacEachern, founder and CEO of Big Green Purse, was just named an "eco-hero" by Glamour Magazine (see Web site above for more details). Congratulations, Diane!

“Future generations depend on our vigilance. We must care,” says Lisa Jackson in the magazine.

Diane is a great example of caring and gives women excellent examples of how they can care and put the power of their purse behind their purchase decisions.

Let me know how you put the power of your purse behind your purchase decisions when it comes to green products.

Recession-hit companies target female consumers -- The Economist

According to a recent article in The Economist, companies are "taking a different track and trying to get customers to open their purses instead" of their wallets. See story here: http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13278440&source=hptextfeature

Makes perfect sense to me as women, who account for nearly 85% of the household purchases, are the ones who must buy at least some things and will most certainly shop us out of this economy.

It still astounds me that these facts are considered "news." Women have been the primary household shopper for decades. What's more newsworthy now, I think, is what Marti Barletta points out in The Economist piece. She references that 80% of the recession-related job losses have been suffered by men. That means that women are now packing a powerful two-punch of making the purchase decisions and bringing in more of the household income.

Marketers, take note. You must be marketing to multi-minding women. Your future depends on it.

Busy Moms, Try Half Moon in Jamaica for Family Vacation

My husband and I started going to Half Moon in Jamaica years ago with a number of other couples who like to golf. What a ball -- four couples, a villa on the gold course, a swimming pool and lots of rum punch.

That was then.

But what we have discovered is that Half Moon is an even better place for families than it is for couples. The staff and the facilities are very kid-friendly. You can spend quiet days on the beautiful beach or have your fill of play at the children's center, the tennis courts (with lessons for the little ones), the dolphin experience (have a dolphin kiss your cheek), the lovely equestrian center (run by horse pro, Trina DeLisser) and much more.

If you are too busy to shop for a place to go on a family vacation, take a look at some point at Half Moon. http://www.halfmoon.com/. Don't let the Web site fool you, it's not just beautiful people and beaches.

Never Too Busy to Do Some Important Things

My family and I had a chance recently to take a vacation and, throughout the week, I was reminded of the things that, even as a multi-minding woman, I'll never be too busy to do:

-Spend time with my lovely children
-Tell my husband I love him
-Be inspired by the color of the sky
-Get up early and get a good night's rest
-Be thankful for life's many blessings

I hope you find time for these things, too!

Excerpt from Too Busy to Shop Now Available

Just received approval from my publisher to share an excerpt from my upcoming book, Too Busy to Shop. The excerpt is available on the site for the book at www.kelleymurrayskoloda.com. Stop by and give it a quick read!

"A Woman's World" Great for Women Who Are Too Busy to Shop

Check out Frito-Lay’s new multimedia campaign “Only in a Woman’s World.” The “Only in a Woman’s World” animated campaign features four friends – Nikki, Anna, Cheryl and Maya – who experience those “that’s so me moments” most of us multi-minding women can relate to.

Women can follow the friends’ adventures through comic strips, short webisodes, interactive online games and sharable e-cards, as well as traditional print and television advertisements.

Visit the Web site at www.awomansworld.com.

Don't Be Too Busy to Read New Digital Moms Report

If you market to multi-minding moms, this new report on digital moms is a great read.

http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/02/14/marketing-to-moms-read-the-digital-mom-report/

In my research at Ketchum, I have found that moms consider virtual friends and family to be as credible as real friends and family, which is their go-to resource for purchase recommendations 90+ percent of the time.

If you are marketing to women and moms, you must be engaging them online.

Not Too Busy on My Birthday

Celebrated my birthday on Friday the 13th and it was a lucky day for me. Although the wind storms knocked out our power for almost 48 hours and my house was 52 degrees when we woke up on Friday, the day was a blast.

We attended a poetry reading by my son's third grade class. After their individual poems, which were wonderful and very entertaining, the class read me a birthday poem and sang happy birthday -- thank you Mrs. Gilkey! It was a moment to treasure.

After school, we all escaped for a weekend getaway at Nemacolin http://www.nemacolin.com/. If you are a busy, multi-minding woman, this is the place for you. Flowers and birthday balloons upon arrival, great activities for the family, fantastic spa, lovely shops and great food. We even skied and went dog-sledding. With everything taken care of, you can't possibly be too busy to shop at Nemacolin.

Too Busy to Shop Makes Amazon's "Hot Releases" List

Delighted to share with you that my upcoming book, Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women, was just listed on Amazon's Hot New Releases in Books list. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/2709. This blog helped me to gather content for two chapters in the book.

Also wanted you to know my Web site, http://www.kelleymurrayskoloda.com/ is now live. Please visit me there, too!

Way to Go, Steelers!

Well, I was not too busy to watch the Super Bowl, especially because our Pittsburgh Steelers were playing. I can say that, while the Cards are a nice team with respectable players, I had complete confidence in the Steelers' ability to win, even when it got a bit dicey. I must admit that I had a hard time multi-minding during that game!

The Steelers' Super Bowl win is a great thing for the city of Pittsburgh. I loved hearing the EPSN announcers talking before the game about the work ethic of the football team and of Pittsburghers. In these tough economic times, we Pittsburghers can be proud that our belief in hard work over time, not flash-in-the-pan glamour, is a characteristic of value right now.

As for the ads, everyone at my house of course loved the Coke Zero spot http://blog.nola.com/davewalker/2009/02/coke_zero_super_bowl_commercia_html with Troy Polamalu. He is a great football player and an even better person. I think he as great appeal in marketing to women, not because of how he looks, but because of what he stands for -- a good human being.

On the other end of the scale, GoDaddy's spots were worse than bad. I can't imagine any women who will, after seeing those spots, choose to do register domain names with GoDaddy. And, I cannot imagine why someone like Danica Patrick would participate in such ads.

No matter the ads, the game was terrific and we are proud of the Steelers!

Too Busy to Shop During the Super Bowl

While a football game is usually a good time to head online to some of my favorite shopping destinations (or at least browse), this Sunday I will be too busy to shop during the game. Not only is it THE game, it's THE game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

All of my shopping will be done before the game so I can catch every minute. Of course, as a communications professional, I'll also be keeping an eye of the marketing that happens during the Super Bowl.

My husband and son have plastered our house with poster-sized pics of all of the Steelers and my five-year-old daughter can say Polamalu as if it's her given name.

What will you be doing the big game -- let me know if it's watching or shopping.

Go Steelers!

Too Busy to Get Hair Done

Why is it that is takes so darn much time to make a trip to the hairdresser? I decided a long time ago that since the "necessary" color, cut and blow dray takes so long, I can't spend my time going out of my way. Unless the hair salon is walking distance to my office or close to home, I can't afford it, in terms of time.

I recently had color, cut and blow dry all done in less than two hours. Great! Not only that, but I did not have to wait, not one minute, for the hairdresser when I walked in and did not have to wait for the hairdresser to work on other clients while working on me.

When I left this same appointment, I was given a card and, if I refer a friend, both my friend and I get a discount on our next service.

Saving me time and money? Multi-minding women will love it. Let me know if you've had any experiences with business lately that save you both time and money.

Too Busy to Shop Book Almost Ready

For all of you multi-minding women out there and, for all of you marketers who are trying to reach multi-minding women, my new book, Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women is soon to be a reality. The book is due out on March 30 and is being published by Praeger Publishers.

Here's the link to the publisher's online catalog. http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C35487.aspx

I am still collecting input from women on which marketers are really successful at connecting with them and engaging them in great ways, so please continue to send along your opinions. I'm saving them for the next book!