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)!