• What's Happening at TrendSight

• PrimeTime Women…Who Are They and Why You Want to Know Them

• Eye On -- Kodak

• TrendSight in the News

• Holiday Highlight

• Fun Facts

• Save the Date

• About TrendSight

The last issue of GenderTrends was devoted to Corporate Halo -- why women are inclined to do business with good corporate citizens. This month I’d like to highlight The Global Fund For Women, a group that is dedicated to helping women gain economic independence and access to education.

Whether it is providing seed money for starting business cooperatives or teaching women how to drive taxis, a traditionally male role, The Global Fund for Women empowers women by providing them with the capital to gain skills they need to be successful. I applaud their good work and intend to share my good fortune with them this holiday season. I'll be highlighting more groups like this in TrendSightings throughout December.

More than half of us are, like, so lost. Almost 60% at one point or another according to a Ford/Harris study. And when it comes to being lost, the survey also says that women are more likely than men to stop and ask for directions, by a margin of 61% to 42%. While that may not be a surprise, consider this -- 26 percent of those men will stay lost for 30 minutes or more before breaking down and asking for directions!

And, finally, there’s confirmation in the the battle of the sexes over the remote control: Twice as many men as women (40% vs. 21%) admit to channel surfing at least 50 percent of the time.

This year was a tipping point here at The TrendSight Group as well. For one thing, we crystallized into more of a “group.” Up until now, I had operated as the center of a loose coalition of individuals whom I called on according to the needs of a particular client or project. This year, I realized that to deliver the growing scope and depth my clients were asking for, I needed to grow the size, capabilities and continuity of the company. I’ve heeded the call of companies who are looking for more in-depth guidance than I can offer in a keynote address, and broadened my services beyond writing and speaking to consulting. Lucky for me, my first year under this new shingle has brought me some amazing clients, including Serta, Toys R Us, Ford, and Logitech. We’ve got nine other irons in the fire at the moment, so it looks like 2006 is heating up to be even more exciting.

Women 50-70 years old constitute a market force to be reckoned with. I refer to them as PrimeTime Women™… for two reasons.

First, contrary to the conventional wisdom, they are in the prime of their lives. Using tired terms like middle-aged (frumpy), mature (overripe), and senior (out to pasture) misleads marketers into overlooking their reality. Much to everyone’s surprise, studies have shown that the 50s and 60s are generally the happiest decades of life. Baby Boomer women, who were the first to go to college and go to work in large numbers, have also benefited from the spectacular recent advances in health and fitness. So today, they are the healthiest, wealthiest, most educated, and most active generation of women in history!

Second, because they make 80% of the buying decisions for the households that control 50% of the discretionary spending in the U.S. and fully 77% of the financial assets, they are businesses’ prime marketing opportunity – the golden bulls-eye of target marketing, you might say. In particular, companies in health care, financial services, travel/hospitality, real estate and automotive will live or die depending on their success in addressing PrimeTime Women. (Heads up, America – Any idea what percent of U.S. jobs and GDP can be attributed to those industries alone? Huge!)

With so much money on the line there are a couple of things you’ll need to keep in mind as you begin to court PrimeTime Women™….

• She's looking forward. She is not pining for the good old days of her lost youth. When she thinks of her life, she doesn't think in terms of loss. She thinks in terms of experience gained. And she thinks enthusiastically about experiences yet to be enjoyed.
• She's economically vital. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of women age 55 and older in the workforce will increase a whopping 52% between 2000 and 2010—from 6.4 million to 10.1 million. PrimeTime Women possess both self-reliance and purchasing power.
• She's physically fit. According to Diane Holman of Woman-Trends, if a woman reaches her 50th birthday without cancer or heart disease, she can expect to reach the age of 92. This generation of women will stay healthy and active for many years to come.

My next book will attempt to smash some more stereotypes and reveal some new insights. Until then, you can find a PrimeTime Women™… preview both in Trends, the book I co-authored with Tom Peters, which was released in July; or in the second edition of Marketing to Women where you’ll find a whole new chapter on this dynamic group of women and the opportunity they represent.

Holiday cards are flying into my mailbox and camera batteries are charging in anticipation of holiday photo ops. Let’s stroll down memory lane with Kodak and see how they revolutionized the digital photo biz by creating a product that met the needs of their female customers. And no, it wasn’t a pink camera!

Cameras were traditionally marketed as shiny toys for gadget-loving men even though women take the majority of snapshots and are generally designated the family memory makers.

In 2001 Kodak was looking to move beyond film and into the digital world. They worked with anthropologists and social scientists to understand how taking and printing pictures fit into people’s daily lives and made a discovery that rocked the digital world – women do not like using personal computers to print their photos. Easy Share, a stand alone photo printing station, was introduced in 2003 and Kodak immediately saw their share of the digital market increase. By 2004, a Lyra Research survey found that more than 20 percent of women surveyed use a Kodak digital camera! That was the largest share any brand achieved with either gender!

For the skeptics who don’t believe that marketing to women increases satisfaction with men – check this out. According to research firm IDC, Kodak’s total share of the digital market rose to 23.8 percent from 18.3 percent between August 2004 and 2005 ranking them number one ahead of both Sony and Cannon. Quite a coup for a company that could have gone extinct when film photography went the way of typewriters.

This commitment to female friendly products and communications continues today. Check out the Kodak EASYSHARE gallery where you'll find great pictures and photo tips as well as great examples of key M2W principles including storytelling, people power and ways to save her time and money.

MarketingProfs.com
BIG SPENDERS: MARKETING TO BOOMER WOMEN
Women 50+ in age constitute a market force to be reckoned with
http://www.marketingprofs.com/5/barletta1.asp

October 20, 2005
ABC News October
20 STYLE WATCH: MARKETING TO "PRIME TIME WOMEN"
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=websites&id=3555396

November 14, 2005
AdAge.com
THE SPIRAL PATH TO A WOMAN'S PURCHASING DECISON
Understanding and Exploiting Female Buying Behavior
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=46743

October 24, 2005
AdAge.com
FEMALE CONSUMERS DOMINATE TRAVEL BUSINESS PURCHASING
But Many Service Marketers Look Past Them and Their Revenue-Boosting Potential http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=4647

October 15, 2005
The Republican
She knows what women want
http://www.trendsight.com/article-republican.php

THE Conference on Marketing
Las Vegas, NV
March 20-22, 2006
Marti will be speaking at 3:45 on Tuesday, March 21
Our readers are entitled to a 15% discount when the register. Mention Code SPKRM1801MB
http://www.iirusa.com/marketing/

2nd Annual M2W Conference
Chicago, IL May 8-9, 2006
Marti is serving as the Conference Chair
http://www.m2w.biz