• Where in the World is Marti?

• Back To Business

• Eye On—Companies That “Get It”

• TrendSight in the News

• Fun Facts

• About TrendSight

• 67% of men would give a date a second chance after a bad first kiss. Only 55% of women agree (lavalife corp)

In the average US household, women devote considerable more time to household chores each week than men do: 14.2 hours compared to 7 hours for men (American Demographics). That won’t work in Spain anymore. A recent survey found that 40 percent of Spanish men do no household chores whatsoever, even if their wives work outside the home, so Spanish lawmakers introduced a new marriage contract stipulating men must do half the housework.

I’ve been racking up the frequent flier miles once again; here’s a peek at where I’ve been lately:

Nashville- American Society of Association Executives
Myrtle Beach and The Homestead- BASF
Dallas- Raymond James, State Farm
New York- Ketchum PR

Once the kids have returned to the classroom and your Labor Day vacation is but a fond memory, it’s Back to Business! As we head toward fourth quarter, that means evaluating your 2005 Marketing to Women initiatives and preparing for 2006. I am a firm believer in this sort of strategic review – even small adjustments can yield big results. As always, feel free to visit our site www.trendsight.com for more ideas or to contact us.

5 Things You Can Do NOW To Positively Impact Your Business in 2006

Build Your Business Case – By now you know WHY women, the next question is which women? For those already marketing to women this is a great opportunity for a tune-up. There are lots of women out there. Are you targeting the ones with whom your product resonates? In particular, be sure you’re not overlooking Prime Time Women™. Boomer women represent the marketing golden bulls-eye. This group is becoming increasingly influential because they have a little bit more time (kids have moved out) and a lot more money. Read more in my latest book, “Trends,” co-authored with Tom Peters. Look for it at your local bookstores, or on Amazon.com.

Research – Thinking ahead will pay big dividends. This is your chance to get answers to the questions you uncovered while building your business case. Women will give you far more input than men, simply because they notice more detail. If you really want to get the good stuff, you need to align your research methodology with the way women communicate. This means traditional and rigid formats are not going to get you the scoop girlfriend groups will. When doing quantitative research, don’t limit yourself to the top three responses from “rank your priorities” questions. The problem with “Top 3” is that you won’t learn anything useful; chances are, regardless of what rank order you get, you and your competitors all deliver on the three most important elements in the industry. To differentiate yourself, look at items number 8 or 10. Finally, be sure to include write-in space on any survey; this is the best way to learn what you never knew.

Check Up on the Competition – You need to perform a Situation Scan on your company as well as competitors in order to assess marketing materials (packaging, web site, sponsorships, etc.) and operations elements (selling approach, customer service, retail channels, etc.) through a lens specific to female priorities and expectations. When performing SWOT analysis, get specific. Who are your primary purchasers? Who is most influential in your category?

Budget – Marketing to Women doesn’t require incremental dollars. It’s all about spending your money in a way that’s aligned with the people who buy most of your product. Women are buying most of the new cars, consumer electronics and home computers; they are also making most of the decisions when it comes to financial services. It is a mystery to me why women’s media is not overflowing with advertisements for these items. Shifting some of your advertising budget to these vehicles will garner a huge payoff. And don’t overlook non-traditional marketing like word of mouth—the marketing multiplier. Finally, make sure your company allocates money for sales training to equip your sales force and in-store reps with a strong understanding of how to sell more through better face-to-face interaction with the female consumer.

Look Ahead – You will need to allocate budgets to measure 2006 success when planning for 2007. Are you set up to track response by gender? How do you distinguish which household member made the purchase decision so you can follow up effectively? It is important to measure men as well as women because then you can distinguish the differential impact of women’s programs and confirm the success among men has not been impeded. Be prepared to stay the course. A woman’s decision cycle is longer than a man’s, so while you will certainly see immediate results, her greater loyalty and tendency to provide referrals mean that the big payoff will be more long term.

The TrendSight team is always on the lookout for companies who are getting it right and doing a great job marketing to women. One of the key Gender Trends™ principles is, “if you want to win a woman’s heart, save her time.” This is more important than ever in September as days get shorter and schedules get busier. If you know someone else who gets it, drop us a line at info@trendsight.com and we’ll feature them in a future issue of GenderTrends.

Dream Dinners

As time demands on all family members begin to increase in the fall, mealtimes offer much needed opportunities for family catch-up and connecting. Study after study confirms moms especially cherish mealtimes and will make the effort to transform them into family bonding time. Table time is not necessarily the problem. After all, we all need to eat. It’s the shopping, prepping and cooking demands that really take their toll. Dream Dinners offers a great solution. This ingenious chain, with multiple locations in 25 states and more on the horizon, allows women to put 12 healthy, homemade meals on the table while spending only TWO hours in the “kitchen.” And at a cost of $210 it’s not a budget breaker either.

The premise is simple, the rewards are great. Arrive with an empty cooler, rotate through the prep stations, and leave with 12 tasty meals in easy to freeze plastic bags. They supply the recipes and ingredients and even do the dishes! Dream Dinners gets it--women want to eat homemade meals with their loved ones, but they don’t want to break the bank, or their backs to do it. And, they understand the social, multi-tasking nature of women as well. Dream Dinners encourages clients to book time in their kitchens with friends and neighbors so they can catch-up while cooking. We hope that one comes to our neighborhood soon!

Back to School Supplies

As school supply lists become longer and more specific, many women have turned to the internet to fulfill shopping needs. SchoolKidz.com offers Grade Ready School Supply Kits specially tailored to grades Pre-K through 8th. Grade Ready Kits are packed with quality classics and shipped directly to your house. Teacher Tailored kits containing everything YOUR child’s teacher requests. Teachers (more than 75% of them are women) fax their lists to SchoolKidz.com. They supply competitive quotes and order forms; parents (primarily moms, order on-line) and personalized kits are distributed on the first day of school. Each kit comes complete with ten “money from home” envelopes (the teachers love the time these save when organizing field trips and the like) and a refrigerator magnet to help families remember important dates. SchoolKidz.com corporate halo is shining too—their Kits for Kidz program is dedicated to “supplying underprivileged children/schools with the supplies they need to succeed throughout the year.”

EPM Communications has been reporting on trends and research about women as consumers since 1987. Be sure to check out their excellent, searchable archive which contains items spanning a wide range of industries, consumer segments and marketing disciplines.

From the July issue:

“It’s Not About Doing The Right Thing; It’s About Money”: Building the Business Case for Marketing to Women”

“Marti Barletta, CEO of the TrendSight Group..... says many of her clients have already established the basic business case for marketing to women, but that “Sometimes I can build it more strongly; sometimes a consultant from outside the company is taken more seriously than people from the inside”.”

“Barletta emphasizes simplicity: “Marketing to women is not rocket science, because we are at the beginning of understanding it. Some small, relatively insignificant changes can make a big difference in a company’s business. I think talking about how difficult and complicated it is…can overwhelm brand- and marketing managers.”