Greetings, Friends and Fellow Marketers:Welcome to all of my new readers! I traveled the globe last month and had the opportunity to meet many of you when I had the honor of speaking to Novartis in Japan and addressing The Women Presidents' Organization, a group I recently joined, here in the United States. I returned to Chicago just in time for the third annual Marketing to Women Conference which was, as always, wonderful. Spring has really sprung in Chicago and as the trees are leafing out we are all thinking green. Last month's tremendous surge of support for Earth Day, following the flood of interest in "An Inconvenient Truth," is clear evidence of a rising tide of consumer commitment to protecting the environment. Okay — a few too many watery metaphors, maybe, but my point is that this is a wave marketers can ride all the way to the bank. In these days of overstuffed shelves with the same old "new and improved" products, overcrowded airwaves jammed with increasingly frantic efforts to be "edgy," and fewer and fewer ways to distinguish one brand from the next, a true "IPOD"— Incremental Point Of Difference — is pretty hard to find. It's a beautiful thing when a ready-made platform like environmentalism comes floating by. How does environmentalism build business? According to the 2004 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study, "doing good" can translate into bigger sales and higher profits. Said another way, one of the most powerful ways to make your brand and company stand out amid the clutter is by following the Golden Rule of Marketing. "Do unto others as you would have consumers do unto you." If you can demonstrate that you care about the community, you give consumers cause to care about you – and a meaningful reason to pick your product rather than a competitor's (the proverbial IPOD). These days, one of the best ways to practice the Golden Rule is by going green. Everyone cares, of course. But women — the household "Chief Purchasing Officers" who buy 80 percent of everything — care more. Instead of thinking "What's in it for me?" women are more likely to think "What's in it for us?" and they open their wallets to support businesses that care too. I call this principle "Corporate halo," and today's marketers can't afford to ignore it. If they do, it will not only hurt their image, it will hurt their income statements. According to the GolinHarris Change 2006 Corporate Citizenship survey, women are significantly more likely than men to put their purchasing power behind brands that are good corporate citizens… I hope you'll take a minute to share your Marketing to Women success stories and challenges with me. I look forward to hearing from you soon! |
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TSG IN THE NEWS
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FUN FACT: You scream...I scream...we all scream for ice cream. 8% of women (vs. 13% of men) will admit to licking the bowl clean after eating ice cream. What percent do you think didn't confess? 57% of women indicated that chocolate was their top flavor, only 46% of men cast their votes for chocolate. |
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 Marti Barletta, president and founder of The TrendSight Group, and her team are recognized authorities on marketing strategies focused on marketing to women. Read more of Marti Barletta's articles on gender trends and gender-based marketing at
www.trendsight.com. Member of the Women Gurus Network. |
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