1. Believe that low, low prices are the most important thing to her.
2. Believe that you’re marketing to her and her alone.

Here are some recent purchases I’ve made:

When Price Didn’t Matter

• Spending $5.03 on a small container of veggies at AJ’s because the deli manager took the time to come out from behind the counter and find me in the store to tell me they were freshly steamed.

• Spending $15 more for a pair of fitness shoes on NB Web Express, because they have a free return policy (they even print out the return slip and place in the box) and they write personal thank you notes to their customers.

• Spending more than you want to know (you’d need smelling salts) on my Fuji road bike because when I was first shopping, the salesman at Bikes Direct spent 20 minutes talking about what my needs were and how I’d be using the bike before he even suggested trying one out.

When You Marketed to Me Through My Husband

• Well, there’s that little story of the kitchen tile…

• Recommending a local chiropractor to no less than three girlfriends because of the excellent experience Husband has had (and I’ve never been to see this doctor myself!)

When I Made Purchasing Decisions That Affected Others:

• Choosing Halloween treats for my WonderBranding class, opting to buy from a store that had listed driving directions on its website.

• Making hotel reservations for friends for the upcoming Wizard Academy reunion – choosing a hotel because I love their beds.

• Recommending my vet to a gal at my gym because of the fantastic experiences I’ve had when taking Penny the WonderDog.

Stop thinking you are marketing directly to women and that you always have to reach out for new customers. Your existing customers are the straightest line to profit and word-of-mouth influence. And don’t think that because you’re talking to man you have to act differently. Remember, he probably has a girlfriend/wife/sister/mother/daughter he’s going to turn to when he has a rotten experience, and that can be the worst kind of marketing-to-women strategy.

I’m giving away FOUR, not three books, since a) these are the folks that followed directions and commented rather than emailing me; and b) Chuck, who was the fourth, left a funny comment that deserved a prize.  Please email me your postal addresses and I’ll get a copy of The Soccer Mom Myth out to you next week.

George Carlin was a master of the English language and inspired awe in anyone who also loves the language.  He could riff with words like Charlie Parker on a saxophone, and often brought me to tears (laughing, not crying) with his takes on politics, religion, and life in general.  He was quite often bawdy (to put it mildly) and could poke sore spots in all of us, but always with the goal of reminding us that even the best parts of life can often be ridiculous.

For your viewing pleasure:  George Carlin, with his G-rated routine “Baseball vs. Football.”

We’ll miss you, George.

Quick trivia question:

This is an easy one (almost a gimme).  First three people who comment here with the right answer will receive a copy of The Soccer Mom Myth (I know, I know… shameless plug).

In 2007, the Consumer Electronics Associated reported that women outspent men on wireless gadgets and gizmos – $55 billion vs. $41 billion.

Women don’t purchase real estate unless they part of a couple or have a family.
The latest statistics from the National Board of Realtors show that in the last two years, 22 percent of all home purchases were made by single women.

Women aren’t into sports cars.
60% of BMW Z4 drivers are women.

Women can’t stand videogames.
World of Warcraft, the mecca of global online gaming, reports that 30% of its ten million members are women.

If you find these truths to be surprising, what is it about your industry and female consumers that you aren’t aware of yet?  Are women a larger part of your market than you previously believed?  Food for thought methinks.

Since purchasing the oh-so-suhWEET MacBook Air, I am attracting guys like flies on honey.  I have been accosted approached by men in the airport security line, hotel lobbies, and meeting rooms.  At one point in Nashville, I had no fewer than five men surrounding me asking to hold it… the MacBook that is, not me.

My hotness quotient has increased exponentially.  A friend tells me I should let Apple know… could be the million dollar tag line they’re looking for…

A big shout-out to all of you who have supported The Soccer Mom Myth through your purchases, reviews, and interviews.  You have made all the difference, and both Holly and I are humbled by your friendship.  It’s been great so far – the book sat on  Amazon’s “Top 20 Marketing Books” for a bit, and the reviews and interviews keep coming.  Late-night Google searches show the book has even made the “personals” column on Craigslist, as a lovelorn reader’s “book I’m reading now.”  Hey, we’ll take it any way we can get it!

Holly and I had the great pleasure of spending an hour on BlogTalkRadio with host and colleague Wayne Hurlburt of Blog Business Success.  We had a great time talking about marketing to women and the book – download it to your iPod for a listen.

Only three seats remain for the next WonderBranding seminar at Wizard Academy in Austin on April 22nd and 23rd.  I’m very excited about this class because of the wildly varied business and terrific people who’ll be attending.  Yvonne Divita will be there… will you?  You couldn’t ask for a better deal, including a beautiful room and delicious food and drink.  Once you attend Wizard Academy, you’re hooked…

That’s all for now.  I’ll be in touch soon with more news and ideas on marketing to women.  Till next we meet… enjoy each day, travel safely, and don’t forget to tip your waitress.

With the entrance of New Balance’s new CEO, the company is doing what resembles a 180-degree spin on strategy, with a new advertising campaign centered around the love/hate relationship people have with running.  And it’s not just people, but high schoolers – a far cry from the “boomer” and “everyday person” New Balance has built its success on.

An article in Monday’s Marketing Daily quotes Christine Madigan, director of global branding and brand management:

"We’ve always stood for performance and authenticity," Madigan says, "and we still stand for that 100%." But with the ambitious goal of doubling its $1.63 billion in sales in the next five years, it was time to reach out to a new audience, especially high school athletes. "Running may not be their main sport, and they may not even like it. But they know that if they want to win at basketball or lacrosse, they have to excel at running. Better running makes you a better athlete, and they know that."

For an expert’s opinion, I turned to my friend and colleague David Wolfe, esteemed (and brilliant) marketing strategist, who has championed New Balance in his best-selling books Ageless Marketing and Firms of Endearment.   With his permission, I publish our email exchange here:

To:  David Wolfe

From: Michele Miller

Date: March 25, 2008

Re:  New Balance’s New Campaign

Dear David:

Since you have been a champion of New Balance over the years, I thought I’d send this information your way.  Corporate New Balance has made a conscious decision to move completely away from the older demographic and are going for, in their words, “young runners.”  The campaign is called, “Love/Hate” – all about the love/hate relationship people have with running.

Here is an article on the new campaign:  read it here.

Here’s one of the TV ads they’ve come up with:  watch here.

It just breaks my heart that this is the direction they are going in.  Just thought I’d share with someone who has given a damn about the company in the past.

Best,
Michele

———————————————————–

To:  Michele Miller

From:  David Wolfe

Date: March 25, 2008

Re: RE: New Balance’s New Campaign

Hi, Michele,

Give me a call and I’d be happy to share my reactions.  They have committed a classic marketing error of stupendous proportion:  departing from the brand’s traditional essence.  Rarely do brands succeed in making so sharp a break with their past.  It’s like walking down the street one day, seeing your best friend and quickly learning that some brain trauma has robbed him of the personality you’ve known him by for years.  It would shake you up monstrously.  Not since the ill-fated “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign have I seen such a display of ignorance of the psychodynamics of brand management.  Someone needs to get to Jim and Ann Davis (NB’s majority owners) before it is too late.

I posted a brief response this morning at the Dim Bulb blog:  read it here.

Guess I should do a blog posting on the issue as well.

Thanks for sending, especially the link to the commercials.  I had not seen them.

Warmest,

David

Thank God for people like David who don’t have to worry about mincing their words. (By the way, you have read his books and blog, right?  They are MUST reading for marketing in this generation!)

I fear this is going to be a disaster of gargantuan proportion for a company that I like very, very much.  Will this be another Vital Radiance episode?  Will New Balance be listening to customers and monitoring the Internet for reaction?  We can only wait and see… and hope.

And those ads where he’s rowing
on peaceful body of water?  Ain’t him.  And ain’t never gonna be him, ‘cuz Dr. Jarvik doesn’t row… at all.  The dude you see rowing is a body double.

What kills me is Pfizer’s (and their ad agency’s) inability to say, "Hey – we f***ed up."  Pressured by Congress, this is what the spokesperson for the company had to say about Pfizer’s decision to pull the Jarvik campaign (on which they’ve already spent close to $140 million dollars):

"The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately,
led to misimpression and distractions…"

Oh.  So it was the customer’s fault.  Glad we cleared that up.

Look for increased pressure on companies to produce campaigns that are authentic and transparent, especially if the upcoming presidential election creates the shift in our society that many are predicting will happen.  Holly and I sure see it – we’ve even devoted an entire chapter on the subject in our new book.

Viva Transparency!!

(If you’re reading this in RSS, click here for the video)

If you haven’t yet, buy this book. (Seriously.  How often do I say that in this blog?  Rarely.)  As a former student of my classes wrote to me the other day, “I have listened to Seth’s new book/cd twice now and it crystallizes so much about the internet for me.” 

Seth has taken on the world of New Marketing – blogs, email, YouTube videos, MySpace, Google AdWords – and shows how you can use them in your business.  But be careful, warns Seth:  “… all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor.  If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great.  But if you start with a bowl of meatballs… yuck!”

I had the good fortune to wrangle Seth into a visit here for a quick chat about the book:

MICHELE:  Thanks for stopping by, Seth.  How goes the reaction to Meatball Sundae so far?

SETH:  I’m totally thrilled that people seem to ‘get it’. That’s always the fine line I walk, because I refuse to write “How to Create a Successful Google AdSense Campaign in 24 Hours for Dummies.”  So, the goal is to write a book that stretches things, but not too much.

MICHELE:  Why do you think it’s so difficult for companies to give up the idea that they have to “reach the masses?”

SETH:  Why go into marketing? Because you want to put on a show, to get noticed, to be on stage, to make a point. Mass marketing is the key to most marketers’ dreams. Hey, if everyone just knew about this, then we’d be fine.

So, it’s no accident that marketers (and their investors) embrace the idea of going after the mass market. It’s going to take a lot of counter-evidence to get most of them to change.

MICHELE:  Do they really believe in the power of New Marketing, or that social media is simply another “buzz phase” that will eventually die out?  What are they going to need to do, in terms of hiring and education, in order to set themselves up for a profitable future?

SETH:  I think most marketers think it’s a fad. The next gimmick. Then, some day, it will return to ‘normal’ and they can make Super Bowl ads again. Sigh.

It’s not going to happen. And until marketers start hiring people who are quick, humble and skilled, they’re going to continue yelling at an audience that is really quite good at ignoring them.

MICHELE  The power of Meatball Sundae lies in your outline of Fourteen Trends that when read, should make every business owner and marketer run around like their hair is on fire.  Of the fourteen trends, are there any that stand out to you as being of critical importance?  Changes that marketers should have made, like, yesterday?

SETH: I honestly believe there are more than 14 trends… perhaps 50. I just picked 14 that were fairly easy to write about and grok. The point being that taken as a whole, the package clearly overwhelms what you’ve got going with mass marketing right now.

Some businesses will thrive on just one trend (pick any of them). Others will be a blend of three or four or nine. What matters is that you organize around them, not that you demand they accomodate you.

MICHELE:  I love how you’ve not only shown the effect of New Marketing in business, but also the impact that one individual can have in affecting local government.  Take the Sidney Pundit, for example – do you think these individuals know ahead of time what they’ll achieve?  Are they that smart and ahead of the curve?

SETH:  Pioneers almost never realize what they’re doing… whether they are gold miners in California or Charles Revson buying TV ads for Revlon. You do it because you have no other choice, because you’re passionate, because it’s the best tool you can grab… not because you intend to change the world.

MICHELE: Thanks, Seth – it’s been great talking with you.  Just one more thing… I know that Jackie has done it, but as part of your in-depth research, have you actually tried a meatball sundae?

SETH:  I’m proud to say I haven’t had meat in fifteen years. But I’m going to make a soy meatball sundae tonight. Just for you.

What a guy.  Can’t wait to hear about Seth’s soy meatball adventure.  In the meantime, I think I’ll kick back and give Meatball Sundae a third read-through.  I’m convinced this is the book that five years from now, people will be saying, "Boy… Seth was predicting all of this stuff years ago.  I wish I’d paid more attention!"

So… have you purchased your copy yet?