Chicks rule.

Many of the advertisers wooing them, however, do NOT.

Roughly 91 percent of women think advertisers don’t really understand them. That may have something to do with only 3 percent of creative directors actually being women. Or, it could be that brand managers often use a “focus group of one” to determine their marketing strategy. Or maybe it’s just that the typical demographic stereotypes are total bunk. (I’ll say ‘D’ – All of the above.)

Think I’m kidding? See for yourself. Mom Logic posted some of the worst of the worst in an effort to shame brands into higher standards.

The demographic dichotomy is that designing marketing to make men happy may, in fact, alienate all of your female consumers.

Case in point, Burger King(R) has missed the mark by targeting their ads to the lowest common denominator, yet their CEO recently “discovered” that women were a huge segment of their consumers. (Insert sarcasm here.) Weird, huh?

I have one word to describe a recent ad aimed at kids and moms for BK’s SpongeBob meal prize… FAIL.

Conversely, successful advertising to women can actually better serve your male consumers as well.

So, how do we engage this audience of material girls wielding their wealth willfully? The conversation with them has to match the Elasticity of the demographic itself. Women have been stretching boundaries for centuries. Isn’t it time you join them?

Clearly, it doesn’t take a rocket-scientist, social media guru or both to understand that women are social beings. Yes, on average we talk more (about 3 times as much as men). We (often) ask advice and seek opinions before formulating our own. We (usually) listen to our sisters, girlfriends, daughters, friends, mothers, and female colleagues. We rant (Ask Motrin).

As the saying goes, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

But we also rave, especially to our female posse.

Kelly Skoloda, author of Too Busy To Shop, writes, “Gain the trust of one woman and you gain the trust of all who trust her.”

Social media has become a valued source of information and entertainment for many women. eMarketer published a study done by Blogher and iVillage about the growth of social media at the expense of other media.

Women use social media to gather information, express opinions, discuss topics/brands/ companies/ experiences, connect and share. Women are having conversations online everyday - women who spend $7 trillion a year, women talking about companies, women who are discussing brands.

Brands have the opportunity to engage and delight their female consumers by participating in social media. The rules are simple - just act like a veteran husband:

· Listen attentively

· Ask for input

· Invest TIME with the one(s) you love

This doesn’t just make sense intuitively; it makes cents financially… quite a lot of cents!  Reports (.pdf) show that the most socially engaged brands have grown 18% on average over last year.

Women’s friendships – on or offline - are the jewels of our lives.

If you want them married to your brand and your brand only, “put a ring on it,” socially speaking.

We do.

Do you?

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Christine K. Ryder is Director of Conversation Development @ ELASTICITY

The first Baby Boomers will turn 65 in 2011.  In the US alone, more than 3.5 million babies were born in 1946.  Volumes have been written about the Vietnam-era proclivities and behaviors of this post-WWII cohort.  In contrast, our conception of Seniors - what Boomers soon will be - is highly stereotyped.

Aging is something we Americans do not like to attend to.  We go for youth, we go for the “new.”  So how should marketers plan to communicate with an arthritic Chubby Checker, a Paul McCartney who is looking back at 64, trying to reach gray-haired couples who are still “Singin’ in Rain” or just rolling in a rocking chair?

Baby Boomers can accurately be labeled “Pragmatic Idealists.”  As a demographic they are a “glass-half-full” group.  They feel they can make things the way they want them to be, or at least engage with the forces at work to tilt the odds 51% in their favor.   Even in our constrained economy, Baby Boomers still seek, and assume, growth, all the while acknowledging new limitations in resources.

In interviews they say things like:

• “We now have more responsibility and less irresponsibility.”

• “Anger, in the long run, just hurts you.”

• “Hey, maybe ‘now’ is an opportunity.  It forces you to re-evaluate who you are and where you are going.”

Sharp Contrast with Gen X
In sharp contrast, Gen-Xer’s generally perceive themselves to be in real trouble.  For the most part, Xer’s are losing hope in the ties that bind hard work to success.  They see their future as “closing.”  This hunkered-down mentality foreshortens their vision of themselves, others, and the world.  Their orientation, about almost everything, is defensive.  Listen to their tone:

• “Money makes the world go around.  Now I have less money.  Now I have less hope.”

• “I feel better when I see someone worse off than me.”

• “I gotta fight for everything, and I don’t have a lot.”

• “What’s the point?”

THREE BASIC LIFE STRUCTURES OF BOOMERS

Identity - Optimism and Adaptation to Power Diminished

The developmental history of Boomers casts them as characters that possess a self-expansive nature primarily devoid of cynicism.  Yes, time will add a few more rings around their trunk causing recognition of new limitations, but for the most part the 65+ crowd embodies a vitality that makes them survivors, even if they can’t always be thrivers.

Territoriality - Space Contracts and is Re-Articulated

As Boomers age their odometers might not proceed as fast, home range will become more important, and getting settled in new spaces - a smaller, closer-to-town abode or a move to a warmer climate - will require adaptation to new interpersonal and larger social arrangements.

How they will develop new networks - digital and face-to-face - will provide new opportunities for marketers.  The same is true for how Boomers will develop requirements for new types of mundane services, particularly in the domains of finance, healthcare, and personal care products.

Time - Perceptions of Past, Present ad Future

As people age their nostalgic yearnings grow, making them more receptive to advertisers and marketers use of what researchers call “a longing for positive memories of the past.”  Moreover, nostalgia can make Boomers feel that not so much time has passed between then and now, making them feel young (er) again, still with a long ways to go and the time to get “there.”

Nostalgia should be considered as one marketing aesthetic to attract Boomers because it telescopes time and brings it more under each individual’s own emotional orchestration.

POINTS TO REMEMBER WHEN MARKETING TO BOOMERS

Boomers are at a time in life when they really don’t want to compromise their authenticity.

• For Boomers, process is at least as important as the end-result.  They want “the ride.”

• Boomers like to inspire others.  Help them feel helpful.

• Boomers have been around long enough to know there are few absolutes, little is black or white.

• Accentuate personal style over rote action or blind ritual.

• Boomers are oriented to the human dimension, that’s the only real thing.  They can see the humor in most situations.

• What Boomers really dislike is felling put upon by arbitrary power, feeling trapped, conned, boxed-in, and being thought of as one of the masses.

• Boomers are creative and conservative (”A beautiful garden is wild and tended”).

• Boomers go for what gives voice to things they are thinking and feeling, but haven’t fully worked out yet.

• Boomers respond to what stands out by its presence, not its loudness; and what shows them it really listens and, therefore, understands.

MARKETING TAKE-AWAY

Now, in times of less goodies and more unpredictability, recognizing the authenticity of your audience and having deep insights into their self- perceptions and primal meanings (not garnered by traditional market
research methods) will parse corporate success stories from those that
muddle through or worse.  This is particularly true for marketers who
seek the aging Boomer as their customers.

There is no shortage of “sexy” ads and, much to the delight of 20-25 year-old males, plenty of brands have gone the “butts and boobs” route to grab attention in their ad campaigns. I’m a fan of the campy, hyperbolic ones like those from Axe body spray or the classic Miller Lite ones with wrestling models. They are so absurd that they’re funny.

And you know what? These aren’t going anywhere because they elicit chatter about the ads and by transitive property, the brand. Sometimes the halo-effect is enough. But clearly, they break through the cluttered information landscape.

Undoubtedly, you’ve also noticed a trend of late, where marketers are using a story unrelated to their brand attributes to sell themselves. This sudden influx of corporate responsibility and cause marketing ads is no accident.

The grotesque abuse of excess that led to the recent recession has made many consumers do a 180 from bling and instead to looking at companies (and corporate leadership) whose core values align with their own.

According to a study by cause-marketing agency, Cone Inc:

• (79%) Americans who are active on new media believe companies and nonprofits should use these channels to raise money and awareness for causes.

• 60% have used some form of online or new media to support a cause, primarily through email (33%), Web sites (29%) and social networks (27%),

• 85% of respondents say new media provides them with an opportunity to learn about new issues

• (79%) Americans are inspired to support a cause through new media when they have the opportunity to choose which issue a company will support.

And my favorites:

• 30% have made a purchase based on POSITIVE information learned about a product, company or brand.

• 23% have switched brands or boycotted a company based on NEGATIVE information learned about a product, company or brand.

S.C. Johnson has had “A Family Company” as their tagline for years but really brought it home when they announced efforts to convert landfill methane to power for their manufacturing facilities, wind turbines for power at their corporate offices, and put their Greenlist initiative in ads.

And of course, going “green” isn’t the only hot topic in corporate responsibility.

How many of us had heard about Tom’s footwear before they were featured in an AT&T ad campaign? Think Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” campaign is a revolution? You must have missed American Express’ “Members Project.”

But even “giving” isn’t the end-game.

Check out recent ads from Allstate and State Farm, perennial combatants in the insurance racket. Both companies are going after heart strings and a sense of responsibility, honor, and the human instinct to survive. As much as I love Dennis Haysberts voice, both commercials come off forced next to Liberty Mutual’s “What’s your Policy?” campaign.

Cause marketing/ corporate social responsibility is a way to connect with your audience within an agnostic environment. By aligning your interests and contributions to those of your consumers, you can forge a stronger relationship with them. You give yourself the legitimacy of commonality to engage them in conversation. You invite your consumers to share their thoughts, emotions, and concerns with you. You give people a reason to believe that your company is run by people … and that those people are good.

Social Media is intrinsically about conversations. Marketing is about increasing a company’s bottom line. Companies who want to market in the social media space should focus on doing well by doing good.

If Sustainability is the new Greed, then Good is the new Sexy.

Bring it back.

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Christine K. Ryder is Director of Conversation Development @ ELASTICITY

Despite being obvious, this strategy taps into something fundamental about the human mind and consciousness. Every time we remember a past event it not only evokes the earlier memory, but can re-cast the past into a more pleasing “remembered” version. Memory, thinking and feeling are an active, shaping process.

Music, Cars, Movies Live On Forever
The music, cars and movies you identified with when you were young stick with you throughout your life. Take music, recordings that were released when we were teenagers or young adults, are locked into our memories forever, to release a flood of vivid memories and emotions when replayed, especially in ads. For example, people who were 23 in 1964, when the Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” will turn 70 this year, are a prime target for nostalgic marketing appeals.

For marketers, the key is finding the right music and images, which do not even need to directly relate to their products, as long as warm feelings are stirred up. It is the emotion generated from that good feeling that influences people’s evaluation of the advertised offer. Recollection provides context and context impacts on how we evaluate things. Moreover, nostalgia can make us feel that not so much time has passed between then and now, making us feel young(er) again and that we still have a long ways to go and have the time to make it “there.” Nostalgia telescopes time and brings it more under our emotional orchestration.

Notaligic Case in Point -Valentine’s Day

Nostalgia becomes especially potent during holidays, like Valentine’s Day, due to their powerful call to summon up and renew bonds. Hope is the base coin of holidays, a time of ritual, which tends to reduce cognitive complexity through one’s participation in stylized and oft-repeated enactments. Through ritual, we play a mental trick on ourselves; if the ritual comes off well then we feel life will be good.

The ritual function of Valentine’s Day is similar to all rituals - to make up for the past and to reaffirm the past. To show that despite the press of daily routine and slights encountered, love endures, just as it was when two hearts first met. Most of the time we can be couch potatoes in soiled sweat-suits, but today is different, today is “romance,” a time to symbolically communicate that what we felt and did “then” still lives and will endure.

There is talk of “remember when” (also a song when Boomers were teens). There are flowers, signifying the bloom of Spring, renewal (and the olfactory sense is primitively / directly tied to memory). If allowance allows, perhaps a small diamond might appear (itself a sign of indestructibility).

The sounds, smells, and other accoutrements of Valentine’s Day all function in the service of three sentiments that make up the holy trinity of ritual: There is a shared past. There is continuity. There is future. For us!

Marketing Take-Away
In today’s environment of a perceived diminished future, playing up experiences that engender hope may be a good strategy that produces a mature outcome. A nostalgic approach might just help people see a clearer vision of what is and what is not possible. And, that’s not puppy love by any means.
- - -

Dr. Bob Deutsch is a cognitive anthropologist, founder and president of Brain Sells, a strategic branding and communications consultancy.

Tuesday, “PurseStrings,” the weekly marketing-to-women radio program on WebmasterRadio.FM, will air its 100th show since its debut in 2007. The “Best of PurseStrings” episode will feature a compilation of some of the best shows throughout the past two and a half years. The show’s host, Maria Reitan, is senior principal and chair of the Marketing to Women and Lifestyle Marketing practice at Carmichael Lynch Spong.

WebmasterRadio.FM added Reitan to its lineup of more than 30 original radio programs in the fall of 2007, seeking to complement its search engine optimization, advertising, affiliate marketing, Internet marketing, international marketing and entertainment programming with a unique show devoted to providing expertise about the largest consumer segment in the country — women.
Reitan has featured high-powered guests ranging from corporate CEOs and marketing executives to authors, creative directors, bloggers, interactive strategists, trend spotters and market researchers. Past guests have included the president of the League of Women Voters, the founder of BlogHer, Washington correspondent Cynthia Gordy and the vice president of marketing for Overstock.com. Each and every guest shares ways listeners can create compelling relationships with female customers who wield trillions of dollars in spending power.

During the time it has aired, “PurseStrings” has been picked up as a complement to other marketing-to-women outlets, including ReachingWomenDaily, the number one multi-author blog publication on marketing to women by editor Penelope Stockinger and the audience of the M2W and M2Moms conferences, which were created by Nan McCann of PME Enterprises. Currently, “PurseStrings” is the only broadcast offering on M2W and ReachingWomenDaily.

“Reaching the 100th show is an exciting milestone for me and for WebmasterRadio,” says Maria Reitan, senior principal and chair of the Marketing to Women and Lifestyle Marketing practice groups at Carmichael Lynch Spong. “It’s quite humbling to look back and see the growth of the show – including the show’s expansion to several new outlets and the number of influential professionals I’ve been fortunate to feature. I look forward to more fascinating guests in 2010.”

In my work as a cognitive anthropologist I study how the mind works, how people “make meaning,” how people form attachments to things, how people make decisions. Decisions like how to select what to invest in, whether stocks or mates; why and under what conditions, people prefer Coke over Pepsi (or vice versa), Charmin over Cottonelle; why a person believes in one God over another.

In that search I have inadvertently uncovered something about viva la difference: WOMEN CYCLE, MEN CONSUMMATE. Marketers need to understand the implications of this difference.

Men are oriented to the present, the concrete, the visual, the “hit,” the win, the “me.” Evolutionarily speaking, the male must bring home the bacon. No Dilly-Dallying. No excuses. The male is in the now and, above all else, is a pragmatist.

The female is oriented towards the conceptual, to underlying dynamics, to the relationship between things, and to stability over the long-term. The female understands and sees patterns over time.

Men act and say things like: “You’ve got to act, you can’t wait too long.” “You must know how to look at the environment, know what the data and specs mean. Then pounce.” “My goal is feeling powerful and getting peoples’ attention.”

Women act and say things like: “It takes time to have things in order.” “I want to feel good about where I am and what I’ve done.” “My goal is continuity, building positive relationships, and long-term stability.”

A Seattle couple that started a small business together have different ideas about inventory. Wife: “I live to reinvest in inventory when I have cash, so I can buy stuff off-season and sell it next year at a bigger profit. I also like to have inventory just as a customer service.” Husband: “Get rid of inventory as fast as possible.”

Men: Do what you set out to do and finish the job. Women: Evolve.
Men: Achieve. Women: Experience.
Men: Stay on top of things. Women: Create good relationships.
Men: Get the biggest piece you can. Women: inner peace.

Women want to understand things and want to be understood. Men are more focused on explanation.

Explanation entails seeing the world as governed by finite laws that humankind can direct through successive approximations. Understanding requires comprehending meaning from the inside out, in its unfolding. To understand, the world can’t be approached from solely an intellectual stance.

In general, the two genders have different ways of perceiving causality, time, and power. This implies seven principles for making your brand more appealing to women:

1. PATTERN, not just point. Recognize that women have the ability to perceive more than the metric of a product attribute or an instance in time; they appreciate the underlying pattern (idea) that gives rise to the fleeting moment.

2. AUTHENTICITY, not just immediate appearance. Recognize that persona, biography (or history), and current contingency must all be factored in, and that universal principles underlie particularities.

3. QUALITY, not just quantity (size). Recognize that for women bigger and more is not necessarily better; and that a steady build is often better than an impulsive response.

4. CONNECTEDNESS, not just individuals. Recognize that communality can reign over dominance. We are all bound together.

5. SOCIETY, not just markets. Recognize that markets are numbers, and that markets can be counted and the goodies duly noted. But numbers are not people. Women are people and people have personal feelings and social intentions.

6. QUALITY OF LIFE, not just accumulation. Recognize that there are material and spiritual needs made up of individual wants and musts, but that are cast in the context of a social matrix.

7. REASONABLENESS, not extremism or absolutism. Recognize that all issues have grays, and exaggerations to one side or the other only cover-up the reality of subtlety and nuance.

Marketing to women is not as easy as ‘pretty in pink’ or ‘basic black’. But knowing the inner reality of women can help marketers feel more in the pink and put them in the black.
- - -

Dr. Bob Deutsch is a cognitive anthropologist, founder and president of Brain Sells, a strategic branding and communications consultancy.

62% of Advertisers will Fumble ROI

Not all programs are right for all brands, even if it happens to be the Super Bowl. The 8th annual Super Bowl Engagement Survey, conducted by Brand Keys, Inc, reports that when it comes to the monetary return advertisers will get on their advertising investments in the Super Bowl, upsets are not limited to the playing field.

Five Winners and Five Losers
Brand Keys’ research shows that Denny’s, Viacom’s Iron Man 2, Hyundai, Anhauser-Busch (Budweiser), and Diamond Food’s Pop-Secret are the five advertisers most likely to get the highest return on their Super Bowl ad investments. Advertisers like TRUTV, Kia, HomeAway, Dockers, and Dr. Pepper are likely to see much lower returns.

Methodology
This year’s Brand Keys’ survey was conducted the third week of January, among a national sample of 1,350 men and women, 18 - 65 years of age, who indicated that they were going to watch Super Bowl XLIV, February 7th. The research examines most of the brands advertising ‘on the Super Bowl’ and includes brands reported in industry publications as having purchased spots.

This is more than Monday-morning creative quarterbacking, day-after creative reviews are always interesting, have a high ‘Water Cooler Effect’ and elicit lots of Monday after chatter. But advertisers should remember that ‘buzz’ comes in two frequencies: positive and negative. ‘Wasn’t that terrible?’ generally isn’t a phrase that appears in creative briefs.

Even setting aside the question of quality creative, the survey brings into harsh relief the question being more loudly articulated this year does the ad buy actually lift the brand?

More and more, clients want to know more than was their ad seen, and with 30-second spots selling for $2.5 million - $2.8 million, this is a whole new ballgame. Brands like Pepsi, which has advertised on the Super Bowl forever, have decided there are more effective media venues.

Predicting Brand Loyalty
The Super Bowl Engagement Survey, like the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, is created to predictively measure respondents’ true reactions to brands within the context of the medium. Results correlate highly with consumer behavior, and are reliable predictors of future brand purchase. Think of it as identifying how the media reinforces, or in some cases degrades brand values. What you want to see is a minimum of seven points added to your brand to ensure you’re getting a real return on a very expensive investment.

Assessments for the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV advertisers:

Advertiser “Super Bowl” R.O.I

Anhauser-Busch (Budweiser) +8
Audi +6
Boost Mobile -0-
Bridgestone Firestone (Halftime Sponsor) +5
CareerBuilder +6
Cars.com -3
Coke +2
Denny’s +9
Diamond Foods (Pop-Secret) +10
Dockers -2
Doritos +9
Dr. Pepper Cherry -4
E*Trade -2
Electronic Arts +7
Go Daddy.com +3
HomeAway -3
Hyundai +10
Kia -5
Mars +5
Monster +7
Motorola +7
NFL +9
Telaflora -0-
TRUTV -2
US Census Bureau -0-
Unilever’s Dove Men&Care +7
Universal Pictures (The Wolfman) +7
Viacom’s Paramount Pictures (Shutter Island) -0-
Viacom’s Paramount Pictures (Iron Man 2) +11
Viacom’s Paramount Pictures (Last Airbender) +4
Walt Disney (Alice In Wonderland) -0-
Walt Disney (Toy Story 3) +6

Engagement assessments are separate from how many eyeballs were watching and are a reality check that lets advertisers know how super their media buys actually are, and it can be done before signing a check. It has nothing to do with ‘being watched’ or of consumers ‘being aware,’ and has everything to do with being emotionally engaged with the brand. That’s vastly different from just being entertained. A laugh is not an acceptable return on an investment of this size.
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Robert Passikoff is the Founder and President of Brand Keys