My latest eBrandMarketing post looks at some of John Zogby’s new consumer trends (as per his latest book, The Way We’ll Be) and relates those to the women’s market.  Here’s a clip:

Interestingly, if marketing to women is your task, you have likely long been using this sort of granular process to tap the minds and buying habits of your female customers. In fact, “marketing to women” is not what any of you actually do. Rather, marketing to a very specific micro-precinct of people who may tend to be female is.

Any brand that has been using the micro-precinct approach (even without knowing Zogby’s term) has already been putting itself at the center of passionate conversations about the issues/problems its products might be a part of solving. Such brands have realized that when they do what they do, and well, their very unique and interconnected, action-oriented customers will do the rest.

Elizabeth Woyke wrote a great article for Forbes about gender trends in mobile phone development and marketing. Limelife’s chief executive Kristin McDonnell is quoted - and her words of wisdom can be applied much beyond the technology realm:

“In the beginning of any media format, a lot of content is oriented toward men,” she says. “As more content is created for the female market, women become dominant and drive most of the ad dollars.”

In almost any industry, the default is by men, for men. When women are noticed and tended to a bit, the shift to their ways of thinking and buying, and the advertising dollars, all come running.

A little more wisdom from Woyke’s piece:

Sometimes, gender is overshadowed by generational differences. Younger women (between 18 and 34) are much more likely to use their phone’s Web browser and MP3 player than older women, for instance. Trying to analyze consumers by how they use their phones can trump simpler filters. “We think of segments of individuals who share certain attitudes and needs,” says Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing at electronics giant LG. “That transcends any male/female divide.”

Every wise marketer who has been taking a closer look at gender lately, should now be sure to take note of the generational differences first. For those younger than Baby Boom age, gendered roles/stereotypes have been much less of an issue, and their consuming behaviors reflect it.

These are interesting and lean times - and marketing is one of the first budgets to get hit for most businesses. In such an uncomfortable holding pattern, normally creative/idea rich marketing pros must face months with no more new ad campaigns, no more consultants, and no new research. Frustration abounds and time is lost.

But, what is one thing that can be done with little or no budget to keep a high profile and gain some goodwill in these downtimes? Present your brand’s knowledge and experience in a way that makes it the industry’s obvious marketing to women resource.

I recently wrote on what this might look like for eBrandMarketing:

Given the bulk of great general marketing to women information out there, all it would take is a commitment to sorting, compiling and packaging the files your marketing department may well already have on hand. The content exists, and with a little industry filter, the why and how of applying the latest knowledge becomes that much easier - and sharing that creates powerful community goodwill.

Could such an effort be the ultimate win-win? I think so.

Others may make the same products or sell the same services, but the brand that takes the steps to lay out all that they’ve compiled on marketing to women will be noticed and praised by competitors and other interested parties (future customers) alike. A willingness to risk competitive vulnerability to this extent will go a long way toward making that brand the most trusted and turned-to expert on marketing to women.

Andrew Ettinger also addresses this shared information = advertising/marketing concept in a recent MediaPost column

If a brand provides relevant information, it mitigates the need to advertise. Instead, consumers will seek it out. The product becomes less of a commodity because it serves a larger purpose. People want solutions to their problems, not sales pitches. Ultimately, they migrate to credible information sources.

Brands need to be thought leaders.

It may sound insignificant in comparison to the glam and buzz of, say, a huge Olympics campaign, or great coverage in the business press about your clever new social network initiative, but thought leadership can position your brand so uniquely that the competition won’t know what hit them.

Thought leadership simply breaks the marketing mold. By developing, curating and sharing quality information, thought-leading companies can both gain industry credibility and get the positive attention of existing and new customers.

Times are indeed trying, but what do we all have? Files upon files of marketing to women information we’ve gathered while doing our own research over the years. If those otherwise occasionally used files can be leveraged for good among our peers and our customers - for a very small compiling/editing budget - why wait another day?

Management consultant and Treasure Hunt co-author, Michael Silverstein (who I interviewed a few years ago for 9 Minds On Marketing), is studying up on women for his next book,The Female Economy (due out Sept. 09). It is interesting that respected, thought leading, and male, management consultants/experts (like Silverstein and Tom Peters) keep giving the women’s market so much attention, isn’t it?

Marketing to women is not a “women’s thing.” It’s good, solid business.

One insight on today’s women from Silverstein’s recent WWD interview:

WWD: How is it that this optimism exists despite the downturn in the U.S. economy this year?

M.S.: They are optimistic about themselves. They are not optimistic about the economy. My hypothesis is they feel they can control their own space, but not the world.

It turns out that women are increasingly driving the wine industry (just ask Julie Brosterman at Women & Wine), and it is no surprise that the men behind beer are also interested in a little of that action - as it were. So then, the question is either how to make beer “for women,” or how to present beer in a way that appeals a bit more to feminine brain traits.

The latter option is the more transparent marketing approach - so guess which one I’d suggest?

Let’s be honest. Beer is what it is - and it is nothing if not an acquired taste for anyone. Many people, myself included, have managed to acquire that taste despite “formative” college years of cheap, bad brew. But, how can a quality beer brand really connect with adult women today?

A few things to consider:

1) Image makeover. Replace the youthful, frat-boy perception of beer with something more relevant to a grown-up. That may mean re-packaging its delivery (from pints to smaller/hipper glassware or general design changes to bottles/cans), adding a fruit garnish or representing it in a food-paired rather than bar-oriented way, among many other possibilities.

2) Educate the market. Rebut the myths and present the facts. Or, take the wine marketing approach and share the story behind the brewery and its community. And/or, leverage the consumer trend in local/sustainable beer production, if you can do so authentically.

3) Be where women are. Pay attention to your media buys and channels. Take the Olympics television audience, for instance: more women than men have tuned into the Games on NBC. This perhaps surprising fact rated coverage by the New York Times’ Stuart Elliott, who pointed out the consumer brands that had kept women in mind with their campaigns. (It doesn’t look like a beer brand made that list.)

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article by Aaron O. Patrick, U.K. beer brands may be on a particular mission to gain more female fans. Still, they (like so many other non-beer related brands) face a challenge in how not to alienate men in the process, as per this quote:

In targeting female drinkers, the beer industry also risks a backlash from its most loyal customers, men. Some brewers are trying to strike a delicate balance in promoting beers as “unisex” to try to attract female drinkers without losing male ones.

Finally, the elephant in the room would be: calories. This is the stereotypically female reason to choose wine or something else over beer, but isn’t it likely a topic both genders would love to see addressed in this much more health-conscious age?

As with all marketing efforts, the idea would be to first, make a better connection with the women who already drink beer and get their help. Second, with their input and a lot of the wisdom gathered from years of marketing in general, beer brands could reach out to prospective female beer drinkers in a much more lifestyle relevant way.

Sounds a lot like marketing 101 to me.

Remember: No one wants a “women’s beer.” But, no one needs to know that a beer was created and marketed to appeal to women, either.

1) GM has just announced that it will cut its usual huge North American International Auto Show soiree, in addition to dropping its usual Emmy and Oscar advertising campaigns. This quote from the Detroit News article was telling: Citing budget cuts, the automaker said it has shifted time and money to GM’s centennial celebration next month, and is focusing its advertising around key launches and brands, and in ways that reach more consumers, spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato said. Wow! GM is foregoing a huge party to focus on marketing in ways that reach more consumers. Now, THAT’s innovative!

2) Timberland, and its emphasis on corporate responsibility, is in the news. First, there’s a story by Mark Borden and Anya Kamanetz in the September issue of Fast Company on how the brand might weather the economic storms and stay its sustainable course. Then there’s a Wall Street Journal article by Aaron O. Patrick on if and how Timberland’s ad agency, Leagas Delaney, can help turn things around for the outdoor/footwear brand. The first step was to move away from the promotion of environmental causes (Make It Better) back to brand-building (Take It All On) - and an Olympics campaign, “Podium,” is key to that effort. As a big fan of corporate responsibility myself, I’m cheering for Timberland to find the perfect balance of what’s good and what’s profitable.

1) The U.S. Census Bureau projects a minority majority (as it were) by 2042. Much is said/written these days about gender stereotypes, but for marketers the cultural stereotypes may be an even greater challenge. Check out N.C. Aizenman’s article in the Washington Post for more information, and just remember that transparent marketing (being inspired and guided by the customers you serve) works for any and all market segments. Perhaps you should go back and read up on it again?

2) I’m a sucker for an emotional Olympics ad, but what Visa was able to pull off the other night, just after Michael Phelps won yet another gold, was incredible. While their Go World sponsorship commercial may have been a risk (what if Michael had not gotten the gold? As if…), the powerful story and the way Visa integrated it with their product/experience will surely end up being worth it. Even a credit card can surprise and delight, wrapped around an incredible personal story. Here’s Stephanie Kang’s Wall Street Journal piece on Visa’s global sponsorship success, and you may also want to check out Visa’s Go World microsite to watch the ad and see more athlete stories. (This ad gets an A from me.)

Men have officially become the “next big thing” for marketers. So, should we just forget our women’s market knowledge and shift attention completely toward the male species? No. Instead, the research and experts cited in an AdWeek article by Andrew Adam Newman suggest that what has been true for the women’s market is now true for men as well.

For example, recent studies (many of which are referenced in Newman’s piece) show that a lot more men are making dinner, doing housework and managing the kids. But, you’d never know it from the way brands are advertising their products.

Newman quotes Jack Essig, publisher of Rodale’s Men’s Health magazine saying that he “believes there’s a gender-based blind spot in home brands today that is the inverse of one by car companies a couple decades ago.

‘Ten or 15 years ago, car companies were speaking primarily to men and assuming men were making the majority of car-purchasing decisions, only for research to show that women were really weighing in,’ Essig says. ‘I think the same is true for a lot of home decor and other home brands when it comes to speaking to men. They want their home to reflect their personality as well.’

I agree. As with the marketing to women movement that began roughly a decade ago, there’s one big misstep to avoid in trying to better reach men: swinging the pendulum too far “male.” You risk alienating plenty of men who don’t see themselves as quite that macho, and, you risk turning off any women who might also happen to be in your customer base.

Yet, that reactionary gender pendulum swing is a marketing culture pattern, isn’t it? Brands certainly rushed to “pink” when they first started paying attention to the specifics of how women buy (thus inspiring my book, Don’t Think Pink). Now I fear we may see a rush to “blue” as brands go too far masculine in their mad dash to appeal to “all men everywhere.” Of course, the consuming men we’d like to reach are actually starting to accept/embrace their perhaps more feminine ways of buying - making the stereotypically male, linear marketing approach a bit less likely to succeed.

Here’s my point: (Most) men and women think using some balance, not either/or, of their male and female brain traits. Consumers have many reasons to become more holistic in their purchase processes - and I don’t see that changing in this abundant, 24/7 shopping culture (though the economy may give their decision-making an extra “creative” limitation).

Women already and commonly wind along their purchasing paths using both their linear and their more emotional ways of thinking. This may have evolutionary origins - starting with having to listen for baby cries, while gathering nuts and berries - all the while trying to keep their abode safe from intruders while their men were off hunting. Men, while certainly having the capability to use both sides of their brains, have been more rewarded in society by continually looking through the provider/status filter. Today they no longer need be off “hunting” in order to fulfill their manly missions, and they, like women, can (and may well like to!) engage with the buying process more fully.

Men are starting to think and buy differently because society is allowing them to do so. It makes sense. So, just as with women, marketing must become more relevant to who they are now - not who they were yesterday.

Those of you reading this have long since learned a bit about serving feminine buying traits. So, we have nothing to fear - and possibly plenty to gain - in the consumer that walks like a man and buys (more) like a woman!

1) There’s a new wine fan in town and he’s a man. An article by Bob Sylva in the Sacramento Bee points to the younger generation male’s interest in drinking wine (both for his own pleasure and to, apparently, score a few points with dates). Wine Marketing Council research cited therein includes this fact: The market for vino used to be 60% women and is now a gender split.

2) The UK’s JobsNewswire reports that the human resource field, long considered a women’s realm, is now prioritizing skill over gender quotas. I’d imagine the same might be occurring in the U.S. (anyone out there have such information?).

I read… a lot. And, David Giffels new book, All The Way Home, is the latest non-business non-fiction title to join my nightstand stack. His tale resonates both for its old-house renovation descriptions AND for its wonderful interweaving of life/relationship lessons.

The house trials and tribulations in and of themselves will feed the needs of the vicarious house restorer in all of us. But, he insights on gender relations and culture scattered about were a pleasant bonus. Here are two separate passages that struck a chord:

1. (This one is paraphrased, because I forgot to note the exact page number when I came upon it.) “We [men] engage in shared solitude. Even in our most communal rituals, we are alone.”

2. (From page 168) “Popular culture has falsely simplified this dynamic [between men and women] down to a sitcom Man-vs-Woman thing. Ha ha ha we’re so different we don’t even speak the same language laugh track ha ha ha. In truth, the idea of diametrically valid points of view seems less a result of gender differences and more a result of the intensity of the relationship. There are few more deeply intimate relationships in human life than marriage. A marriage is, after all, not two separate people coexisting (those are “roommates”), but rather one unit comprised of two formerly separate units, just as water is something completely different from hydrogen or oxygen.”

On the first quote, the where and why men need gendered space question is one that certainly has implications for men as consumers (and is one that I’ve been interested in for some time).

The second quote brings up a worthy topic - the common pop culture depiction of “ha ha - isn’t it funny how men and women just will never get along or be able to communicate.” Laughing at that with close friends in mixed company is one thing - as there may be “moments” we each do very gender stereotypical things we wish we didn’t do. However, leveraging that tone for marketing - without a lot of consumer research beforehand - is another thing altogether (and, quite unwise).

A blog post I read today actually delves into the topic a bit more deeply, and closes with this sentence:

“Anyone else like to think we have moved beyond these stereotypes as a society, but still fall for them on a personal level?”