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Hockey Mom Vs. Soccer Mom - Will It Win Votes?
Move over Soccer Mom - there’s a new political label in town. Hockey Mom.
While past elections focused on the key voting block of the Soccer Mom, now it appears there may be a new focus. This year, we have a candidate who is a self-proclaimed ”Hockey Mom”.
As a marketing to women enthusiast, and a long-time researcher of Soccer Moms, this is one of those marketing insight opportunities that has me salivating. How will this “Hockey Mom” thing play out with voters?
One of the main reasons Michele Miller and I wrote The Soccer Mom Myth was to help companies and marketers break through the stereotype of the Soccer Mom to better understand who women really are and why they really buy.
We’ve found that women don’t like the label “Soccer Mom.”
Yes, Soccer Moms are terrific mothers, devoted to their children, driving them to and from sports games. But there is also a negative side to the term. Do you think Soccer Moms are incredibly technologically savvy? Would you seek one out for intellectual conversation at a cocktail party? Would you want one running your company?
Here’s the problem. Sometimes these biases are unconscious. That’s why they are so dangerous.
So do we now have a new stereotype? I’ve heard of Hockey Moms before, but with Sarah Palin now calling herself a Hockey Mom, the term seems to be everywhere.
It’s always a little tricky to blog about marketing of politics without getting into political battles - so let me be clear I am looking at this strictly from a marketing point of view.
I am curious what the term “Hockey Mom’ brings up in people’s minds. When I went to Wikipedia and typed in Hockey Mom I was redirected to Soccer Mom. Hmmm…that’s interesting. Are they the same thing?
Dan Rodicks from the Baltimore Sun has some interesting insight into Hockey Moms. He points out this main difference:
Soccer moms get to attend their children’s games in the great outdoors, often in warm sunshine. Hockey moms rise early, in the dark morning hours of a winter Saturday or Sunday, and drive their hockey-playing children to an ice rink in time for an 8:00 am game, which occurs indoors, under the dim lights of cold hockey rinks.
Here’s my main question - when voters hear the term “Hockey Mom” will they relate to it? Will they have a positive connation? A negative connotation? And how do they feel about a “Hockey Mom” holding one of the most powerful positions in the country?
I honestly don’t know how using the Hockey Mom label will affect the public’s perception of Sarah Palin. I do think it’s interesting that so many of the news organizations picked up on that label. Seriously - Google “hockey mom” and see almost every result is a story about Sarah Palin.
What do you think? Will identifying herself as a Hockey Mom help or hurt her political image? No matter what your political affiliation - you have to admit - this has been one of the most interesting campaigns from a marketing standpoint. Fascinating. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Do Ultra Thin Models Sell More Clothes?
It’s an important and disturbing question. There have been several studies done that show the negative effect of all these anorexic models on women’s self-esteem. But do those super skinny models actually sell more clothes?
Heather Strang at RetailDesignDiva.com has a fascinating article on the subject. Here’s a sample:
Jeremy Kees, a business professor at Villanova had this quote to share: “The really interesting result we’re seeing across multiple studies is that these thin models make women feel bad, but they like it. They have higher evaluation of the brands. With the more regular-size models, they don’t feel bad. Their body image doesn’t change. But in terms of evaluations of the brands, those are actually lower.”
Personally, I don’t think Jeremy knows what he’s talking about, but it’s worth exploring. Why would something that makes us feel bad also motivate us to buy? We may need a panel of psychologists to figure this one out. Ultimately, though it puts retailers in a position where they can’t win.
I’d like to learn more about the study that found women have a “higher evaluation” of brands that use these thin models. I’m not saying I disagree, but I’d like more details. Since the top fashion houses are the biggest offenders with these size negative 2 models, perhaps women associate this look with high-end designer clothing. I don’t know.
What do you think?
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Can An Image of a Pretty Woman Boost Conversion?
Why is it that live chat icons always feature pretty girls with a headset? Why not have a good looking guy with a headset?
Is the strategy that men will want to talk to a pretty girl? And women may be more comfortable talking to another woman than a man? I don’t know. But a recent study might provide some answers.
Robert Dooley at Future Lab has a great post A Pretty Woman Beats a Good Loan Deal. He looks at a case study by a South African Bank trying to boost their loan business through direct mail pieces.
The experiment featured a rather dramatic range in interest rates - 3.25% to 11.75%. They also incorporated different features in the offer, including different descriptions of the loan, a comparison to competitive products, varied photos of males and females, and subtle suggestions.
There’s a lot of information in that study, but here’s the part that I found to be most startling:
“For the male customers, replacing the photo of a male with a photo of female on the offer letter statistically significantly increases takeup; the effect is about as much as dropping the interest rate 4.5 percentage points… For female customers, we find no statistically significant patterns.
Overall, these results suggest a very powerful effect on male customers of seeing a female photo on the offer letter. Standard errors however do not allow us to isolate one specific mechanism for this effect. The effect on male customers may be due to either the positive impact of a female photo or the negative impact of a male photo.”
Hmmm - interesting. What’s going on here? I don’t have any proof, but I’ll throw a hypothesis out there. Male brains are still hardwired to facilitate their role as the hunter/gatherer. They’re still programmed to compete to “get the girl.” I don’t mean this to make men sound like cavemen. But I suspect the subliminal message these direct mail pieces may be sending is:
“Here’s a way to get more money - and the prize is going to be this attractive woman.”
Or, maybe the photo simply got the men’s attention long enough for them to interact with the direct mail piece.
Another possibility, as the study suggested, was the possible negative impact of a male photo. Did seeing another guy stir up feelings of competition? I don’t know. I hope there’ll be further research done on this topic, since, at least from this study, there could be a big effect on conversion.
So let’s turn our attention to the women. They supposedly like “lifestyle images” and people’s faces. Why didn’t the photo have any affect on their response rate?
I suspect it might have something to do with this important point by Roger:
Will slapping a photo of a pretty woman on your direct mail piece boost response rates? If you are marketing to men, maybe. Women seem to be much less affected by irrelevant photos, according to this test. That might be good news - women shouldn’t be negatively affected if a female photo is used in an attempt to boost male response. (Note that this test did NOT evaluate the use of more extreme photos, like the bikini babes I discussed a few weeks ago.)
The emphasis is mine. Women look at things more holistically. What is the relationship between the person in the photo and the offer? If the picture had a loan officer’s name on it, that might be more effective since she would now have context for who the woman is. If the image featured a woman and another person - a child or aging parent or young person getting ready to go off to college - that might have more of an impact since the image is now relevant to what she might do with the money.
Every business is different, and only testing will prove what does and doesn’t work. But the importance of images, and how men and women may react differently to them, should be something we’re all looking at.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Holly Buchanan Interview on Purse Strings
Maria Reitan and I had a great conversation on her radio show Purse Strings. She wanted to know about how you can better understand your target demographics. Maria asked some great questions about marketing to women, how women use the Internet, and the burning question on everyone’s minds - why I spend all my holidays in the bathroom.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Why Product Reviews Are Better Than Product Descriptions
The other day I was looking at a website - justforgirlssports.com - and saw an excellent example of why product reviews do a better job of selling products than product descriptions do. I was looking at the product page for a girl’s bicycle helmet.
The product copy had this to say about the helmet:
“The ergonomic designed padding and an additional pad set for the perfect individual fit guarantee ultimate comfort.
The product review had this to say about the helmet:
“The helmet fit both girls well; ages 10 and 12. They must be comfortable because they wear them every time without reminding.”
Which description do you think convinced more parents to buy this helmet?
Not only did the review use more simple language, it also touched on one of parent’s biggest concerns with bike helmets -will their child actually wear it?
Mine your product reviews for ways to improve your product descriptions and convert more buyers.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
How Women Work
Guy Kawasaki recently blogged about an article that attempts to explain how women work.
There are some interesting tidbits including why women may be more stressed than men, how Barbie has affected women’s eating disorders, and some cool brain differences.
I wrote about some of these differences in The Soccer Mom Myth. Differences between men and women DO exist. It’s ok to say so. But what’s even more important is to understand how those differences affect our buying decisions and which marketing messages we respond to.
Go take a look and share your thoughts with me.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Women and Search-an Interview with Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro
Is there a difference in the way men and women use search? Is there a way to better meet the needs of women in your search strategy and campaigns?
These are some of the questions I discussed with Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro Research.
More and more studies are showing there are differences in how men and women use websites. Is there a difference in how they use search as well? Let’s find out.
Take a listen.
Click here to listen to Holly’s interview with Gord Hotchkiss
To download Holly’s interview with Gord Hotchkiss the MP3 to listen to on your ipod click here.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
How Online Searches Affect Offline Sales
I was recently looking for a new speaker stand for my iPod. It would never even occur to me to go into my local electronics store to see what was available and what might be right for me. I do what I always do when researching a new product. I go to Google. Once I do my research on the Internet and decide what I want - THEN I may go to a brick and mortar store to buy it.
Seems I’m not alone. A recent study provides more evidence of the online/offline buying connection.
Media measurement company, Nielsen Online, conducted a survey to examine the relationship between online research and offline purchases. They found that 80% of participants who had recently bought consumer electronics from a brick and mortar store whose site they visited first.
- 53% bought from the site where they spent the most time.
- 58% would choose the internet if they could only use one channel to conduct product research on consumer electronics. Only 25% chose the brick and mortar store.
It’s certainly not breaking news that customers do research online before they buy. But how much that online experience affects offline purchases may have been underestimated.
Are you answering your customers questions?
I was in Petsmart the other day stocking up food and gourmet snacks for my pups. I’ve been considering changing dog food. But was that a decision Petsmart’s brick and mortar store could help me make? Maybe, if there had been a doggie nutrition expert standing in the aisle, or they had a “food tasting” aisle where I could let my picky Boston Terrier sample different foods and choose his favorite. But no such help was provided.
The Neilson Online study found this about pet food purchasers:
Here’s the percentages of pet food survey participants who would use the internet to research each topic.
48% Learn about nutritional specifications
45% Learn about product ingredients
45% Learn about recalls
40% Learn more about safety issues
40% Find sales/promotions
This works both ways. Find better ways to answer your visitors’ questions on your website, but also look at better ways to answer their questions in your brick and mortar store.
Defining & Measuring Success
With the average conversion rate under 3%, it doesn’t mean that 97% of visits fail. How do you determine if you give your visitors what they want, whether you communicated effectively with them and whether you influenced their thinking and buying behaviors as well as those of their social-media-connected friends.
Defining success or failure, not only through your metrics but also through measuring the perceptions and actions of your visitors is challenging but possible if you understand the value of qualitative metrics and of quantitative metrics using Persuasion Architecture; just ask us how.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Marketing to Women Event in NYC
Would you like to join me at a marketing to women event here in New York City?
About.com and Brandweek are presenting a roundtable and cocktail party Thursday, July 17, starting at 3pm. You can join me as part of the exclusive in-person audience for “Online She Trusts… or Does She? “- an expert roundtable discussing women’s interactions in the virtual world - where they go and what and who they believe, what they respond to, and what they steer clear of.
Featured speakers:
Mary Lou Quinlan - Founder/CEO Just Ask a Woman
Ritu Trivedi - Managing Partner and Media Director, Mindshare Interaction
Grant Schneider - CMO Time, Inc. and author of She Means Business: 7 New Rules for Marketing to Today’s Woman
Danielle Vona - Director of Marketing, Carbonated Soft Drink Flavors, Pepsi-Cola North America
It should be an informative event and it’s free. If you’d like to go, respond in the comments below and I’ll get you the details and registration information. But hurry, space is limited.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Tapping the Power of Social Media to Advertise to Women
Social media is exploding. Everyone’s talking about the huge advertising potential. I see companies and marketers getting positively giddy:
“Think of it! Millions and millions of people we can hyper target with relevant messages and offers, contextual targeting, behavioral targeting - THINK OF THE VIRAL OPPORTUNITIES!”
Um, you’ve got a little bit of spittle there at the corner of your mouth…there, yeah, you wiped it off.
Yes, the potential is huge. But some companies have been disappointed with the results in their early efforts. They have some great ideas, but aren’t always sure how to monetize them. (Read this insightful article on the challenges of monetizing Facebook applications.)
I couldn’t agree more - the opportunity is huge. But how can you really make money from social media?
Go Into Relationship Mode
I was fortunate enough to get to spend some time the other day with Joseph Carrabis of NextStage Evolution. (Are you jealous? You should be.)
One of my many questions to him was about social media - it’s all the rage, but can advertisers really tap into that power to sell their products and services? I was particularly interested in advertisers hoping to reach women. Women are huge consumers of social media. A recent rapleaf study found, while both men and women are using social media in increasing numbers, women far out-pace the men.
Joseph pointed out that social media is about building relationships - if advertisers want to reach her in that medium, they have to be in relationship-building mode.
I thought this was interesting. I was at a recent marketing to women conference where two presenters talked about the “mode” women are in on the Internet and how you need to match that mode. Shopping, communicating, and entertainment are just a few modes she might be in.
Which brings up an important point. If she is in relationship mode, respect her space. She may not want to deal with anyone who is too pushy or does not respect her space. For example, look at women on MySpace decorating and customizing their pages. This is their private sanctuary - just like decorating their room in a house. Be aware of that. It’s one thing to barge into a website she is viewing (with your ad). It’s another thing to barge into her “room.”
Another idea we discussed in relation to women and social media and building relationships is the importance of the concept of fair value. As Joseph says, “You have to give as good as you get.” Is there something of value you can give to her? Are you giving more than you are asking for?
And how do you build that relationship? A great way to start is through a conversation. Social Media is often a great way to have a two-way conversation with your customers and potential customers. Just keep in mind, does she actually want to have a conversation with you? And if so, what does she want to talk to you about? A good place to start would be to answer her questions.
Use Persuasion Architecture to Get The Most Out of Social Media
Some of the best advice I’ve heard on the subject came during a recent podcast interview with Forrester’s Josh Bernoff. Josh points out that you can’t start with the technology. You have to start with people and objectives FIRST. What a great point. I can’t tell you how many times someone has come to me and said, “I need to start a blog,” or, “I need to tap into the Internet,” or, “I want to create a discussion forum.” My reply is always, “Who are your customers and what do they want?” THAT’S the first question. What do they care about? How can you make a difference in their lives? What are your objectives? Next, you can come up with which technologies can help you achieve those objectives (i.e., blogs, forums, Facebook, etc.).
It’s a novel idea - start with the consumer and what she wants. (This is the entire basis for Persuasion Architecture.) It’s also about communicating with customers in the manner they want to communicate.
How Do Your Customers Want to Interact With You?
FutureNow recently put up a Facebook page. As our Director of Marketing, Brian Bond said,
“The way I see it, technology evolves to better facilitate the needs of consumers, to have their questions and motivations addressed. The evolution of tools like Facebook is an answer to a need to communicate differently. Just like letter writing was largely replaced by email as a more efficient communication method, I see apps like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., all evolving as alternatives to email and other current communication methods. For marketers and businesses, this represents a great opportunity to communicate with their audience with the method their audience chooses. This change is something we have to embrace because it’s how our audience wishes to interact with our brand. Who are we to tell them they are wrong? The beauty of the Persuasion Architecture approach, in my mind, is that is that it applies equally well to all marketing/communication methods. It’s all about communicating with customers the way they want to be communicated with and addressing customers’ motivations. If there are technologies that better support this communication, then we must embrace them to be relevant to the customer.”
How do your customers want to interact with you? How can you provide genuine value to them? Remember, relationships are a two-way street. You can’t always ask ask ask - you have to give in return. Think about what you could give your customers that would be of value to them.
Do Facebook Ads Relate
Here’s a Facebook ad that got my attention:
Now, I deleted the header because it was “(my age) year-old-woman.” That creeped me out. I don’t like someone calling out my specific age. It’s not that I’m that old (I’m barely out of my twenties, really). But screaming my personal information at me like that made me feel a little violated.
Despite the header, the ad got my attention because it was for free samples of products - many of which I recognized in the image. The fact that this company was willing to give me something first appealed to me. It felt like a welcome gift. It felt like the way I’d like to start a relationship. (Rather than flashing the usual banner ad at me, screaming at me, “Buy our stuff! Give us your money!”) Remember, I’m in relationship mode right now, NOT shopping mode. Offering me a gift appealed to me more than offering a percentage off a purchase.
I know some people would joke that women are always in shopping mode. But ads like this one to the left are a big flop; a belly flop. Ads like this make me want to ban all advertising on Facebook.
Want your social media ads to work?
Start with People
By all means, embrace social media. But start with people, in particular, your customers. Who are they? What do they want? Start with their goals first. THEN bring in technology to achieve your goals. And remember, conversations are a two-way street. Don’t just ask…listen. You’ll form stronger relationships. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Since I’ve focused so much on Facebook, I’d love to hear from you - Advertisers - have you had success using Facebook? Tell me about it. Facebook Users - how do you feel about ads and applications on Facebook? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Sound off in the comments.
If you are doing social media advertising, would you like to do a research project with FutureNow to see how you can make those efforts more effective? If you’re interested, let’s have a conversation about it. You can start by leaving a comment below.
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
