Session: Untying the Purse Stings: Marketing to Women II

I just came out of Untying the Purse Stings: Marketing to Women II. I have to say I was somewhat offended at first with the title, but the content and panelists put it in perspective. KraftFoods' Kathy Olvany-Riordan addressed the cheesy title by noting that no one can "untie" purse strings.

She spoke of a method of marketing that goes beyond demographics when marketing and advertising to women. Kraft calls women the "glue" that holds everything together. Some topline stats illustrated the value of this segment.
According to eMarketer '03:
- women represent 54 percent pf the total online population
- 52 percent of all online shopping
- 23 percent of projected growth
- 80 percent influence HH purchase decisions from food to finance

Andy Langer, Vice Chair at Lowe Worldwide and client David Adelman, Director of Media Futures Innovation at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), tag teamed to give the audience an good look at babies and moms.

Lowe's creative was said to be the key to success in J&J's integrated marketing. Andy spoke about the need for consumer insight in order to make sure their creative translated across television, print, and online.

David shared success stories of cross media optimization studies. To little audience surprise, online media efforts yielded more impact when coupled with television.

Anna Murray, President of e*Media, was suprisingly the only woman on the panel, aside from the moderator. She was promoting a book she wrote for MarketingSherpa.com. Anna shared online poll insights showing a rogue's gallery of things not to do in interface, website design, creative and copy. I think most of the audience nodded their heads when she unveiled quotes on how most web users hate flash intros, slow load times, and the like.

To sum it up, the exhibit floor is crowded as heck, many marketers are marketing to women, several poorly, and most importantly, women online have significant influence. They know what they want and aren't afraid to tell you.