NewsBytes: Women/SMART certification, Gender/Social Web and Gen X/Financial Services
1) The women of the blogosphere continue to drive SMART© certified sustainable standards for consumer products, and the corporations are starting to listen. Check out Mary Hunt’s post on the latest: This situation reminds me of a quote attributed to Nancy Reagan: A woman is like a teabag – only in hot water do you realize how strong she is. Our environment is definitely in hot water – so look out.
2) A Brandweek interview/excerpt (sub. required) with Larry Weber, author of Marketing to the Social Web points out (among many other interesting things) that the social web cannot approach marketing from the traditional segmentation perspective, so things like gender are a lot less crucial than segmenting by behavior, attitudes and interests, which:
“…doesn’t depend on faceless numbers (how old customers are or how wealthy they are for instance). Instead, it groups people by what’s important to them, as indicated by what they do, think, like, and dislike. Once you know what moves your customers, you can target them with marketing activities that are meaningful to them. (It’s all about them, after all.)”
3) Tanya Irwin wrote a recent MediaPost article (reg. required) about Gen X and financial services. At one point she quotes Christina Smith, management supervisor of financial service accounts at MediaLogic about how to better serve that segment. Her advice sounds an awful lot like great marketing to women, as well:
“‘Gen Xers need
direct, transparent financial guidance,’ Smith says. Financial
marketers should aim to educate and enlighten them while being up-front
and maintaining full disclosure. While Gen Xers may use the Internet to
comparison-shop and get acquainted with a product set, they also want
the perceived security of human interaction at the moment of product
selection and purchase.”
