The New Male Female Relationship

Author: Herb Goldberg

Within these pages, there are insights into relationships and gender issues that can most definitely be applied to consumer behavior.

Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design

Author: Kira Gould & Lance Hosey

To quote the authors: "This book is less about the 'ascendancy of women' than it is about the growing value of those sensibilities commonly associated with women." A book after my own heart.

Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business

Author: Barbara Annis

"The future of corporate success (especially with women occupying 50 percent of the workplace) lies in women and men both becoming gender intelligent in negotiations." This book is HR/leadership-focused, but there are significant implications for marketing team effectiveness and the understanding of today's consumers.

Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men

Author: Michael Kimmel

Kimmel offers incredible insights on how young men view their own masculinity (and why). The way men think, in general, will be key to the broader gender trend conversation of the 21st century - with some major marketing implications (if you ask me).

The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World -- And How to Reach Them (BK Business)

Author: Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen

Social change driven by women - how much more hopeful about our world could you get? This book is well-written, and its nonprofit advice also applies, for the most part, to corporate marketing.

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

Author: Chip Conley

I'm a big psychology buff, so this application of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the business realm fascinated (and resonated) with me. As Conley mentions, psychology in business has long been about "fixing it," but that won't necessarily "offer the opportunity for transformation to a more optimal state of being or productivity." Everyone can learn from this discussion.

The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap

Author: Susan Pinker

A fascinating examination of how sex differences play out over the life span. One interesting quote: "For most women it's less a question of who's able to win. It's whether competing feels good and is worth the cost."

Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes

Author: Katya Andresen

Andresen writes that causes can learn from traditional marketers, but after reading this, I'd argue that traditional marketers can learn from the causes profiled. An interview with Andresen is included in my eBook, 9 Minds On Marketing.

You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation

Author: Deborah Tannen

Men have a more asymmetrical, positioning approach to communication, while women have a more symmetrical, connecting approach. This is a classic worth revisiting frequently.

BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer -- The Baby-Boomer Woman

Author: Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn

It's a hot topic - and the case studies and examples presented in BOOM can offer up insights to get you started.

The Soccer Mom Myth

Author: Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan

Wisdom from two well-regarded marketing to women voices, with special attention on "personas" that help brands sort their markets into more powerful segments.

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life's Work

Author: Kevin Carroll

Carroll's life/work lessons have marketing strategy implications as well. Don't force things, but follow the perhaps subtle clues along the way.

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Author: Daniel Goleman

Some would say women have more social intelligence, but no matter - there is a lot riding on how people use it - and Goleman's book is fascinating.

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image

Author: Leonard Shlain

"The triumphant march of literacy that began five thousand years ago conquered right-brain values, and, with them, the Goddess. Patriarchy and misogyny have been the inevitable result." Mind-expanding look at men, women and words.

Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After

Author: Bella DePaulo

Singles, men and women, are key to today's economy. DePaulo has a take no prisoners approach to a societal reality many brands have been ignoring for too long.

The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage

Author: James H. Gilmore

The progression of economic value has gone from one of extracting commodities to making goods to delivering services and now, staging experiences. Read this for clues about how to reach this level with your products/services. Also, I interviewed Pine and Gilmore for my eBook: 9 Minds On Marketing.

The Female Brain

Author: Louann Brizendine

A brain scientist presents her view of what's different between men and women, and where/how those differences might come into play.

The Story Factor (2nd Revised Edition)

Author: Annette Simmons

Storytelling is key to reaching women and Simmons does a great job telling readers how to do it better. Need I say more?

The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers-Women

Author: Fara Warner

Case studies that include Nikegoddess.com and the DeBeers right-hand ring efforts offer proof of the evolving ways of marketing to women.

What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live

Author: Celinda Lake and Kellyanne Conway

Pollster research that describes the top trends for women (singular sensations being #1) in the early twenty-first century.

The Future of Men: The Rise of the Ubersexual and What He Means for Marketing Today

Author: Salzman, Matathia and O\'Reilly

The future of men is that they are more likely to fold their feminine brain traits into their buying and living decisions.

The Paradox of Choice

Manufacturer: Schwartz, Barry

Too much choice can be overwhelming. Read this book whenever you feel like expanding your product line without substantial reason.

Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Author: Robert D. Putnam

People have lost community offline, found it - in spades - online, and are now finding their way back to it, on the more local scale. There are significant marketplace implications for it all.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

Author: Daniel H. Pink

R-directed thinking (often referred to as the more feminine type of thinking) is starting to get its gender-neutral due, and people who can think more holistically are seeing the rewards in this new conceptual age.

The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness (P.S.)

Author: Virginia Postrel

"If the goal is happiness rather than expert-determined 'efficiency,' form is itself a function." Postrel helps us all step back and think differently about aesthetic value.

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things

Author: Donald A. Norman

Norman's work offers insights and ideas for how you can make your products better connection emotionally - it starts in the design process. Norman is one of my interviews in my eBook: 9 Minds On Marketing.

Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World

Author: Diane MacEachern

Big Green Purse is not a marketing guide, but an example of the filter through which women are starting to look at your products. Read it and change your ways.

In Women We Trust: A cultural shift to the softer side of business

Author: Mary Clare Hunt

The shift is happening, and it is affecting all aspects of business. Mary's take is worth a read.

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