There’s a false assumption that floats freely around the marketing to women “space” – that marketing to women must be handled by women.  That may well keep a lot of more traditionally male-oriented industries or brands (or men in those companies) from taking the leap, and learning more about the … Read on >

All things being equal, parental duties were beginning to be noticeably shared in the U.S. by mid-2008.  Men and women were requesting more flexible work schedules and deliberately mapping out who does what chore at home – and seeming to take it in stride.  It was tough enough with two … Read on >

Part of my personal mission in marketing to women is to be able to, finally, take gender out of it.  I believe that while women will always be the general core market and toughest customers, we are headed into a time, culture and generation where men, too, will be more … Read on >

If ESPN is noticing “the new male consumer,” he is surely entering the mainstream.  This man, as described in a TV Week article on ESPN’s shifting ad approach, is someone “a different set of advertisers need to reach. Those new males are booking family vacations, picking … Read on >

What does your laptop say about you?  Mine is a black MacBook.  Does it mean something if it isn’t pink or red, or stored in a very stylish case when I travel?

Josh Fruhlinger called me a few weeks back to talk about just that.  He’d noticed an oddly and overly … Read on >

I was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswire on the best approach for reaching women in the wealth management field.  Michaela Cavallaro did a great job, with few words, putting the topic into perspective – especially for these cautious times. Here’s the gist of my view:… Read on >

Does this “green” or sustainable thing really matter to today’s consumers?  I think it does, and recently came across a great article by Leslie Carothers in Furniture Today that is a must-read for any marketer still wrestling with the question.  In it, she takes the reader from the misperceptions … Read on >

The first time I was offered a glass of wine in a hair salon it felt very out of context (especially since it was twenty years ago) but, it definitely made the experience that day memorable.  I appreciated that the wine brought a bit of celebration to my otherwise bi-monthly … Read on >

Semantics is often pooh-poohed, as in: “that’s just semantics.”  But, as I research the gender shifts in workplace and marketing these days, I think we should be giving semantics their due.  Word choice actually DOES matter when formerly touchy topics are raised, especially if the point of raising them is … Read on >

With this “mad rush” to the women’s market to save brands from their recessionary woes (again  – what took them so long?), it is all the more interesting to observe businesses that seem to have an inherent competitive edge on that front. Even if they never officially thought about … Read on >