Social media, marketers and consumers

Going through my stack of Marketing Magazine's to catch up on, I was leafing through the August issue and came across the interview with Grant McCraken on Circle of Brands. Matt Semansky, staff writer for Marketing Magazine posed a great question in this interview asking "how can marketers gain the trust of consumers in the social media space?". Although I am not sure it was exactly answered by Grant, the proposition is extremely insightful. In a world of co-creation and UGC, consumers are designers, developers and producers for marketers. As it should be. Both marketers and consumers now have skin in the game which begs a greater need for an exchange of trust.

Some time ago when we first launched the www.defineyourself.ca community for women to discuss how they feel about aging, we were criticized by a well known journalist for 'using' women and their views as research for the marketer. At the time it struct me as a highly antiquated observation but I chalked it up to inexperience with social communities as consumer pipelines for co-creation, feedback and ideation. The notion of getting closer to the consumer is just smart business and good for everyone. The formation of a win-win value exchange model opens up new possibilities for an emerging marketplace that levels buyers and sellers on common ground.

Seeking: A Naturalist with strong opinions!

Finding a naturalist is proving to be tougher then we thought! We are wrapping up casting for our second Season of the Define Yourself campaign which will feature a range of women with dramatically different mindsets on the topic of aging. We have had no challenge finding lots of women to be involved with one exception-- we are looking for a women who loves every wrinkle, rarely or never wears makeup and is against any anti-aging products or treatments. Does this sound like anyone you know? If so, we would like to hear from you asap! Please email contact@swingthink.com

Aging? The good, the bad and the ugly.

Ahhhh, aging. Although most of us would like to be fresh faced and makeup free as we approach those 40, 50 milestone ages, it's just not realistic for most of us. It is tough to get to the real deal when it comes to the way women feel about aging. There is how we SHOULD feel, and then there is how we really feel. Take our the Define Yourself, Which Type Are You poll and see how your aging mindset compares to other women across Canada.