Women at the expense of men?

David Menzies wrote an interesting article in this month's Marketing Magazine titled "Excuse My Gender" where he laments about men and their negative portrayal in recent ad campaigns by Rona, Rogers and Royal Bank to name a few. I can certainly relate to the sentiment of the article. Perhaps the pendulum has swung to far for marketers trying to wave the flag for the female gender. As an agency who specializes in marketing with women I can sympathize and agree that good quality marketing and communication strategies do not have to come at the expense of men.

That said, is the message getting through at the retail level? With all of the mega bucks being invested by North America's big brands in search of winning the female favour, is this translated at all customer touchpoints of the sales experience? Sadly, I say no. Just walk into a retailer selling consumer electronics, try signing up for a new small business phone system or even purchasing a car, home or a vacation membership package and as a woman you will still have to sustain some good old fashioned gender discrimination.

So, perhaps these ad budgets should be allocated to gender specific sales training and operationalization of communication strategies across all customer touch points. Just a thought.

Women. The advertising engine of influence.

Women are savvy to advertising. We know what we like. We know what we trust. eMarketers' recent consumer stats tell that 78% of us trust recommendations from other consumers, 63% of us trust newspapers and 61% of us trust opinions posted online. Popular ones recently cited in an eCommerce Minute article were www.buzzilions.com , www.pissedconsumer.com and www.my3cents.com . Of course there are also the more industry related ones like www.tripadvisor.com . Which consumer opinion sites do you trust?

With TV, Magazine and radio ads moving down the list of trusted sources, what ads are making an impact now? Check out this video spoof on advertising. You are going to love it.

A beautiful courtship

To promote and reach the nation, Canada in 2020 has leveraged a range of communication tools on all platforms. You can read, listen, write, watch or attend a forum. There are websites, podcasts, online vmails, blogs, newsletters, RSS feeds..... all beckon you to participate IN YOUR PREFERRED WAYS.

Tell people something interesting is going on and provide them with the right options to find out more. You hate visiting content-rich sites, no problem, how about we deliver newsletters to your door? No time to read, podcasts are here! Want to comment, rant, rave, complain....pick your options, do so in person, in our blogs, in an essay, or even leave a vmail.

Whatever pleases you, my love.

A beautifully simple and effective formula! Put yourself on the receiver side and think FOR them, work WITH them, and create a relationship akin to a good old fashioned courtship.

Impostor Syndrome/Complex: Maybe Not Such a Bad Thing?

ClickZ has a fantastic piece today on the importance of listening. It's a reminder that sometimes it's important to remind ourselves that we may know a lot of things, but we need to be in 'I know nothing' mode if we are really going to hear what customer feedback is saying.

Read on as to why the customer conversation feedback cycle needs listening and humility to work properly ...