by Yvonne DiVita >>> These are my views and my views alone.
Happy New Year to the Women of 2013, and your family and friends. Including any fur-kids about the house.
The year in recap is playing on CBS this morning. I'm being reminded of the gaffes during the election. Of all the people who are no longer with us. Little stories of courage pop in and out. Tragedy dominates. Viral videos are getting a lot of attention.
I expect it's all necessary, for some reason. As a species, we humans tend to forget easily.
Facebook is overflowing with good New Year's Eve wishes - and angry tirades. Folks are still griping about the outcome of the election, about guns and shootings and our 'rights' and the fact that... they have proof that their view is correct and everyone else's is not. I haven't seen mention of the Fiscal Cliff, but it's likely there. As we go over it, we'll hear more and more about our disfunctional Congress. And, as a group, we'll lament that Congress isn't doing its job - but, no one will demand resignations... one and all. We'll just go on Facebook and complain.
One thing that strikes me throughout all of the news - the tirades - the announcements - the videos - is the fact that we, as a species, are in danger of losing our humanity.
Found this infographic on Pinterest and had to share. It refers to women in the 21st century and is titled, Leadership Equality. I believe it supports my marketing to women message, my women are everything Pinterest board, and the fact that women are vital to the prosperity not only of the U.S., but of the whole world. Enjoy.
All communication is... sales and marketing. That's right. Everything you do is a form of sales and marketing. When you call a good friend for a shoulder to cry on, you're selling your unhappiness hoping she'll buy it and supply the means to help you feel better. When you call a prospect to just chat, "Hey, haven't spoken in awhile, I was just wondering how you are?" you're sending a clear sales message: I care. Caring is a big part of sales.
Communication is a tricky thing. Each word uttered, each sentence constructed on the fly, each topic of conversation sends a meaning to the person listening or reading or eavesdropping. (You know you do it - in stores, in theaters, in farmer's markets, your ears are tuned to the voices of those around you). Each meaning is likely interpreted differently than you imagine.
2013 is on the horizon. I love this time of year. Our social media channels are overflowing with Christmas joy, everyone is vowing to eat just one more cookie and then no more!, and our businessfolk are either panicking because they aren't ready for 2013, or happy with the plans in place for this next year.
Let's talk about marketing in 2013 - some of it focused on marketing to women, and some of it focused on trends. I'm curious about the trends - will women drive these trends? Will we embrace them or ignore them? We'll see.
#1 - marketing to women is still a viable approach to all of your plans for 2013. Women not only love to buy - we love to share. If you are really in touch with your women customers (no matter what you sell, you have women customers - you know this, right?), you should be successful in bringing their voices into your marketing plans. Women are more than delighted to tell you how they want you to do things. Just ask your <wife> <sister> <mother> <aunt> .... or <girlfriend>. Better yet, get all your women 'friends' in one room and give them a whiteboard. Oh, the innovative ideas you'll get! Makes me tingle all over!
I hope you had a good Christmas Day. It's hard to believe its come and gone and all the presents have been unwrapped. We still have most of them sitting all over the living room floor with gift bags and bows scattered around as well. We even got a little snow on Christmas Eve to make it a White Christmas. It's great to have my two daughters home for a few days together. So the holiday does continue.
As my tradition goes, I usually take the time to write my last post of the year as a review of what I've written about during the year. It's a way for me to reflect and think back on the year that will soon end before moving on to the next one. I just did the count and this will be my 49 blog post of the year. Here's a look back at 12 posts, one per month, that I felt reflected a major story, both from a public marketing perspective as well as a few personal views.
When your commute takes you less than 30 seconds, there are times when it is tempting to simply roll
out of bed, brush your teeth, grab a coffee, click on the computer and start your day. While this may seem ideal, especially to individuals who have to brave the roads and traffic on a daily basis, you still need to be "presentable" even when you work from home.
As a work-from-home writer, it was a thrill to be able to give up the commute, but there was a learning curve when it came to being a productive work-from-home individual. Here is what I learned:
I started this blog in 2004 to support the idea that marketing to women online is a practice more businesses should be focused on. Since then, a lot has changed. The Internet has changed, for one. It's grown... Facebook and Twitter were not part of my original writings, and to dismiss them now would spell trouble across the board. People are knowledgable about marketing to women, recognizing the inherent differences in how women shop, how we think, and what our role is in the family. Interestingly, another factor plays into the marketing to women concept these days - the fact that many people are promoting gender neutral marketing - in other words, just market. Don't target women or men.
I'm not one of them. I still firmly believe women are different than men, we shop differently than men, and we use the Internet differently. We're unique.
In an increasingly demanding workforce and struggling
economy, the choice to stay home or return to work after bringing home a baby
or two is tougher than ever to make. Choosing between financial necessity and
full-time parenting without outside help is not easy to decipher. Every family
approaches it differently based on the status of their family, finances and
personal preferences.
I have four children ages five and under. My oldest goes to
all-day Kindergarten and the next one heads to preschool four days per week.
That leaves a three-year-old and seven-month-old at home every day. Sure, I
could go out and find an office job and pay into child care and after-school
care and bring home the rest. Nearly two years ago, my husband and I decided it
made more sense for me to work-from-home instead.
It's hard to believe that it is now less than a week till Christmas day. I finally finished "decking the halls" of our house and finished my shopping except for a few small items. I did end up doing the majority of my shopping online this season. According to figures that comScore released last week, U.S. online holiday spending Approached $27 billion for the first 37 days of the November-December shopping season. That's up 13% vs. last wear.
However, between now and Christmas we have to get through the 12/21 apocalypse in order to give and receive all those gifts that we just spent billions of dollars on! Did you forget about this end of the world theory predicted because the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012? Well don't fret, we've got Jell-O Pudding to save us!
The Kraft Foods brand is currently running a “funpocalypse” campaign to “fun things up” during the days leading up to the date in question. Throughout this week 60- and 30-second Jell-O pudding TV spots are running with a “Fun to the Rescue” theme, and the brand is also sponsoring apocalypse-themed programming on cable channels. Check out the ad here:
In case Jell-O is unable to save the world after all they are inviting Americans to share the one thing they’d want to do before the world may end. To encourage sharing the brand is running the "JELL-O PUDDING BRINGS FUN TO THE RESCUE" Sweepstakes on Twitter now through Dec. 20. They are randomly drawing 12 winners per day who will win $100 supposedly to use toward completing their “bucket lists".
To enter, participants need to follow @JELLO and tweet @JELLO with hashtag #funpocalypse; and share what they would like to cross off their bucket list.
Jell-O will also have street teams in five major metro areas handing out leaflets to assure people that “the end isn’t near; the fun is”; and is offering cards with humorous apocalyptic messages through a partnership with Someecards that you can view here.
Greg Gallagher, Senior Brand Manager, JELL-O, Kraft Foods Group, stated in a release that "Fun is in the DNA of JELL-O and by inserting ourselves in the cultural conversation of the Mayan apocalypse, we will remind people to have some fun with their food."
So I chose to right about this campaign this week because I thought we could all use a little fun right now in light of all the sorrow we are feeling for
the families in Newtown. On that note, please consider participating in some way to the#26Acts of Kindness for Newtown where people are using social media to pledge to commit acts of kindness in
honor of the shooting victims. I'm just beginning to work on mine. This was all started with a Tweet from Ann Curry, of NBC News.
If we learned anything from social media in 2012, it is that it's a remarkable and powerful way to stay in touch with one another at a level the world has never been able to achieve before, in both good times and bad. Let's hope it will help to enable us people to make a better world in 2013.
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