Jane has a guilty secret to confide, dear readers. Jane is a devout-- dare we admit--obsessed?-- fan of the WB show, Smallville. As a child, we collected Superman comics and at one time had well over 200 of them in a box in our attic. Along with Archie and Veronica and various other fun reads of the day. Sad to say, they were THROWN OUT during a cleaning of the attic...when Jane was not home.

Smallville bears little resemblance to the actual Superboy/Superman legend of old. It's set in modern day town of Smallville-- where Clark Kent and Lana Lang and Chloe, a made-up character (our favorite character in the show, next to Clark), and even, this year, Lois Lane, get into enough outrageously unbelievable mischief that, for a brief hour, once a week, we suspend our disbelief and allow them to entertain us with a world of fantasy that we hope never ends.

Chloe and Lois are cousins and spend their days poking their noses into other people's business-- usually Clark's.

We shamelessly admit our fondness for the show-- despite the ribbing we get from family members who see it as campy and corny and over the top in plot and action. So be it. We tell you this interesting (boring?) bit of news to explain our title, today. Truthfully, the title would be more accurate if it said, "Jane Plays Perry White," since we will be reporting on news already gathered by others. But, you see the problem here, don't you, dear reader? Jane is much too short to play Perry White.

Let us move on to news from the blogosphere on why you should be marketing to women-- not those 'other' groups your competition is aiming their messages at. What follows is news Jane considers super- relevant to successful marketing to women online-- be that through your blog, your website, or your ezine/newsletter.

We start with our friend David Wolfe over at Ageless Marketing. He's posting a valuable series on why baby boomers are the folks you should be getting your marketing message in front of. Jane directs you to his February 17th post:

"Gee Whiz Novelty Not Always the Best Antidote for Ad Clutter"

David's expertise puts Lois Lane and Perry White to shame. Here's a telling sentence from his Gee Whiz post, "The 45-year-old is less impressed with showmanship than with substance presented in a way that demonstrates the marketer’s understanding of the consumer." This sentence sits, on our monitor, directly next to a graphic image of the Dove ad shown here, an ad which focuses on the "reality" of life, as David says. Not on "imaginary" or an unqualified "ideal." As a baby boomer lady who fits into this picture somewhere along the edge, Jane likes that Dove is helping redefine the notion of beauty. David knows, and so should you, dear reader, that--gee whiz-- Moms and Grandmoms, who do a LOT of shopping ONLINE, are beautiful in their own right and, when they land on your catalogue page or homepage or wherever their clicking takes them to on your site, you'd better have images and text they can relate to. Even if their daughters or sons are your target market-- because these women spend more money on other people, than they spend on themselves.

Moving on...let's get into WOMMA. Over at Buzz Marketing with Blogs, Susannah Gardner has the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Code of Ethics posted, with a link to their site for more information. Jane hasn't mentioned Susannah in Lip-sticking, and this isn't a proper introduction, but this is a writer who should be at the top of your bloglines list. She's a modern day Lois Lane, much more tuned in to what's working online and what's not.

Word of mouth has always been a win-win way to attract attention. With the women's market, it's a win-win-win-win way. Forget six degrees of separation-- women have only one degree of separation-- between themselves and dozens, hundreds, thousands, of friends, family members, and related acquaintances. With blogging, that single degree of separation is shrinking daily. We can now find out anything and everything we want to know about you-- with one click into our RSS feed to see what our sisters are chatting about today.

According to an article at Sign On San Diego, "Word-of-mouth marketing through the Internet is sacking traditional tv advertising." In the article, reporter James Hebert said, "Consumer-generated marketing, reality engineering, viral marketng: There are lots of new names for what used to be known simply as word of mouth. What's different now is the speed and breadth with which buzz proliferates on the Internet, and how receptive consumers can be to such messges."

The article gets into more detail on the power of word of mouth, and how TV is losing eyeballs when it comes to advertising.

On the web, the consumer has always been in control...and Jane is here to tell you that women don't want to be "marketed to" as much as they want to be "engaged in conversation." Talk to us. Blogging is a great tool for that. Start your own bloggersation and we'll join in. You won't be able to keep us away-- it's in our genetic make-up. Buzz, buzz, buzz...that's the sound of hundreds of thousands of women online, talking about...YOU?

We leave you with this last note where Businessweekonline, in an article titled, "I Am Woman, Hear Me Shop," supports David Wolfe's advice to get your message in front of the boomer market. But, this article takes it one step further. It supports Jane's repeated advice to, "Market to Women who Shop Online."

Indeed, Businessweekonline says, "Who's the apple of marketers' eye? It's not the free-spending teens or men 25-50. It's women, thanks to their one-two punch of purchasing power and decision-making authority. Working women ages of 24-54-- of whom the U.S. has some 55 million-- have emerged as a potent force in the marketplace, changing the way companies design, position, and sell their products."

Now, dear readers-- who are you going to trust when it comes to deciding where to put your marketing message, and how to build the creative around it? Are you going to trust a marketing manager who has an MBA from...oh, maybe Harvard, where he or she was taught by a grey-haired professor from those old Dick and Jane days of yore-- or are you going to trust us, the group at Lip-sticking, almost all of whom are part of the largest demographic online; the one that buys for everyone in her family, and also for everyone in her office?

Be Smart. Smart Marketing should be aimed at Women Who Shop Online.

What's not to like about that?