Revlon, Gloria Steinem, Kate Muldoon in a Fit by Five for Fall
September 19, 2006
The net is abuzz with blog happenings, news, references, and more. I haven't yet looked up the latest stats but I venture to say that blogs are hitting a tipping point. I still meet folks who give me the quizzical, "What's a blog?" look. But, they know about blogs, and they are sheepish about not having a clue. It wasn't so long ago these same people dismissed blogs and bloggers with a wave of their hand. It's good to see folks finally coming around.
This blog wants to serve readers by offering good advice and content on marketing to women online. Everything I write has something to do with women, and can be studied or used on your website or blog, to attract women customers. One key is to remember that women value relationships. Not the "sales" kind - where you put on a false front to make friends with us, or to send us annoying direct mail. We value the kind that opens dialogues and moves along at a pace we can handle. We're skeptical of advertising (as are men, also, these days) so - if you want to reach us, you need to hang where we hang, talk the talk, and walk the walk.
Yesterday we had a long conversation with a possible new client. She has a phenomenal program she's setting up online and wants help implementing it. Yesterday was our second telephone discussion with her. Numerous emails have been sent and received. She's been quoted - with a response that wasn't what we'd hoped. BUT - she wants to talk. She wants to "build a relationship," and work on a foundation of trust. I understand that. I am ecstatic! The door is still open. I know how to work within the bounds of relationship building, and I'm delighted with the way this if flowing. We will win this - on terms that serve the client, and that serve us. What can be better than that?
Meanwhile, here are my Fit by Five bits of Fall Advice:
1. Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda - two names from that by-gone century where Dick and Jane spoke in toddler sentences - are part of a new online radio network launched last week by Greenstone Media. Quote from Steinem in Businessweek: "Women are more and more turned off by the hostility and argumentative nature of AM talk radio." Their show will be more female-friendly, so they say, with segments on health and child-care.
2. Great new blog supporting parents: Minti - powered by parents. Check it out. Find out where they got the name, and let me know.
3. Over at In Women We Trust, Mary Hunt has a GREAT article on Judy's Book. This is valuable marketing to women content. Mary says the site is supported by women (more women than men, she says). Her interview with founders Andy Sack and Chris DeVore is a must-read.
4. My September issue of Direct Marketing has a long article on the last page titled, "Be Blogged or Be Gone." In it, Katie Muldoon asks catalogers if they've blogged themselves [no link to this article, but to others by Katie]. She says, "Sure, sometimes blogs can be nastily negative, but discovering what's wrong is often better than learning what's right." And, "...entertainment is a key component of today's marketing." Are you entertaining the women who come to your site?? Do you blog yourself at least once a week?
5. In the September issue of Target Marketing, curmudgeon Denny Hatch (any relation to Boston Legal's Denny Crane, I wonder?), gets a thunk up side the head for his comment on blogs. Denny apparently gives advice - free advice - to folks looking for feedback on their ads. In this column, he talks about the 'rules' of the game, i.e. showcasing the rules people break when making up ad campaigns. All to the good, until he makes this comment, "Pages of long-winded lectures and blather with no idea where it's going or how it should be presented - a kind of meandering blog in rant. (Note: Denny Hatch's definition of a blog: "A cross between a blog and a bog.")" Obviously he doesn't read any of the blogs we read. He needs to get out of the 20th century.
Famous Last Words, that's Denny's column. I predict that his blog comment will become just that.
p.s. yes, I forgot Revlon - they will have to wait for another day!
Thanks for mentioning Minti :)
The name doesn't mean anything in particular... it just seemed to say friendly, happy, fresh, colourful etc.
-- Clay Cook
Minti CEO
Posted by: Clay Cook | September 20, 2006 at 05:02 AM