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Research indicates that most women do it at least ten times every five minutes. What is it? Multi-minding—mentally juggling a complex mix of family, career, and self-care decisions at any given moment, with little time for commercial messages to seep into the mix. How do marketers reach women, who still make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions? This book, based on research, interviews, and Kelley Skoloda's twenty years of leading-edge work in brand marketing with major clients, explains how to connect with multi-minding women, gain their trust, and tap into their purchasing power.
Multi-minding is a cultural phenomenon that is here to stay. A multi-minding woman, even if she appears to be relaxing in front of a late-night television show, reading a magazine in the pediatrician's office, or tackling a complicated analytic study at work, is at the same time thinking about and preparing for the other dimensions of her life. She's weighing the benefits of changing her 401k plan, plotting out her organic vegetable garden, ticking off birthday-party logistics, and longing for a neck massage. That's why one study shows women feel they are packing 38 hours of activity into a 24-hour period. But studies also show that most women feel marketers are ignoring their needs. That's a big mistake considering women spend $3.3 trillion annually on consumer products. Too Busy to Shop explains what marketers need to know about multi-minding—a word coined by Skoloda and Ketchum—and its implications for companies seeking to speak to women buyers. Besides theory and insight, readers get how-tos and action items designed to ensure women view their brands favorably and hear the marketing message. The book also contains insiders' views of some of the most successful marketing-to-women campaigns of recent times. In short, Too Busy to Shop helps marketers understand multi-minding in depth—an essential task if they want to reach today's overloaded female consumer.
"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate marketing students, faculty, and practitioners."
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Choice
If you still consider women a marketing "niche segment," this book by brand expert Skoloda is a must-read. The author reveals that women not only "control $3.3 trillion in consumer spending," but also make more than 80% of household purchase decisions and increasingly control this country's wealth. She asserts that women are far beyond multitasking-they actually "multi-mind": simultaneously juggle home, family, work, social and financial obligations. In order to reach them, advertisers need to change their tactics, as her research illustrates that these busy women are immune to conventional marketing methods (they routinely Tivo through commercials and are inconvenienced rather than drawn in by new product displays). She presents studies that show women increasingly get shopping advice from friends and family, make purchasing decisions before entering stores and are drawn by "cause connectivity," a company's involvement in issues that are meaningful to them. While occasionally repetitive and geared more toward professional marketers than general readers, this book offers a treasure trove of timely insights on how to better understand and engage women consumers. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Foreword by Geraldine Laybourne
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Staggering Stats: Buying Power of the Female Consumer
Chapter 2: She's the Apple of Many Eyes: Women Buyers Getting More Attention from Marketers
Chapter 3: What's Wrong? Why Current Marketing Efforts Are Not Working
Chapter 4: Why Are We So Hard to Reach? The Challenge of Marketing to Women 25 to 54
Chapter 5: Remaking the Clock: Women and the 38-Hour Day
Chapter 6: Yes, I Multi-Mind: New Ways to Understand and Reach
"Multi-Minding" Audiences
Chapter 7: Before Women Go Shopping, They CROP: The CRedible Opinions Shortcut
Chapter 8: The Keys to Connecting with "Multi-Minding" Women
Chapter 9: The Better Way: A New Approach to Reach Female Consumers
Chapter 10: What Really Matters? Credibility
Chapter 11: Time Is of the Essence: "Quick-Connect" Messages
Chapter 12: The 360-degree "E-Surround" Method to Reach Women
Chapter 13: She's Looking for a Commitment: Consistent Confirmation
Chapter 14: What Does the Future Hold? Multi-Minders Becoming Co-Brand Managers
Bibliography
About the Interviewees
About the Author
Notes
Overview
Research indicates that most women do it at least ten times every five minutes. What is it? Multi-minding—mentally juggling a complex mix of family, career, and self-care decisions at any given moment, with little time for commercial messages to seep into the mix. How do marketers reach women, who still make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions? This book, based on research, interviews, and Kelley Skoloda's twenty years of leading-edge work in brand marketing with major clients, explains how to connect with ...