In his Time column this week, Dr. Mehmet Oz reflects on the fact that, in most homes, women are the primary care doc, thanks to their “remarkable power” to keep their families well.
The article continues by offering tips aimed at helping women teach their family healthy habits – from inventing games and stories so health lessons are more likely to stick with kids to storing each family member’s health history in one place to better manage their healthcare.
All good advice. But I couldn’t help but think how all these great ideas add yet more “do’s” to a mom’s ever-growing to-do list.
It takes enormous creativity and organizing skills to be a great mom. So who wouldn’t appreciate a practical shortcut tool once in a while? This is a service that more nonprofits could provide. What if a nonprofit committed to children’s health offered an online bank…
- Posted by Lisa Chen
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You are out of hand soap, so you head to the store. How do you choose your soap? Brand loyalty? Scent? Environmental impact? Price? Packaging? What do you consciously consume?
What about when it’s time to remodel your home, paint the bathroom, or even build a new home or office. What do you consider then?
Construction has never been an industry dominated by women, but women are bringing innovation, consciousness, and relevance to the field. Green Economy Post recently made a list of who they consider the top ten women in green building.
We found another to add to the list:
Sarah Beatty founded Green Depot – “a leading supplier of environmentally friendly and sustainable building products, services, and home solutions” – in 2005. The flagship store on Bowery in Manhattan hosts a myriad of products, for all elements of living, and empowers consumers with options….
- Posted by Lisa Witter
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The Next Generation
Case Study: Connect, Cultivate, Online Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized
Have you heard of Shoes of Prey? The custom shoe design site had an explosive experience last week – thanks to a 16-year-old’s YouTube site. Juicysatr07’s 
had 450,000 viewers, and combined with a giveaway prize from the company, lured 200,000 to Shoes of Prey’s site, according to PSFK.
How are you adapting to and including new voices in your online marketing? How do you find the right influencers?
You can learn how to apply every kind of makeup, reorganize your closet, sketch a portrait, and a million other things thanks to the force of young women on YouTube. The tone of the video, the number of YouTube subscribers, and their comments can help you figure out which YouTube lady is the best to help your product, company or organization. If you have an evening, watch their videos!
Women research their purchases and the…
- Posted by Lisa Witter
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Consumption filtered by Camera-Phones
Case Study: Control, Consumer Marketing, Cultivate, Moms, Uncategorized
Women seek an in-depth understanding of what they choose – whether it’s when they buy a product or take a bite of a pie. How do they know what they are getting?
Two non-profits organizations are making detailed info available at the snap of a camera-phone. Consumers simply take an iPhone to the grocery store with the GoodGuide app or the (soon to launch) Citizen’s Market app, and scan item barcodes. From home they can search deep databases online. Profiles for the product and company pop up with ratings and descriptions for them. On Citizens Market, consumers can upload reviews, and companies can join the conversation, too.
GoodGuide helps consumers “find safe, healthy, and green products” with a rating system that accounts for ingredients, production, and the behavior of the company that makes or harvests the products. They use a combination of science, widely sourced…
- Posted by Lisa Witter
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Women are flocking to, well… the flock, it appears. The number of women who leave the office to raise their families and run self-sufficient homes is rising, according to the New York Times.
With chicken coops and children in tow, this movement is made up of women who stay at home, with a new spin on being a housewife.
They are “feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly.” Some seek an anti-consumer lifestyle, as advocated by Shannon Haye’s book, the Radical Homemaker with communities sprouting in support.
The limitations on consumption and the consciousness present in the lifestyle and purchasing decisions these women are making may echo in the back-to-the-land movement, the influx of green and organic products, or seem extreme to some. Fundamentally, though, “Femivores” and even “Radical Homemakers” resonate with the wider pattern in women’s consumption:…
- Posted by Lisa Witter
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Have you seen the new commercial for Kotex?
Or maybe you read about the edgy ad campaign in the New York Times. The ads feature the same, vivacious, youthful, put-together women you’d see in any typical tampon commercial.
But what comes out of their mouths is something completely different: a parody-slash- meta-critique of conventional tampon ads where jogging on the beach and the confident wearing of white pants stand in for the monthly condition that dares-not-speak-its-name.
Call it “truth” for tampons.
Truth, of course, is the powerful anti-tobacco campaign that takes aim at Big Tobacco’s dastardly marketing tactics to discourage young people from lighting up. Kotex is taking a similar nudge-nudge approach. Except this time it’s young women (demo target: 14 to 21) who are in on the joke.
I like it. Also cool: Kotex is donating proceeds to Girls for a Change, a group that mentors…
- Posted by Lisa Chen
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About this blog
Lisa Chen and Lisa Witter
are the authors of The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to
Reach Them. They are also both
senior strategists at Fenton Communications, the nation’s largest public
interest communications firm. [