[Marxism] Why Corporate America Dumped Imus

[Jon Flanders <jonathan.flanders@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good ole boy BS ran up against this reality of the power of women in the
marketplace . And then add racism and stir. I think this episode was a
tipping point of sorts.

The shock I saw on some of the white male media faces today was
priceless.

Jon Flanders



FEBRUARY 14, 2005 

SPECIAL REPORT 

Business Week 


I Am Woman, Hear Me Shop

Rising female consumer power is changing the way companies design, make,
and market products -- and it's about more than adding pastels
Who's the apple of marketers' eye? It's not 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. 

Women earn less money than their counterparts -- 78 cents for every
dollar a man gets. But they make more than 80% of buying decisions in
all homes. And women shop differently from the way men do: Females
research more extensively and are less likely to be influenced by ads.
"Today's woman is the chief purchasing agent of the family and marketers
have to recognize that," says Michael Silverstein, principal at Boston
Consulting Group and author of Trading Up: The New American Luxury. 

SOARING INCOMES.  Smart companies already have. Product manufacturers
are paying more attention to style and form, and marketers are shifting
away from TV ads in favor of promotional efforts in venues women trust:
reviews in women's magazines and spots on TV shows like Oprah and
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. "Pinched for time and skeptical, these
women are forcing marketers to look at more ways than ever when pitching
a product," says Kelley Skoloda, director of global brand marketing
practice at Ketchum, a communications firm that assists companies on
marketing strategies. 

Women's decision-making authority has grown in part because more
households are headed by women -- 27% at last count, a fourfold increase
since 1950. Their buying power has grown, too. In the past three
decades, men's median income has barely budged -- up just 0.6% -- while
women's has soared 63%. Some 30% of working women outearn their
husbands, notes Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women: How to
Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market
Segment. And 75% of women with the title of vice-president or higher at
Fortune 500 companies outearn their husbands, bringing home on average
68% of household income, according to Barletta. 

Little surprise that companies -- including businesses that largely
overlooked women in the past -- are trying to woo this key consumer. Not
long ago, Home Depot (HD ) marketed its power tools and drywall to men,
but it's now aggressively pursuing women with classes that teach them
how to do home repairs. It's also pursuing entertainment partnerships
with home improvement shows like Trading Spaces, which are widely
watched by women. 

NEW LUXURY SECTOR.  Banks and financial-service companies, including
Citibank (C ), Merrill Lynch (MER ), and Charles Schwab (SCH ), have
created entire departments that market investment products exclusively
to women. Indeed, it would be a mistake to ignore this fast-growing
segment of wealthy individuals. The Employment Policy Foundation says
the number of women earning $100,000 or more has tripled in the last 10
years. 

This deeper-pocketed female consumer's aspirations and taste have given
rise to the new "mass luxury movement," where the mainstream public has
become aware and acquisitive of designer and brand names previously
solely in the domain of the affluent. Karl Lagerfeld, the doyen of haute
couture, designed pieces for mass retailer H&M that sold out in hours,
and discounter Target (TGT ) has such names as Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia
Rowley, and Liz Lange in its stable of designers. Brands like Coach
(COH ) are making handbags and key chains at lower price points, and
Mercedes (DCX ) and BMW (BMW ) are putting out cars that middle-class
consumers can afford. 

Not that reaching this type of shopper is without challenges. The female
consumer is very busy and has a complex web of duties that makes her
less than readily available. Take Shubha Varma, a 39-year-old vascular
surgeon and mother of two children, ages 5 and 1. On a typical day, she
gets up at 6 a.m. After a short exercise routine, she wakes up her older
child and makes sure he brushes his teeth and eats breakfast, then
drives him to preschool after handing the baby to the sitter. 

PR CRUCIAL.  Through it all, Varma is mentally ticking off the things
she has to do that day: remembering to pick up milk that ran out,
schedule an appointment with her kid's music teacher, and decide what
she will put on the dinner table that night for the family. 

Forget multitasking -- women like Varma are "multiminding," a newly
coined buzz phrase that describes the process of simultaneously thinking
about various things. Marketers have found it hard to grab such women's
attention with TV ads. "Today's woman has less time and is such a tough
consumer she has single-handedly pushed marketers to actually go to PR
budgets," says Silverstein. "She reads magazines and wants to know the
detail around products." That's one reason marketers are increasingly
emphasizing product placement, sponsorships, and shaping editorial
content over TV ads. 

That's why it was good news for Dell (DELL) when Oprah's Favorite Things
2004 Shopping List included two of its products, the $199 Dell Pocket DJ
and $2,199 30-inch LCD TV. In the two weeks after the episode featuring
Oprah's List aired, sales of Dell's plasma TVs spiked, accounting for
70% of its units sold during the holidays. 

MOTORBIKE SALES  Retailers have had to change their approach to the
women's market as well. "Women do a lot of homework beforehand and
aren't willing to be dazzled by the salesperson who doesn't bring any
practical information," says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic
Retail and author of How America Shops. To give female shoppers the kind
of information they're looking for, Best Buy (BBY ) is retraining its
floor sales staff to talk to women in practical terms, not in jargon or
geekspeak. 

The increased spotlight on the female shopper is even starting before
the marketing and selling phase in some cases. Computer maker X2 is
coming out with lighter laptops in nontraditional colors. In 2003,
contractor Barbara Kavovit, CEO of Barbara K Enterprises, launched a
line of tools ergonomically designed to suit a woman's smaller hand.
(And they come in blue, not pink.) "Women are defining the new value
equation -- combine the practical with the esthetic," says Liebmann. 

This empowered woman hasn't escaped the notice of Harley-Davidson (HDI).
In November, it added a section on its Web site for female bikers, with
tips on appropriate gear and how to ride safely. Harley says it was
responding to the growing popularity of motorbikes among women: Sales to
women grew to 10%, or 23,000, of all bikes sold in 2003 vs. just 2% in
1985. 

iPOD EXAMPLE.  Marketers warn that retailers and manufacturers assume
that marketing to women is as easy as changing the color of a product to
pink. "If you're serious about reaching the female consumer, you have to
care about her and get to know what she desires," says BCG's
Silverstein. It's critical they understand the female consumer's needs
and dissatisfactions, and come up with ideas and solutions, as Best Buy
has done. 

Best Buy and Dell are both optimistic that their women's initiatives of
the last six months will boost their bottom lines. And if Apple's
success with the iPod mini is any indication, such optimism is
well-founded. Women are lapping up a majority of the multicolored minis,
contributing significantly to Apple's dramatic 74% sales increase in its
fiscal first quarter that ended Dec. 25. 

Whether their efforts involve retraining sales staff or redesigning
products, companies that pay attention to the female consumer could hit
the mother lode. 
-- 



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