Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Marketing to Women


Why Women Don't Give Second Chances, and what can you learn
from it!


Does your firm market to women? Think not, well think again! It’s a proven fact, women make the majority of buying decisions for their families. They decide which non profit to support, which health care provider the family chooses and which restaurant to dine at. Wow, hopefully we choose to use our power for good!

In a blog article written by Liz Ryan she says “Women want assurance - they want difficult problems taken off their plates, and they need their service providers to go the extra mile to make sure they are well served. Women consumers want to be treated as valued customers, even before they've reached that stage - that's the very way that they'll become valued clients, in fact.”

We all remember a time when we didn’t feel valued as a customer. The rude secretary who answers the phone at the insurance company, the doctors office where you wait ten minutes to be acknowledged and when finally asked why you’re there you are told (with no apology) you were in the wrong office. Who of us can say we have always respond perfectly to our own clients. Sometimes mistakes happen, and unfortunately bad service travels fast.

Marketing to women as well as men means paying attention to each customer's specific needs and providing respect to everyone who interacts with your business. Women are very flexible, but we're not flexible enough to suffer insults or indignities without complaint. And, come to that, why should we be?” And if you realize that last phone call didn't go well, try to rectify it quickly. Admitting mistakes is appreciated.

As Liz Ryan says in her blog “Women are great, loyal customers - if you show them you've got their best interests in mind, from the start.”

Monday, March 9, 2009

Tropicana: A Lesson in Branding


It seems that Tropicana’s new identity is causing a lot of uproar. The common opinion is that it looks like a discount brand because of the generic photo and overly simplified design. Yet, the product and price seem to be the same as before! This has caused a lot of confusion. People are angry when they browse the juice section with all its options and brands popping out … they can’t locate their old-time favorite … because its incognito! Not to mention hard to read for many.



When I first laid eyes on the new Tropicana carton, I instantly thought of The Byne Group. Then I thought about Pepsi Cola and their new simplified design. I’m always in favor of a cleaner design (we all are at The Byne Group!) … with Target and Apple being the prime examples of big corps. that have done it well. Turns out that Pepsi Corp. has decided to update several of their key products due to decreased sales. This includes Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade and Tropicana.

The new design was just released in January 2009 and it certainly didn’t last long because Tropicana made a statement this week citing that they will be reverting to the old design.

Even though this seemed to be a crash and burn scenario for Pepsi … I look at it in another way, they got a lot of press coverage and attention over this issue. People were reminded of how much they are connected to Tropicana. And I also applaud them for being brave and trying to do something very different for the industry they are in. Bravo!

New York Times, www,nytimes.com,
“Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging,” Feb. 23, 2009.

Brand New blog, underconsideration.com/brandnew,
“Pepsi Takes the Tropic out of Tropicana,” Feb. 23, 2009.