I have been blogging lately at eBrandmarketing.com. Join me there on a regular basis for more on women, marketing and the global power of the purse. http://www.ebrandmarketing.com

Some of the eBrandmarketing.com blogs will appear in this forum over the next few months, but I am working toward creating two separate blogs...but with the same end goal in mind.

I want to start a conversation about the global power of the purse. What issues are you facing as marketers in the global market? Do you recognize women as an important part of your marketing mix when you head overseas? Do you have success stories of reaching women around the world? What obstacles have you found? What would you like to know more about in terms of research and case studies?

As we head into the Marketing to Women Conference May 8-9, 2008 in Chicago, I would like to get the conversation started about the importance of the women's market globally and the economic power of women around the world.

Posted by Fara at 06:05 AM | Comments (0)

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to hear Meg Whitman, ceo of eBay, speak to a small group of women business and community leaders at The Henry Ford, museum that includes most of the major inventions of the 20th century.

As Whitman discussed the power of eBay to transform commerce, her comments reminded me of a report by The Economist in April 2006 on "womenomics." The magazine argued women--not the rise of the Internet, China or India--have been the major engines of global economic growth in the past two decades. The World Economic Forum also has found a correlation between sexual equality--as measured by economic participation, education, health, and political empowerment--GDP per head.

Here is a link to a blog on "womenomics" and pdf of the study: http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2006/04/womenomics.html.

What intrigued me about these two ideas--women and the Internet--as Whitman spoke was that The Economist may have missed a larger point. The economic equation may not be that women are more important than the Internet, China, or India in terms of economic growth, but that women have been a primary reason for why the Internet, China, and India have become so important to our global economic growth.

Continue reading "Women and the Power of the Internet" »

Posted by Fara at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Two events in the past 10 days put me in mind of gender inclusivity--an idea that I put forward in my book (www.thepowerofthepurse.com). The idea is that we have spent far too much time separating genders in our marketing efforts. That may seem strange coming from an author who writes at length about how to reach women. But sometimes--and increasingly more often with younger generations--you can succeed by reach both genders by being inclusive--as opposed to exclusive.

In late January, I spent two days with an amazing group of women as part of Yahoo!'s executive women's retreat in Key Biscayne, Fla. To protect the private nature of the event, which allowed us to speak freely about issues facing these marketers today, I'm not disclosing the names of the attendees or the companies for which they work. The women are all at the top of their games in the hospitality, pharmaceutical, financial and consumer-goods industries, to name a few.

Continue reading "Gender "Inclusivity" and the Super Bowl" »

Posted by Fara at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)