Trend 3: The Return of Girly Glam.
Last year I noticed that women were once again proudly displaying their breasts.
No, I’m not gay and no, I’m not some kind of pervert. My world has simply been so permeated by the ‘business casual’ of faded jeans, indy-band T-shirt and scruffy runners or the Dockeresque chic of Mommalution uniforms that the mere sight of curve-hugging fabric and plunging necklines was a smidgen of a shocker. Yet second-skin tops and stilettos were suddenly everywhere, along with the enthusiastic return of fishnets. Photographer Monica Michelle is swamped with bookings for Boudoir sessions while ‘Bliss Pleasure Party’ entrepreneur Chrystal Bougon can barely keep up with demand for lacy lingerie and sexy toys.
At a Girls in Tech event in San Francisco, my fellow panelist the bodacious author Sarah Lacy, was mobbed afterwards by fans who were as likely to have questions about her fab boots as her fab book.
In May, Sex and the City smashed all box office estimates. We saw it at a theater in Santa Monica that was sold out from the first showing straight through midnight. Glam girls lined up in their Jimmy Choos, giggling with their own Samanthas, Charlottes, Mirandas and Carries. It was full court femme power, and I realized that girly glam was not just a budding trend but was in full lush bloom.
Several recent ethnography projects have yielded an emerging Persona — the Girly Green or the Glam Green, if not quite the Sexy Sustainable. This intriguing psychographic is as apt to be interested in Day to Night Barbie as she is a non-toxic ingredient. Can we have sparkle and shimmer and wrap it all up in natural green tea and shaved ginger? Can we have a Girls Night In, with organic spa smoothers and fragrant Lush balls melting in the tub? Can we forever lose the image of Berkeley granola ‘crunchies’ in Birkenstocks and replace it with the ’sexy, smart green living’ of new site EcoStiletto?
Fashionista sites like Style Hive, the 44-million-unique viewers per month strong Glam Media, and runner-up, the Sugar Network,continue to morph into Internet power players. Even newcomer BettyConfidential, initially positioned as a forum for women across many life stages, has reinvented itself with uber-girly stories about lipstick, sex and harem pants.
And then there’s Project Runway, the hit reality show that made sewing machines and tape measures sexy. “Fashion is the new food” declared one publication. Icon Tim Gunn chimed in with ‘It’s crack. It’s addictive.” Ratings continue to rise with each successive season.
So does all this girly glam mean that voila! women have finally achieved so much equality that we can now afford to literally let it all hang out? That women no longer need to dress or behave like men? That we have choices — every permutation of chic from chictini to Hillary’s custom pantsuits to Sarah Palin’s much ballyhooed booty from Saks?
Some thoughts:
For Marketers:
- Make no assumptions.Just when you thought that those 82 million Moms with their 85% of US purchasing power are marching into stores lugging their big green eco-purses, you may discover they’re actually clutching Kate Spade’s shiny new thing and tottering on their Naughty Monkeys, thanks to Zappos’ 400 employees’ persuasive customer service tweets.
- In the early days of the Internet, we could get away with creating one persona –e.g. ‘Abby’ aka Mrs. P&G. No more. Women are schizo, splintered and trying to have it all, if only for as long as they can get a babysitter.
- If you had a solid Social Media Research program in place, along with an evolving Social Media strategy, you wouldn’t be wondering what this trend means. You’d know.
For The Rest of You:
The generations that grew up on the Marlo Thomas mantra Free to be you and me are doing just that.
Guru’s Note: If you’ve enjoyed this excerpt, stay tuned for my upcoming book, the trend guide: Rock Your Future.
Is THE GLOW PROJECT Going To Be Bigger Than THE SECRET?
Is the GLOW Project with its movie, magazine and sold-out events the next phenomenon? Bound to be bigger than The Secret?
The site explains the GLOW this way:
How is it that some women are wildly successful, while others, with the same relative education, experience, passion and goals for success, struggle? We all have the same amount of hours in a day, yet some are able to accomplish so much more. What is it that they do so differently? What is it that they possess that is unique? What is it that makes them GLOW?
There is a powerful essence inside of every woman—a critical ingredient that only women possess. When realized, nurtured and expanded, it becomes the key to true happiness and success. You deserve happiness, fulfillment, and the opportunity to achieve wild success. STOP what you are doing. Take a breath, and connect with your GLOW.
“You gotta GLOW, girl.”
Guru’s Note: There’s an amazing group of women powering this potential phenomenon. They’re not just inspiring, they’ve got life, business and intellectual capital galore. And how serendipitous to launch just as our world is falling apart. Women are the ones who are going to have to clean up the mess. As always. We’d better figure out how to GLOW.
Follow me on Twitter.
Want to Make More Money? Female Job Seekers Do Better With Social Networking.
All those pings, posts, tweets and posts are beginning to pay off — but only for females.
A recent study by (my alma mater!) the University of Oregon found that women who landed a job via a relationship with a friend or relative earned about $10,000 (Canadian dollars) more than those who found a job with no prior connection to their employer.
Men, on the other hand, can tweet their hearts out with no apparent benefit.
More from Working.com.
In The Motherhood, MSN’s Mom-Generated Content, Jumps To ABC.
It’s easy to take the next step, and here’s a little secret: this is a haven for harried mothers, a paradise for pooped parents — a really fun event where you’ll get to tell your best motherhood tales, win prizes and see your work turned into a series of video webisodes staring the fabulously funny Jenny McCarthy, Leah Remini and Chelsea Handler.
Guru’s Take: On average, my Mom-marketing partner, Kat Gordon of Maternal Instinct, and I hear about 5 new Mom sites a day. Some are built by pros; some are one-woman’s-passion, some are the offspring of women’s groups like Ladies Who Launch; some are non-profit or eco-Moms; some are online stores with Mom-centric products. Many are bootstrapping, searching for sponsors or Angel funding or trying to limp along on Google Adwords. Everyone is scrambling for alliances, partnerships and buzz.
Despite the wellspring of Moms online, we can’t help but wonder how many of these sites will survive. Lately, we’ve had so many come to us for our BrainFeed Brand Stategy Sessions that we’ve been too busy for even some very promising properties. Obviously, we’re all for the trend toward Mom Power and MOM WOM, but in the absence of a compelling brand personality, niche, and strategy, even the highly connected, heavily funded sites are not necessarily shoe-ins. And it only gets trickier as more major media players enter the fray.
The Inevitable Anti Sarah Palin Facebook Page.
In the wake of this morning’s news, here’s a new Facebook page with 1,666 fans and growing. Don’t you love the way social networking has blossomed into such a powerful vox populi tool?
Fanning the Sarah Palin Social Networking Frenzy.
Social networking site Facebook is leading the pack (so far) of Sarah Palin fans. As of this noon today, the Governor’s Politician’s Fan Page was booming, with 31,803 fans and counting, many of them active and posting.
The VP Candidate also has a MySpace page, with 1591 Friends to date.
And a Ning page.
Linkedin.com is showing a Sarah Palin as an employee of a Metro Hotel in Australia. And here’s what shows up when I search on Hi5.com for Sarah Palin.
Guru’s Update at 11:25 p.m. Pacific: Sarah Palin Facebook page now up to 35,926 supporters.
While Leon Trotsky seems stuck at 1272 fans.
The Tale of Two Bettys, Both Confidential.
Filed under: Technology, Uncategorized, Women, fashion & beauty, marketing & advertising, media & publishing
This is the tale of two Bettys, both products for women, both with a just-we-girls brand strategy, both looking to chisel an identity in this fiercely competitive and hugely complicated marketplace. With America’s CPOs –Chief Purchasing Officers – controlling 85% of all purchases, the stakes are high for these tightly targeted products.
One succeeds beautifully.
Let’s start with Betty Beauty. I first heard about this particular kind of follicular-fun from my dear friend, glam hair stylist, Alicia. I walked into her salon and found her giggling hysterically. Then she handed me a small package decorated with a bright magenta triangle and the words: COLOR FOR THE HAIR DOWN THERE. “FUN” BETTY. HOT PINK (Rose)
On the back of the package: FUN IS WHERE YOU FIND IT! GET YOUR BETTY READY!
Lest you think this Betty was destined for the backroom of beauty salons, it turns out that prettying up your pubic hair has gone public in the biggest way possible — via the June issue (hello Bridal Betty) of Oprah’s magazine. According to beauty editor, Valerie Monroe, she put off getting her Betty ready until the story deadline loomed and finally she had to “match carpet to drapes.” Amazingly, she admitted to actually liking the new product. In fact, Ms. Monroe said she was ‘inordinately pleased with my new (zingy) look.’
Are you ready for the other Betty? This one is a new website for women’s ‘lifestages’ developed by a high profile executive with long experience in the media. The site features a wide array of writers opining on everything from ‘kissing frogs’ to ‘navigating a career’ to ’shaping a marriage’ or ‘finding you.’ There are message boards called Betty Talk and lots of tips and teasers. And like Betty #1, the ‘product’ is front and center on the big media outlets like Good Morning America via founder Deborah Perry Piscione.
So there you have it. The two Bettys. Two contenders for the hearts and minds and Kate Spade purses of America’s 66 million+ time-trapped, stressed, striving and thriving women.
Did you think I was going to tell you which Betty won my heart and mind? Never mind my preppy striped Kate Spade bag?
Not this time. You tell me.
When Name Generation Isn’t About Naming.
Filed under: New Stuff, Uncategorized, Women, eco & sustainability, marketing & advertising, small business
Whether it’s the R-word, job loss, midlife crisis or simply some kind of cosmic tipping point, the Guru is getting inundated with Name Generation projects for small businesses.
Normally, name generation centers on coming up with a new brand name, tagline, descriptor and sometimes promise statements, triggers or testworthy concepts for products, services and websites. In the past year, however, probably 60% of my projects have actually been about what my friend Claire calls woo-woo. That is, self-discovery, transformation and ultimately ‘getting’ who you are as a businessperson and your place in the competitive landscape. The naming process itself, which forces a deeper dive into everything from product to sales to legal to marketing, is provoking more realistic strategies for building businesses. The ones I’ve seen — and helped guide as provocateur — are likely to have a better chance of surviving and thriving.
Planning for the future has always been a significant part of the name generation process:
How scale-able is the name?
Will the name stay relevant? (Hello, dotcom era)
Will the name allow you to migrate into new categories as the marketplace evolves?
And these days, how do you avoid being the plastic bag of the future?
But what’s happening here is more akin to: Does this name fit who I am? Who I want to be 5 years from now? A sizeable portion of these clients are seeing the future via potential names and saying: No way. I don’t want to be perceived in that light. I don’t want to try to squeeze into that slot. Or simply: That’s not me.
This afternoon, one of my all-time favorite client teams called me and rejected all of the names and taglines I presented yesterday.
I was thrilled.
This is because, by wholeheartedly engaging in the process, they learned exactly what they did not want to do or be as a business. They grappled with each of the platforms and names. Some were spot on strategically. Some were spot on creatively. Some were spot on for where they thought they wanted to be when we launched the project.
The good news: The new brand name and strategy they came up with is inspired. It’s as tongue-in-chic and kicky as they are. Thankfully, they happen to be risk-takers with a history of significant success and the guts to pull this off with panache.
I’m psyched. I love to watch woo-woo at work.
Live From LA! It’s Ladies Who Launch.
Filed under: Uncategorized, Women, lifestyle & leisure, marketing & advertising
The only thing to do after a Friday night of Sex and The City is to continue the femme fun. So on Saturday morning, I headed out to the Ladies Who Launch Live event featuring a powerhouse of panelists including:
Jane Wurwand: Founder of Dermalogica
Paige Adams-Geller: Founder of Paige Premium Denim
Daryn Kagan: Founder of darynkagan.com and former CNN News Anchor
Heather Stephenson: Co-Founder of idealbite.com
Patricia Handschiegel: Founder and West Coast Bureau Chief of Stylediary.net
Amy Swift: Ladies Who Launch Editor-in-Chief and Los Angeles Leader
I’m going to let you explore the site and discover this phenomenon yourself. Over the years, I’ve been involved in countless women’s groups — and even founded a couple. Given my quirky alone personality, groups of any kind are seldom my cup of white pear tea. Then I discovered Ladies Who Launch, a group devoted to creativity and entrepreneurship as a lifestyle. I signed up for the Palo Alto Incubator, under the leadership of Hazel Grace Dircksen, whose social media smarts and creative intelligence guided us through the four weeks of intensive ideation, visualization and inspiration. As a longtime focus group moderator and Idea Generation Facilitator, few of the Incubator’s methodologies were new to me. But what was new was the wellspring of support, shared brilliance and confidence boosting flowing through every session. I had been desperately seeking fresh perspective on my business. I got it in droves from a wildly diverse group of positive, powerful women who are way more than business cards stashed in my pocket at some random conference.
“Getting” The Mom Market: Three Winners
Filed under: New Stuff, Parenting and children, Uncategorized, lifestyle & leisure, marketing & advertising, media & publishing
It’s my daughter’s birthday today. Which means that my Momhood is front and center this morning, as I scroll back, way back to the day before being a Mom was rockstar cool and wearing your kids on your hips is hipper than Prada’s latest.
I remember the day a senior executive (and Mom) took me aside at my new job and whispered: “Never talk about your daughter. Don’t post her pictures. Don’t bring her to the office. No one should even know you have a kid.”
Nowdays, Momism is not only a badge of honor but also a booming business, thanks to some 83 million U.S. Moms who are spending 2 trillion + dollars a year on everything from baby spas www.skinspababy.com to NASCAR umbrella strollers. Although the whisper in the VC world in Silicon Valley may be that the ‘Mom market is saturated’, the Guru thinks that conversely, the marketplace is going to continue to grow right along with every toddling step these kids take.
Here are a couple of winners:
www.cubesandcrayons.com Cubes and Crayons, ‘office space and kid space’ is a concept well worth watching. Launched in January 2008 by frustrated Mom and Founder MF Chapman, this savvy combination of full-time, flexible childcare and office space is already a hit and sure to spawn more mini-Mom communities where both Mom and kidlet benefit.
http://maternalinstinct.net/ Just up the road from Menlo Park’s Cubes and Crayons is Mom-marketing powerhouse Maternal Instinct. The brainchild of award-winning creative marketer, Kat Gordon, this talented team of Creative Problem Solvers knows exactly how to tap into the growing band of Mom Influencers. Check out ‘What’s My Blanket’ for tips.
And finally, we Moms know that each and every one of our offspring is a creative genius. Check out this latest winner, where self-publishing meets kids, Tikatok: beta.tikatok.net.
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