the world of marketing to women.

_________________________________

The Ning network
Virtuous viral circles
Is this the most advanced
direct marketing strategy?

By Adam Penenberg,  Fast Company Magazine

27 Apr 08

Here's something you probably don't know about the Internet: Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a $Billion business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the chance to throw money at you.

The secret is what's called a "viral expansion loop," a concept little known outside of Silicon Valley (go ahead, Google it -- you won't find much). It's a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond. It's not unlike taking a penny and doubling it daily for 30 days. By the end of a week, you'd have 64 cents; within two weeks, $81.92; by day 30, about $5.4 million.

Viral loops have emerged as perhaps the most significant business accelerant to hit Silicon Valley since the search engine. They power many of the icons of Web 2.0, including Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr.

But don't confuse a viral loop with viral advertising or videos such as Saturday Night Live's "Lazy Sunday" or the Mentos-Diet Coke Bellagio fountain. Viral advertising can't be replicated; by definition, a viral loop must be.

The brainchild of former Goldman Sachs investment banker Gina Bianchini and celebrity geek Marc Andreessen (pix above), Ning has been growing automagically from the moment it launched its Social Networks for Everything -- a free platform for do-it-yourself social networks -- in February of last year. By June, there were 60,000 Ning nets and by August, 80,000. At year's end, there were 150,000, and today, more than 230,000.

About 40% of Ning's social networks originate outside the United States, and members from 176 countries have signed up, with the service already available in several languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Dutch. The company estimates that, at this rate, by New Year's Eve 2010 it will host some 4 million social networks, with tens of millions of members, serving up billions of page views daily.

Read more about what Andrew Chen, an ex-Advertising executive with My Space calls "the most advanced direct marketing strategy being developed in the world right now" at Fast Company (click here)___________________________________

Store labels cause brand leaders to raise
their premium game

2 March 08
The medicines and beauty market is thriving, but price-cutting and tougher competition from own-labels is forcing manufacturers to increase the number of premium launches in order to stave off margin erosion.

A wet and cool summer 2007 precipitated a growth in cold and flu remedy sales while hayfever formulations nosedived, and sales of nicotine replacement products increased sharply as the introduction of the smoking ban across the UK took its toll.

But figures from market information company IRI show such fluctuations belie solid and steady growth behind healthcare and toiletries purchasing. Sales of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines have grown 58% over the past decade, from £1.47bn to £2.27bn, while the toiletries market has increased in value by a third, from £3.4bn to £4.78bn, driven by deregulation, new products and promotions.

The IRI research covers products bought by consumers, without the need for prescriptions, in supermarkets and chemists. Figures show the sales increase in 2007, which represents the biggest volume growth this century, was driven by a number of factors. The short summer period in the UK last year led to massive increases in cold and flu remedy sales while lowering those of hayfever products.

The massive sales boost for OTC products is due to underlying factors such as changes in weather patterns and retailers making medications more accessible. If consumers can easily acquire OTC goods, they are more likely to medicate themselves rather than go to their GP, therefore increasing sales of those products.

Deregulation in 2001 further increased the availability of products and the confidence of consumers; and the data also revealed an increased development of premium products which, as they often include improved formulations and ingredients, can command higher prices.

At the same time, as well as products becoming more available, medicines are becoming cheaper. More money is being spent but the pack price is becoming cheaper.

The toiletries sector has enjoyed similarly high growth, with the market size increasing a third in value. Because of continuing new product activity in the toiletries sector, the price of products is falling month after month. In order to maintain value of business, manufacturers are launching new products so that they can be sold for higher prices than products already on the shelves.

The study looked not only at unit sales, volumes and promotions but also at brands. It identified a pattern of diminishing sales of own-label products due to popular toiletry brands reducing their prices. For instance, a five-year grocery basket comparison of the same products show prices have dropped, saving the consumer £8.45 on that same basket, from £70.42 to £61.97.

However, although the same products cost less today than five years ago, consumers are buying different products and as a result don't benefit as much as they could from falling prices. The analysis suggests UK consumers are more attracted to brand names but that choice is influenced by which products are on promotion.

To counter dropping retail prices in established products, manufacturers are launching new and higher priced products.

Underneath these individual trends is a definite growth in the market - both in value and volume terms. People are buying more things, and emerging sectors - such as gradual tanning, anti-ageing and men's skincare products - have been driving this growth over the past ten years.

Some product sectors have lost out while others gained - sales of products specifically for the bath have gone down over time as products for use in the shower have increased, although the overall sector for washing hasn't changed dramatically. Likewise, liquid soap has grown at the expense of bars.

There are also high levels of trade promotion activity, and in-store price related promotions - in 2007, for the first time, more than half of all products bought were on promotion. In 1999, 42% of the total volume sales of the category were on products sold through promotions, above the average for the grocery industry. That grew to 52% in 2007, and there are no signs of the trend slowing; it seems people are still attracted by the idea of getting a good deal.

The practice has helped new brands and brand extensions become established, because people are less brand-loyal than ever before. Overall, new brand contribution over the ten-year period has been between 2.4% and 4.7%. In most years this has been driven by one major introduction, such as Gillette Fusion in 2006, when new brands and brand extensions accounted for 4.3% of total toiletries value sales - or £140m in UK sales. Gillette's new Venus Breeze looks a winner too...great ads(Ed.)

New brands and brand extensions launched in 2007 accounted for 3.1% of total toiletries value sales, with a further 8.5% contributed by products launched the previous year.

A manufacturer's strategy focused mainly on new product launches seems critical to the stability of a market that is dominated by tough competition, the downgrading of prices and retailers playing a powerful role.

_______________________________________________

24 Feb 08
THE prototypical computer whiz of popular imagination — pasty, geeky, male — has failed to live up to his reputation.

Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of “The X Files.” On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.

"Most guys don't have patience for this kind of thing," said Nicole Dominguez, 13, of Miramar, Fla., whose hobbies include designing free icons, layouts and "glitters" (shimmering animations) for the Web and MySpace pages of other teenagers. "It's really hard."

Nicole posts her graphics, as well as her own HTML and CSS computer coding pointers (she is self-taught), on the pink and violet Sodevious.net, a domain her mother bought for her in October. "If you did a poll I think you'd find that boys rarely have sites," she said. "It's mostly girls."

Indeed, a study published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among Web users ages 12 to 17, significantly more girls than boys blog (35% of girls compared with % of boys) and create or work on their own Web pages (32% of girls compared with 22% of boys).

Girls also eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70% of girls 15 to 17 have one, versus 57% of boys 15 to 17). Video posting was the sole area in which boys outdid girls: boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.

Explanations for the gender imbalance are nearly as wide-ranging as cybergirls themselves. The girls include bloggers who pontificate on timeless teenage matters such as "evil teachers" and being "grounded for life," to would-be Martha Stewarts — entrepreneurs whose online pursuits generate more money than a summer's worth of baby-sitting.

"I was the first teenage podcaster to receive a major sponsorship," said Martina Butler (pic right), 17, of San Francisco, who for three years has been recording an indie music show, Emo Girl Talk, from her basement. Her first corporate sponsorship, from Nature's Cure, an acne medication, was reported in 2005 in Brandweek, the marketing trade magazine.

Since then, more than half a dozen companies, including Go Daddy, the Internet domain and hosting provider, have paid to be mentioned in her podcasts, which are posted every Sunday on Emogirltalk.com.

The "girls rule" trend in content creation has been percolating for a few years — a Pew study published in 2005 also found that teenage girls were the primary content creators — but the gender gap for blogging, in particular, has widened. As teenage bloggers nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006, almost all the growth was because of "the increased activity of girls," the Pew report said.

In American high schools, girls comprised fewer than 15% of students who took the AP computer science exam in 2006, and there was a 70% decline in the number of incoming undergraduate women choosing to major in computer science from 2000 to 2005, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Scholars who study computer science say there are several reasons for the dearth of women: introductory courses are often uninspiring; it is difficult to shake existing stereotypes about men excelling in the sciences; and there are few female role models. It is possible that the girls who produce glitters today will develop an interest in the rigorous science behind computing, but some scholars are reluctant to draw that conclusion.

"We can hope that this translates, but so far the gap has remained," said Jane Margolis, an author of "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing" (MIT Press, 2002). While pleased that girls are mastering programs like Paint Shop Pro, Ms. Margolis emphasized the profound distinction between using existing software and a desire to invent new technology.

Teasing out why girls are prolific Web content creators usually leads to speculation and generalization. Although girls have outperformed boys in reading and writing for years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, this does not automatically translate into a collective yen to blog or sign up for a MySpace page. Rather, some scholars argue, girls are the dominant online content creators because both sexes are influenced by cultural expectations.

From a young age they learn that they are objects, Professor Gill said, so they learn how to describe themselves. Historically, girls and women have been expected to be social, communal and skilled in decorative arts. "This would be called the feminization of the Internet," she said. Boys, she added, are generally taught "to engage in ways that aren't confessional, that aren't emotional."

That desire is never so evident as when girls criticize online copycats who essentially steal their Web page backgrounds and graphics by hotlinking (linking to someone else's image so it appears on one's own Web page). Aside from depleting bandwidth, it is the digital equivalent of arriving at a party wearing the same dress as another girl, Professor Palfrey said. No wonder that girls post aggressive warnings on their sites such as "Do not jock, copy, steal, or redistribute any of my stuff!" or, more to the point: "hotlink and die."

While creating content enables girls to experiment with how they want to present themselves to the world, they are obviously interested in maintaining and forging relationships. When Lauren Renner (see pic left), 16, was in fifth grade, she and a friend, Sarada Cleary, now 14, both of Oceanside, Calif., began writing about their lives on Agirlsworld.com, an interactive e-zine with articles written for and by girls. "Girls from everywhere would read it and would ask questions about what they should do with a problem," Lauren said. "I think girls like to help with other people's problems or questions, kind of, like, motherly, to everybody."

Today Lauren and Sarada are among more than 1,000 girls who regularly submit content to Agirlsworld. They make a few extra dollars writing online articles and dreaming up holiday-related activities, like Mother's Day breakfast recipes, which are posted on the site. "At school there's just a certain type of people," Sarada said. "They're just local. Online you get to experience their culture through them."

_________________________________________

Pink Predictions...

8 for '08

Welcome to the Age of Responsible Marketing

9 Jan 08

1.  The Age of Responsible Marketing…econsumerism…natural/ethical

With the environment finally on the agenda of most powers that be, and millions of consumers now actively trying to greenify their lives, status from leading an eco-responsible lifestyle is both more readily available, and increasing in value. A substantial subset of consumers is already bestowing recognition and praise on Prius drivers while scorning SUV owners, and this will only accelerate as design-minded and branding-savvy eco-firms push to the forefront in 2008. Make it green, make it chic, make it effortless, make it visible, and don't hesitate to point out your competitor's polluting alternatives.    Natural products sourced from the Amazon Mintel predicts an Amazonia movement due to consumer trends towards natural products and exotic ingredients. Exotic fruits such as acai and cupuacu are gaining notoriety for both their anti-aging benefits and through a link to the "super-foods" concept. Following this trend more products such as Monkey acai Brazilian Rainforest Super berry Juice Drink, which includes blended acai berries and red grapes, will appear on UK supermarket shelves. Cosmetics manufacturers are expected to follow suite and expand on an already widely available range of Natura cosmetics and beauty products which feature ingredients derived from Amazonian natural resources.

Natural cosmetics Products such as Creme de jour Enrichie, which are not tested on animals, are made with natural ingredients such as manuka honey. These are aimed at customers looking for internal wellness as well as external beauty. Mintel estimates that more of these products will hit the market in 2007. Ethical products Over the next year Mintel predicts that sales of Fairtrade products will rise as customers increasing opt for ethical products. It claims that this will lead to a greater concentration on fresh, seasonal produce.

High Street activity is slowing down as web shopping takes off so now there is a huge shift by marketers to reach the online community. Here are some new techniques which are expected to take off in '08.

Media Simultasking
There's no longer such a thing as a captive media audience--consumers are frequently participating in more than one form of media at any one time. 70% of web users, for instance, watch TV occasionally to regularly while online, according to BIGresearch's "Simultaneous Media Survey." 

It also found that nearly 65% watch TV while they read, and 51% of radio listeners read the newspaper while listening. The rise in multitasking among consumers mandates an integrated media approach and an increased emphasis on advertising within the most relevant and engaging content.
Web-based marketing
Companies are expected to join the blogging revolution, reaching out to customers through the web, dropping more traditional methods. They are doing this through increased promotions, on-line sweepstakes, giveaways and other initiatives.

3. Boomers Boom…attracting affluent working women
The big news is that this group is increasing in size, and the best way to reach them may be online. According to The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number, and 94.3% access the internet during an average month.

About half are now considered heavy users of the internet, while heavy use of radio, television, newspapers and direct mail has all declined within this group. Sorry…More to follow in a few days.

4. Co-creativity…Interactive…DIY…User Generated Content

And did you see the Pringles UGC ad on TV here on Christmas night? It's called "Jinglin Pringlin" and it won a competition to create a Christmas campaign for the snack. It cost £300 and you'd know it. Not a good ad for the "art". And the Pringles website was still inviting entries for the 29 November deadline when I checked several days after the Christmas Day debut of the winning entry; so much for the instantaneous nature of the web. But at least it should reassure all legit creatives that their jobs are safe for a while yet.

Another great example of procreativity is the Greenpeace website www. http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/procreate.html featuring the greenmyapple campaign - see above pic. Here is an extract from the site:

"We love Apple. Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have agreed to abandon? A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That's why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple."

5,  Personalisation of Corporation or else
Personalisation of corporations...from faceless to friendly.
Sharing a Corporate Personality - For too many years, large organizations have focused much of their marketing and communications on becoming "faceless" - yet the danger of facelessness is now becoming better understood.  In short, companies cannot connect with customers in a meaningful and emotional way without having a personality.  As more organizations realize this fact, we will continue to see more "corporate bloggers" and more touch points for customers to interact with the true personality of a brand.  Look for social media to play a bigger part in overall marketing strategy as a result.

6.    The rise and rise of mobile marketing

Yeah, yeah, this is something else that we've all been predicting for the past few years. But the arrival of a cross-model mobile platform called Android, spearheaded by Google, and the launch of the iPhone are finally making mobile internet palatable and practical.

So search-on-the-go will drive new opportunities for search marketers and more media owners will deliver more mobile content with more embedded advertising. And the idea of paying cheaper phone tariffs in exchange for receiving ads on your mobile (in the manner of the recently launched Blyk) will also take off

If Google goes the whole hog and launches its own Gphone, expect ad servers such as AdSense and the YouTube ticker tape ads to become regular features on your mobile. And if the Gphone comes complete with fully realised GPS, then location-based marketing should become commonplace.

7.  Five future for Facebook…
social media mania

We share here the 5 views and insights of Rodney Rumford of Face Reviews:

1. What does the future hold?
More robust and fully integrated applications that extend existing brands, engagement and value to users. These application will sometimes integrate existing functionality from robust web solutions.

2. Why is facebook important for International and Fortune 500 Clients?
For a multitude of reasons. First your employees, future employees, clients and future customers are already on Facebook. The user base and demographic will continue to broaden and you will be able to share information with them in different and valuable ways.

This is not some "teen/college" fad site. It is moving into mainstream and is fundamentally changing the way that people interact, discover and share information. Much in the same way that email changed the way people communicate and Google changed the way people find information: Facebook bridges the gap and actually is changing user behavior in ways that are truly significant and you need to be in the middle of it establishing value, loyalty, branding, interaction, discovery, sales, etc.

3. Why does Facebook matter?
Because they have created a platform and point of gravity that people are moving towards. Their is a huge brain trust of smart people working on the facebook platform (both inside and outside of facebook). Facebook has the opportunity to fundamentally change how we communicate (and is already doing so). That is HUGE.

It is an "operating system" that has the potential to change user experiences online… just like windows brought personal computers to everyone, Facebook has an equally large opportunity to change how i search, communicate, share info, make purchase decisions, communicate in a mobile fashion…etc. Facebook could become intelligent enough to know how to serve me what is valuable (in ways that could be potentially even more compelling than google adwords).

4. Does relationship and WOM marketing apply to facebook?
Hell Yes. Here is why. Social networking sites at their most basic level are all about my personal connections, interests and behaviors. Leveraging these connections and behaviors could radically change how marketing messages ever get seen by me (user). Facebook is the ultimate WOM platform. Moe importantly, I am not telling 2 friends… I am instantly telling my network of hundreds/thousands of real world friends and business associates what i think/discovered/believe/etc…

5. The Future of Facebook Applications and companies, businesses and individual users is indeed very promising.
It will be fun to go on this wild ride. Disruptive technologies always fascinate me because they fundamentally change the way we communicate. Call me crazy: Edison was called crazy because "no one would ever want to use a telephone". Remember: phones, fax machines, cell phones, email, websites?… No one knew why they needed a website 10-15 years ago. Now you can't imagine a world in which a serious business would not have a website.

7. The death of advertising…not
Students of advertising will have seen this foretold plenty of places over the past year or two. It's bollocks, of course. Advertising is the lubricant for a successful economy, rich consumer choice and business success, as well as being – at its best – greatly entertaining.

But the big-campaign stuff will still survive, though it will have to get even better at the entertainment bit. Key for the year ahead is for the ad industry to get a better understanding of how traditional, offline campaigns work alongside new, on-line forms of advertising and brand advocacy. But the big bold branding messages will thrive, supplemented with layers of targeted information specific to each of our needs.
______________________

8 Ad trends for 2008

By Claire Beale, Editor Campaign magazine

04 Jan 08

Ahhh, can you smell it? Breathe deep. That sweet optimism and rancid doubt carried on the dawn of the New Year. For adland's workers have more reason than many to meet the coming year with mixed emotions.

The business is changing, structures are crumbling, traditions are being blown apart. Our world in 12 months' time will be dramatically altered. The agent of destruction – and rebirth – is technology, of course, and its pace is swift.

Even as I write, the futurologists are surely forecasting their own demise: the future is no longer the next five years, it's next month, next week, and by the time you've predicted it, it's been and gone. So bear that in mind as you consider the following 8 pronouncements.