We control $4.3 Trillion in consumer spending!

The numbers are in and the facts are clear: Women control $4.3 TRILLION of the US Consumer spending. And WE WANT IT OUR WAY!!!

“The Rise of the Real Mom,” a white paper authored by Marissa Miley and Ann Mack and published by Advertising Age  took a good look at the mothers of today. They named it well as a Google search brought up 14Million searches for  'real mom'. I believe that the words will gallop into the lexicon of US English.

This is the most fascinating report as it covers the wide range of women aged 18 to 65. It identifies the percentage rise in education (YEAH) and the new expectations of the mothers who are also workers, careerists and fully in charge of their families.

A few facts:

Moms still do the majority of wet tasks (dishes, laundry, cleaning the bathrooms) while men stick to the dry jobs (driving children to school, making lunches, taking out the garbage).
Moms juggle far more in terms of activities than men
Have higher stress than men

Nice to have all this confirmed. I can assure that any wet task performed by men leave a bigger mess than when performed by women. So women know, “it’s just easier if I do it myself.”

VERY IMPORTANT FACT: Pragmatism and control rules the day!

To reach this real mom, marketers need not just to communicate that the
goods and services they offer are practical and convenient; they also need
to make real moms feel confident and in charge.

Let’s repeat that: practical and a sense of control! We are pressed for time, driving the kids to and fro (I clocked 100 miles one day), work, planning, homework, with little time left to breathe and think. The products today need to be easy to buy, pay for, receive and install!So in what categories do women exercise the practical and sense of control? Not surprisingly, it is vertical market specific.

Real Moms influence the buying decisions in these categories:

Personal Care 67%
Clothing 64%
Cosmetics 61%

Spouses and Partners have greater influence on buying decisions in these categories:

Electronics  45%
Cars 46%
Restaurants 42%


If you sell to women, how do you, as a business owner, sell to the ‘real moms’? Start with a look at your service or product and assess whether it appeals to this demographic. Next, how can you make it as easy as possible for real moms to buy from you? Third, look at your marketing materials and does it include the ideas of easy, practical and control?

With a few changes can you make the delivery of your product practical and easier to use? Can you do a bit of rewriting the marketing verbiage you have on your web site to reflect the concept of control, practicality, and time saving for your real mom client?

A quick personal experience to bring this info home: I wrote a twitter to promote my workbook on elevator pitches. It stated: Real moms: Easy, at your command, the ‘how to’ on creating an elevator pitch http://tinyurl.com/yfhess5

The results have been great!

Demise of Print and Barbara Kingsolver

Was lucky enough to secure a ticket to see author extraordinaire Barbara Kingslover.  As we all know Ms. Kingsolver has written much beloved books such as "The Bean Trees," "Poisonwood Bible" and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

Ms Kingsolver was entertaining and well spoken.  She was wonderful at pulling the audience into her daily writing life and the way she creates her novels.  For all budding, frustrated writers her description of her methodology of thinking out an idea, doing research and then committing the story to paper was a road map that hit its mark.   I could hear the muttering from the crowd as we were leaving: "She does research first!", "She is not always in control of her characters," "She loves to edit! She actually CUTS material!"

The audience questions were always bordering on reverence and the need to share how her books had changed their lives.  And one woman asked the key question of the evening:

"When you talk about a reader falling asleep while reading late into the night to last page and then the book, which has fallen on their face, becomes drenched with their tears, how do you feel about the Kindle?"

You could have heard a pin drop.  My seat mate had just showed me her kindle access on her iPhone.  I have written two blogs on the Demise of Print. We held our collective breath to hear the mistress of writing to hold forth on this topic.

"I am for reading in any manner that will allow for the magical world for stories to be read by the largest amount of readers.  What I am concerned about is the monopoly that Amazon created with the Kindle.  With the cost of a book down to $9.99, where is the revenue to support not just successful writers, but budding authors who need the advance to live on while they develop their next project and skill?  Where will the revenue come from to keep your independent book seller in business?"(paraphrased by the way)

I thought of all the wonderful books stores L.A. has lost in the last year.  Dutton's in Brentwood, Dutton's in North Hollywood, Book Soup and Skylight books are merging, and the only independent store left in my neighborhood is a rare book collector dealer with outrageous prices that I cannot afford.

I am as concerned as Ms. Kingsolver on the demise of a system that was perfected and efficient to nuture the budding talent hidden  within the vastness of the US.  Without the support and guidance and FUNDING to improve themselves via one advance after another what will stop the slide into mediocre literature?

My question now goes to Jeff Bezos of Amazon to ask him, how as a publisher, he intends to find, fund and nuture all those writers of passion and talent to continue creating the stories to entertain us.  Because in the end all any of us have that we most value are our stories!