What Women Want From Brands: Key Takeaways from the iMedia InFocus Summit

As marketers, we are in a constant struggle to understand our core consumers.  What do they want? Where are they spending their time? And how can we get their attention?   This year’s iMedia InFocus Summit focused on “What Women Want from Brands”.   As a woman myself, you would think that I would have a pretty good idea of what women would want from brands.  However, I discovered at the summit that the female demographic, just like the general population, is more fragmented than ever before.  There’s no longer the magic bullet TV spot or magazine ad you can buy to reach the majority of women.  We need to view the consumer as a holistic person and not just in the way they interact with the brand.  The main thread that connected all of the presentations at the summit was that we need to change the way we approach demographics, especially women.
Moms are not just Moms
Moms don’t instantly stop having the same interests and hobbies as soon as they become a parent; they just have less time for them.  According to Becky Frankiewicz’s, SVP/GM Global Costco, PepsiCo, presentation “The Human Energy Crisis & the Role of Digital Media”, moms are multitasking themselves to a 39-hour day.  The brands that speak to them as women and not just mothers, who are making their day easier and/or are giving them a moment to themselves during their hectic day, are having the greatest success at getting their attention and converting them into consumers.
Marketing to Moments in Time
There are two parts to marketing to moments in time – being ready with the right information or content that the consumer is searching for when and where they are searching for it and being prepared to take advantage of opportunities in the fast -paced world of advertising.   Mobile advertising is making it even easier for advertisers to be present at the moment of purchase and it goes beyond just coupons.   A brand can now place an ad on an online recipe so that when the consumer is putting together their shopping list the brand’s product is recommended as an ingredient in the recipe, or as in the case of Stouffer’s, as a quick alternative to the recipe.  Brands also need to take advantage of current events, trends in society and opportunities offered by the consumers that are interacting with them on social media.
Data Rich and Insight Poor
With the emergence of digital also came the flood of data, and right now the industry has more data than it knows what to do with.  “Data is important, but data without insight is not worth very much,” according to Adam Kmiec, Director of Global Digital Marketing and Social Media, The Campbell Soup Co., who gave the keynote “How Signals are Trumping Demographics” at the iMedia Summit.  Kmiec recommends not focusing on demographics but on combined sales data with social monitoring and other customer service resources to help Campbell Soup Co. launch a new line of soups.   It’s not as important to know how many fans you have on Facebook or how many clicks your ad received, but rather how they are talking about your brand, what insight you can glean from that information and how can you use it that insight to better you overall marketing strategy.