What are women talking about? Besides our family and friends, we are talking about brands. What brands we like, what we don’t like . . . and what brands we think other women should be using. Which is why it’s so important for brands to get into the conversations that women are having. In fact, according to the London School of Economics, brands with the most conversations in their category grow four times faster than the category average. And, according to a study by Bain, increasing conversations about your brand by just 12% can double sales growth.

So if you’re wondering how important social media is in your marketing mix, the answer is VERY important if you want to increase your conversations. Women tend to trust other women’s opinions more than media and other “expert sources”  . . .  even if the opinions come from women they don’t know. Women use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and shopping feedback sites more than ever to gather information about your brand. It’s important you listen to and use these ever-increasing media to improve her overall brand experience – and more importantly, to improve your brand’s bottom line.

So, why does Best Buy, a brand that traditionally goes after the young, tech-savvy male, care so much? It’s all in the numbers. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, women are outspending men in electronics purchases. In the U.S. women spent $55 billion compared to the $41 billion of men. The trade organization also reports that women influence 90 percent of consumer electronics purchases.

Best Buy’s stats look a little different. They estimated earlier this year that they commanded roughly 22% of U.S. consumer electronics sales, its share of sales to women was just 16%. Obviously, they’re missing out. And, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, that has top execs at the company concerned.

So, this time, Best Buy is tapping it’s female workers and customers with their “Women’s Leadership Forums” groups. So far the output of these groups have included things like appliance showrooms and a program that allowed loyalty points to be donated to local schools.

Will it work? I hope so. I’d love to see a large electronics retailer finally get it right when it comes to marketing to women. However, the repeat effort and the main reason for looking to the female market (losing to the competition), causes me to suspect that C-suite support at Best Buy is not quite there. In our experience, that means the effort will most likely fall short. Take note marketers. If you want your brand to capture a strong following from women, you need support from the top down. Find a champion (a male if possible) at the executive level that really believes in this stuff and the road to success will be a bit easier to come by.

We recently attended a conference where one of the speakers suggested that marketers need to actively acknowledge and address “educated incapacity.” She defined educated incapacity as knowing so much about a product or service that you simply can’t see it any other way, holding you back from understanding it from the consumer point-of-view.

I was reflecting on this when I was reviewing a very technical piece of copy about ETFs, a.k.a. Exchange Traded Funds.  ETFs are getting a lot of media attention right now and most financial institutions are offering them as investment solutions. Pick up any mainstream mass affluent publication and you’ll see the acronym “ETF” all over the place – typically without explanation of the product or its benefits. That’s a sign of a whole industry suffering from educated incapacity.

Are you suffering from “EI” too? Whether your industry is financial, automotive or healthcare, I dare you to pull out some of the most used terminology from your area of expertise and strike up a conversation with a friend from the general population. Ask them to explain back to you what you’re talking about. That glazed look that comes over his or her face is a signal that you’re missing the point of view it takes to differentiate your brand, add value, and solve the problems of today’s consumer.

In case you’re not familiar, Google sidewiki allows anyone to leave comments about pages as they surf the Web. The content within a sidewiki is user-generated so this isn’t something that companies are asking for or doing on their own – it’s just happening. But, with that being said, a sidewiki can be enabled by anyone (company or consumer) by clicking on the little thought bubble icon in the top left-hand corner of the site you are visiting.

Once you click on the icon, the sidewiki will appear and you can view and post comments pertaining to that specific company and site.

Google sidewiki was created to allow users to share helpful insights, tips and information. The downside for companies is that this information isn’t always positive. For example, when you look at Apple’s sidewiki, three of the first four posts are negative.

And the bad news is that once a negative comment has been posted, there’s no way to block the comment. The good news, Google sidewiki doesn’t display all comments and ranks comments based on quality and relevance. And, it’s not just consumers who are posting. We’re seeing more and more companies post in response to a negative comment or proactively engage by posting helpful information.

So, as technology continues to evolve and more of these user-generated tools pop up, companies are going to continue to lose control of their brands. Which is why brands need to be monitoring these conversations so they can react to them or at the very least be aware of what is being said.

There is nothing better than seeing the pride my 3-year-old takes in her creations. And, even though I think it’s a bit crazy that my daycare does art with my 5-month-old, some of the pieces are adorable.

The problem: I hate clutter. And, each of my daughters is churning out 5-8 pieces of artwork per week. So, I’ve recently been combing the Internet for interesting ways to display children’s art. One idea I particularly love is from the Facebook wall of Fluff Your Stuff Interior Design. In this solution, you scan in artwork and place it into a mosaic of squares that sit in a larger frame.

Display idea from Fluff Your Stuff Interior Design

The solution I ended up choosing was discovered by my mother at a great little boutique in my hometown, Joyce’s. It features multiple clips attached to a painted plank. This system allows me to easily change out artwork. For an added touch, I keep my daughter’s easel nearby with her latest “at-home” creations displayed.

Betsy's display

This is where Toyota comes in. Here is a company that’s really listening when it comes to the importance of marketing to women. They realize that women want minivans because of the features, but the truth we hide from car companies is that we never want to buy one. Buying a minivan means we have to own up to the fact that we’re no longer sexy twenty-somethings wearing stilettos and short skirts! So, Toyota came out with a series of commercials featuring a thirty-something couple raving about their Sienna minivan (a.k.a. the Swagger Wagon) through rap. Yes, I said rap. And it’s completely hysterical because it’s stunningly accurate! My husband and I laughed out loud at some of the lyrics. I know you may think I’m crazy, but watch for yourself … you’ll soon be thinking, “I kinda want to test-drive a Sienna minivan.” Oh, and I got the pride in my ride.

And Scott could use a change. It’s one brand that has taken a hit in the down economy. According to Brandweek, sales of Scott products have stumbled.

After reading about the effort, I was intrigued and started searching YouTube for campaign examples. You see, even after all these years of watching what goes on in the marketing to women space, I still hold on to the hope that companies like Kimberly-Clark whose products predominantly target women will get it. But inevitably, I was left shaking my head when I met their new spokesperson, Scott.

I mean really! In what universe do women with serious cleaning problems take advice from a preppy 20-something guy?

Has this kid ever had to wipe out an oven after a major spill? (doubt it)
Has he ever had to clean up a Roto-Rooter-style plumbing problem after his daughter flushed a roll of paper towels? (not likely)
Does he spend his time wiping down sterilized baby bottles day in and day out? (If he does have a kid, this duty probably falls to the mother.)

Just because your product is named Scott doesn’t mean it needs to have a male spokesperson. I’m not sure if Kimberly-Clark has noticed, but most of the guys in my life aren’t great at cleaning. Get a woman to talk about your products and I might listen more carefully. As for the current effort … boo, hiss.

In any case, I’m sick about it and already going through withdrawals.

The only bright spot is that I might have to break my promise to myself to wait a few years before ordering an Apple iPad. I just heard this week that I can easily transfer all my Kindle books to the device from my Amazon account. So, you tell me – did I lose the Kindle by chance? Or was it subconsciously on purpose?

I wouldn’t put it past me.

One of the most provocative ideas she suggested was centered on the Kindle. She admitted when it was first released she thought it was a technology that would stick around for a few years and fizzle out. Now with the high adoption rate of the Kindle and introduction of the iPad, she believes it could revolutionize education.

Especially now that technology has become so portable and inexpensive to manufacture, the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is shrinking. Why will school districts continue to pay for expensive textbooks when they can assign a Kindle to a child and download all of his or her textbooks onto one small mini computer for so much less money?

Consider the buying power of a school district. It could negotiate incredible deals from Amazon, Apple or Barnes & Noble to get the electronic reader/iPad-type product. Plus, it would save the cost of ordering new textbooks when the older versions become outdated. All a school would have to do is download the most recent update for a far better price. Even low-income schools would be able to afford a better tool for children to learn.

My husband is a teacher and he will tell you that today, in order for children to desire learning, it has to be interactive. There are endless possibilities for interaction from the Kindle and other similar technologies for a child. It’s enough to get me writing our school district, even though my twin girls are not even 1 year old yet.

In these times of education budget cuts, it’s important to look for ways to save money and improve the quality of education. I think Marian Salzman might have the answer.