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Dear Readers,
Last May, before I launched SavvyAuntie.com, I wrote a blog post about childless women and Mother's Day. It's been one of my most popular posts to-date and so I thought this year, I would simply update the data and re-post.
(First published on May 2, 2008. Data has been updated for 2009)
Dear Madison Avenue,
Please don't wish me a Happy Mother's Day.
It's not that I don't appreciate the wishes. And I don't mean to be the "Ebenezer Scrooge" of Mother's Day. It's a perfectly lovely holiday.
But I am not a mother.
And it's not that I don't want to be. I personally do. But for now, I am not a mother.
So when I walk into your store, or open your e-newsletter, or receive your direct mail, please don't wish me a Happy Mother's Day.
Don't get me wrong. I love mothers. I admire the work and energy it takes to be a mother. In fact, some of my best friends are mothers. But some are not. In fact, some of your girlfriends are probably not mothers either. Stop. Look around. Chances are about 50% of the women you know are not mothers. Especially since you live in a big city like New York.
Madison, or Ms Avenue if you prefer, just look at the US census report on fertility. In 2006 (the latest report) 45.1% of women up to the age of 44 were counted as "childless." (The number of women over the age of 44 who are non-moms is not recorded.) That's up from 44.6% in 2004. And 43% in 2001. So the numbers are growing. Year after year. After year.
For every Mom out there, there is a Non-Mom. Some by choice. Some yet to be. Some who just can't. None of these women want your Happy Mother's Day wishes. In fact, you are probably hurting some feelings along the way.
But Madison, you're a smart marketer. You can step away from the decades-old idea that moms are the most powerful spenders in the US. Perhaps at education and kids' necessities like diapers and milk they are. Sure. But women in general are the most lucrative consumers for marketers. And we've come a long way, baby. 85% of women make or influence the purchasing decisions in their household. The household, by the way, may be a family of four, or a single abode for one. For the first time, more women than men are buying cars, consumer electronics, homes and doing home renovations. And you might be surprised to hear that 50% of single women own their own homes.
Since the 1960's, when women were finally opening bank accounts in their own names, you have been focusing your marketing strategies on Mom since that is how you have traditionally identified "Woman." But it's 2009 and times have changed. Today, non-moms actually have greater purchasing power because they are not supporting children, because a greater portion of non-moms than moms are still in the workforce, and because they have more time for leisure and travel.
Which doesn't mean that non-moms don't love children. Non-moms have nieces and nephews, by relation or by choice, and other children in their lives that they love and embrace (and spoil!).
Madison, since you are a woman who works in advertising and marketing, you may have heard that I call this segment of women: PANKs (Professional Aunts, No Kids.) PANK is the New PINK. We are the fastest growing segment of affluent women in America - the women you should be focusing some really smart attention on.
So don't turn us off. Don't keep assuming all women are moms. Do better targeting and segmenting. Find the women who spend their discretionary income and time on the kids in their lives - and on themselves. We're here. We're listening. And we're ready to buy.
In the meantime, go ahead with your Mother's Day plans. I too wish all moms a beautiful day full of all the love and joy that motherhood brings.
But please, don't wish the rest of us a Happy Mother's Day.
Because the thing is, we're not moms.
Sincerely,
Auntie Melanie Notkin
Founder, SavvyAuntie.com
Dear Readers,
I love marketing books. Love. Like the feeling you get on a date when a very attractive person sits across from you, smiles back at you, and says with his eyes: "It's ok, I like you too." It's the kind of love that makes your heart pitter-patter and your brain dance the happy dance. Yup. I love marketing books. And for this love, there is no cure.
I love marketing books because they not only teach me, they embrace me. They enable me to live the best possible business life I can live. When I apply the thought-leadership in the books I study, I become more successful. I read them as a non-profit marketer (thank you Philip Kotler!), as an internet marketer, as a beauty executive, and now as an Auntrepreneur. I owe so much of my success to the men and women who have shared their knowledge with me through their books.
Still, I don't fall in love easily. Not every so-called "marketing book" is going to win my heart. But the courtship is fun. When I browse the new business books section at my local Barnes and Noble, my heart races for the opportunity of a new discovery. I want to find a new lover - one I want to take to bed with me and read by the soft light of my night table lamp. I want to find a book that impresses me with its intelligence, one that promises a better business life, one that I truly believe will love me back by making me giggle, inviting me to the next chapter and yes, making me feel that the world is full of opportunity.
And so I go to my bookstore....walk through the cool entrance way.... up the escalator....to the right... in nervous anticipation of what's to come. I gaze optimistically at the shelves - first at the front-facing newbies that BN, my matchmaker, has imagined I might like the most. Then, I lovingly touch the spines of the other books on the shelf... some old loves, some I have flirted with but never committed to.... and some begging for my attention. I enjoy the feeling of my hands on the cool glossy hardcover books with stunning typography etched out on the spine: "The New Rules of Marketing and PR," "Word of Mouth Marketing," and my latest love, "Groundswell."
I never fall out of love either. Classics live on, even as times change. Yesterday, a Twitter friend asked for guidance on some marketing books he could read to help him with a business idea. I Twittered back a listing of Al Ries classics. How can you call yourself a marketer and never have read one of Al Ries' books? Read them all! And then read these by Seth Godin. And then, if you want to be a true revolutionary marketer, meet my friend Guy Kawasaki.
My love affair with marketing books is a little one sided, after all. These guys talk talk talk and I listen listen listen. Sure, now that some of these books have blogs connected with them, I can comment here and there. But really, this has been a one-sided romance.
Until now. You see, I am now "social media friends" (or friends 2.0) with many of these authors. David Meerman Scott, whose "New Rules of Marketing and PR" I actually read twice, is someone I Follow on Twitter. Andy Sernovitz, whose "Word of Mouth Marketing" book is tabbed and bookmarked all over, is someone I Follow on Twitter. I Follow Seth Godin too, of course. And the Groundswell co-authors - Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff -and I have had some back and forth on Twitter following my sincere praise of their first book together (read: I hope there are more to come). But my strongest relationship is with Guy Kawasaki. All of these authors are major successes. And Guy.... Guy is a guru. And he connects with me! I am his reader. I have turned the pages of his books, read his blogs, followed his career, and he talks to me!
Recently, Guy Kawasaki launched a website called Alltop.com where he centralizes what he believes to be the best blogs on the Web, and categorizes them so that people searching for topics of interest can discover the perfect blog for them. I am proud - and deeply honored - that Guy has added my blog to Alltop.com in the "startups" section.
By featuring my blog and my startup on Alltop.com, Guy Kawasaki, in his own way, sits across from me, smiles at me, and says with his eyes: "It's ok. I like you too."
Now you know why I swoon.
XOXO,
Auntie Melanie
