What Every Marketer Should Keep Up With – Trends!

I put down another good book and couldn’t wait to share it with you. It is one of the Tom Peters Essentials entitled Trends, and co-authored by Martha Barletta. Although most of the statistics and examples given in the book are based in the United States, every marketer should still keep in mind the important trends cited – that of marketing to women and the mature market (read: NOT 18-44 age bracket).

First, as women make majority of the household purchasing decisions, why ignore her in your marketing strategies? And as more and more women become career-oriented and are able to earn as much as men, their rise in the marketplace couldn’t be ignored. Even in the automobile industry, sales people need to pay attention to women as they influence their partners in making the decision, or if buying for herself, she knows exactly what she wants. As the book is co-written by a woman and is an authority in marketing to women consumers, it becomes more interesting and fascinating.

I can relate this with a recent experience with my ‘Wired’ team. As I am in charge of marketing, I had one sales lead where the CEO is a woman. Perhaps it is by instinct or maybe out of sheer luck that I instantly clicked with her and proposed exactly what she needed for her company. And guess what? I landed the account in one month’s time. What I am saying here is pretty simple – ‘know your customer.’ Had I dealt with a male CEO, my approach would have been different.

Second, the “mature” market. Because most marketers concentrate on 18-44 age bracket, the boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are ignored, when they have the luxury of time and money to begin with. As some of them are on pension, being supported by their children, or has lifetime savings to dispose of, they become a perfect target market, especially for the hospitality and healthcare industries.

These and other important points are emphasized in the book. I can say it is an easy-read, as it is divided only into 5 chapters, with graphical representations and colorful images to go with the text. As I mentioned, though written with the US market in mind, marketers all over the world need to re-evaluate and realign their strategies and keep up with the trends. There’s actually no harm in trying!

Corporate blogging…anyone?

I just realized one of the benefits of working from home…more time to read, read and read! Not only do I read materials online which pique my interest but now I am able to catch up on reading hardcover books, and just yesterday I finished The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil. It was lent to me a couple of months ago…and in-between projects that I’m working on, I finally put the book down with a grin on my face. Why the grin? As a blogging newbie and all, I learned blogging and technical terms which I would not have otherwise looked up or even bothered to understand. The book gave me an insightful look what corporate blogs really are, how to write a good one, who should be doing it and why a company should consider doing it. As my ‘wired’ team is seriously considering putting a blog in our website (though still coming very soon!), it was inspiring and helpful. I found myself taking down notes and browsing through the CEO blogs mentioned, and even opened an account with bloglines (this I randomly selected from the many RSS newsreaders available). Although fairly new practice in the corporate world, the author says more and more companies are engaged in corporate blogging (I can’t name one local company in our country who’s into this now as of the time of this writing).

It is quite refreshing for a marketer, and a non-techie like myself, to read such a book. Usually, such titles will intimidate me and I would not have given it a second thought. But then again, things change, people change, and you just have to take it a step further if you want to learn new things and cope with the changing times. Have you read this book yet? If so, I would like to hear your comments on it and let’s trade notes! ;)

Oh and by the way, I added a new category in this blog, Book Readings, which I intend to grow with each book that I finish and I hope you will find them an interesting read as well.