Make it sociable; watch it sell.

For women, shopping, more often than not, is a sociable experience. Why should a woman’s online retail experience be any different?

A new study by Dianne Cyr, Ph.D of Simon Fraser University explores why some Web sites appeal more to online female consumers than others.

Designing a Web site in a way that projects a warm and personal experience enables the site to create a psychological connection with the user. This is described as the site’s ‘social presence’; it’s ability to create the feeling of human contact. The results of Dr. Cyr’s study indicate that an increased ‘social presence’ on a Web site can lead women to become repeat visitors, and repeat customers to that site.

This ‘social presence’ is closely tied to the design of your site. Designers can increase the perception that your site is warm and sociable by infusing imagery and text on your site with emotion. Don’t focus solely on the functional attributes of your product; show your customers it’s emotional side as well. Good designers will find a way to use text, image and even comments from previous customers to paint an emotional picture of your product that will resonate with your female customers.

The more socially and emotionally connected women feel to your site, the more likely they will return and become loyal consumers.

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What type of online mom are you?

According to a new study by Razorfish and online community CafeMom, there is a predictable difference in media use between moms under the age of 35 and those over 45.

A child’s move into "teenhood" triggers different media consumption behaviours in mom.

Moms over 45 are spending more time online with traditional authorities and sources: online news, consumer reviews and podcasting. Moms under 35 are much more heavily reliant on social media and mobile to get information they are seeking quickly.

The study noted a change in behavior seems to occur in parents as their kids pass the age of 12, and this is apart from the parents' own age.

Moms of kids over 12 are more likely to watch online video, play games, read consumer reviews and watch or listen to podcasts.

The shift likely occurs as a result of increased leisure time moms with older children may have.

The yongest moms are actually among the least social online. They are also the most determined in finding information. The study reports moms with children under the age of 5 are spending less time interacting with others – they just want answers.

Razorfish and CafeMom segmented their moms into five different types of online behavioral clusters. There is:

• The "Self Expresser" who often has a pre-schooler, is hot on parenting topics, and likes to work on a personal profile page.
• "Utility Mom" usually has several kids of varying ages and goes online to unwind with games.
• The "Groupster" is a community organizer who builds and relies on larger social networks for advice.
• The "Info Seeker" often has a baby and tends to laser-target the information she needs.
• The "Hyperconnector" tends to have older children and likes to network and voice her opinion.

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Red vs Blue

New Canadian research in the journal Science says the colour blue prompts feelings of creativity and calm just by viewing it. Red, on the other hand, makes people more uptight and attentive to detail, says University of British Columbia marketing expert Rui Zhu, the senior study author.

People know intuitively, and scientifically, that colours create mood and ambience, says Zhu. But this new research suggests colours can also switch on predictable and specific states of mind.

The study demonstrates that red (versus blue) color induces primarily an avoidance (versus approach) response and that red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task.

The implications of this research are something to keep in mind when developing an interior or graphic design depending on the intended use or message.



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How Green Are Your Consumers?

A recent study by Yahoo! has found that 77% of consumers describe themselves as green. This study segmented these green consumers into four main groups:

•  Deeply Committed (23%)
•  Trendy (24%)
•  Practical (13%)
•  Passive (17%)

Of these segments, the two that present the biggest opportunity for advertisers are the Trendy consumers, those who go green to be cool, and the Deeply Committed. The Deeply Committed category skewed female, and represented mostly adults (35+), more educated, with a higher percent living in metropolitan areas.

These Deeply Committed green consumers respond most to messages that "positively impact the environment". Further reinforcing this stat is a survey from ICOM entitled The Greenest Generation which found that both male and female groups 55 years and over reported above average usage of environmentally friendly home goods. Leading the way was the 55-59 year-old female demographic, who was more than twice as likely than the average consumer to use green products.

Selling green products to the Deeply Committed is akin to preaching to the choir. And the women within this group are open to environmentally responsible messages.

The study also reports that Online is an important source for green information based on the respondents it is almost on par with traditional media. However a large percent of people still look to TV ads for more info on green products, especially in the household cleaning product category.

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Mimosa Anyone?

The colour of 2009 as predicted by Pantone is mimosa, a vibrant shade of yellow illustrated by the flowers of some mimosa trees as well as the brunch-favourite cocktail, as its top shade of the new year. In general, Pantone expects the public to embrace many tones of optimistic yellow.

In the spring fashion collections previewed earlier in the fall for retailers and editors, pops of yellow brightened the runways of Carolina Herrera—who called her favourite shade marigold—Badgley Mischka, Zac Posen and Michael Kors, among others. Kors even included a retro yellow polka-dot bikini that clearly harkened back to a more upbeat time.

Home goods companies based in Europe have already been heavily influenced by yellow and splashes of yellow appear in kitchens, bathrooms and dining rooms.

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Don't mess with mom

Be wary of how you approach and talk to women, especially moms – and especially in the social media age.

Johnson and Johnson was forced to issue an apology Monday for a viral video created for Motrin.

The ad was posted on their Web site and meant to speak to moms in an irreverent way about the pain of wearing a baby in a sling. The ad instead offended many mothers who savaged it on Twitter.

The ad:


The backlash:


The apology:


Clearly, a lot of work went in to creating the ad, from copy writing, to animation and voice over. Unfortunately no one must have thought to check in with moms to see if this concept would resonate, instead of alienate.

Women will always share with friends the things they love and the things they hate. With the proliferation of social media women are able to spread the word, good or bad, at warp speed.

Posted by: Lisa Valent


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Smile: It's a Gift Card

A recent Consumer Reports Holiday Poll found that despite the recent economic woes, 66% of Americans still plan on giving at least one gift card this year, up from 62% last year. It appears that retailers south of the border are paying attention to this.

Gone are the days when the most interesting aspect of a giftcard design was the graphics that adorned it. New gift cards from Target and BestBuy are using innovative technology to vie for those hard-earned consumer dollars.


Target, who is well known for their dedication to good design, is releasing a Camera Gift Card. The camera itself is 1.2-megapixels with 8MB of memory on-board, and will reportedly come with a voucher for 40 free prints from Target.


BestBuy’s gift card will be ready to make some noise as it doubles as a speaker that can be user with a wide variety of MP3 Players, iPods or any other audio player with a mini headphone jack.

As women are the primary consumers of wireless gadgets and gizmos, and outspend men on electronics purchases, it will be interesting to see how well these new ‘enhanced’ gift cards will be received (and redeemed) by women this holiday season.

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