Too Busy To Shop

Women of Personality

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Rohit Bhargava's Women of Personality 2nd Edition ebook has officially launched and is now live at:http://www.thepersonalityproject.com/wop2. Check it out. My thanks to Rohit for including me in this inspiration effort.

In less than 24 hours, the ebook already have nearly 500 views and hundreds of tweets pointing to the effort and was featured as the Top Presentation Of The Day on Slideshare.net!

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the M2Moms Conference, www.m2moms.com, in Chicago on Oct. 21 and 22.

Harvard Business Review: Women Now Drive the World Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:14:00 +0000

having done the research myself, in conjunction with Ketchum, and watching many other studies of the past five years, I can say that I am not surprised to see the recent headline in the Harvard Business Review that women now drive the world economy. See preview here: http://tinyurl.com/ltjzumy.

The entire article is brief and worth the read. It cites global consumer spending, missteps by companies like Dell and fact that "most companies have much to learn about selling to women." Sad, but true.

Too Busy to Shop starts with that premise and provides a framework for solutions with case examples. If you are a marketer or business, go to www.amazon.com and buy a copy of the book. If you are a female consumer, I continue to collect examples, good and bad, of what marketers are doing from your POV. Please send along your thoughts.

I look forward to hearing from you.

NYTimes Magazine: Why Women's Rights Are the Cause of Our Time

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:26:00 +0000

If you have not read the Aug. 23rd New York Times Sunday Magazine about Women's Rights, click this link now and read it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html#

I've worked in the marketing to women business for many years and read avidly about issues affecting women. But, after reading the series if articles in the NYT Magazine yesterday (which I read cover to cover), I was reminded of the many, serious issues facing women worldwide and of my responsibility as a woman to help other women become educated and succeed in business, as well as in life.

There are tips in the articles about how we can support important causes and organizations and, over time,I have supported many of them. I am particularly proud of Ketchum's efforts to support an organization called Room to Read, www.roomtoread.org, whose mission is to educate girls. Room to Read works with local villages in many developing countries to establish schools, libraries and do local language publishing with an emphasis on girls' education.

Please join me in considering, and then acting upon, things we can all do to help, like providing microfunding for women trying to start businesses in developing countries through www.kiva.org, sponsoring a girl or woman through www.womenforwomen.org, donating to Room to Read at www.roomtoread.org or some other action that will positively impact women globally.

WSJ: The Fans Know Best

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:57:00 +0000

In my book, I talk a good deal about how "too busy to shop"consumers are flocking to online/social networking sites and using those sites as a filter for credibility and a short-cut for making purchase decisions. Consumers are not going to branded sites nearly as much. In fact, in my book, I predict that visits to branded sites "will slow to a trickle" compared to these other sites.

The Wall Street Journal had a great article in today's edition called "The Fan Knows Best" by two marketing researchers that illustrates that point. The article calls out: 1. Stop Controlling Everything 2. Welcome Diversity. 3. Give Visitors Ways of Interacting and 4. if you can't be like the fan sites, at least monitor and support them.

See full text here.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204482304574222062946162306.html

Social Media "Lite?"

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:27:00 +0000

I have heard so many multi-minding women say that they have social media "fatigue." You know, that condition where you toggle between FB, Twitter and your favorite blogs and you just get tired of or can't find the time to keep up. I've heard many women say they want more "aggregators," or places they can go for more of a one-stop shop that would cut down on time and effort.

Here's an interesting approach being explored by Facebook from this morning's Daily Beast...

Facebook To Launch 'Lite' Version
Do you yearn for the good old days, when Facebook did not have all those annoying applications? Well yearn no longer. Facebook has just tested a 'Lite' version of its site that strips down all the complicated features and leaves only the basics: the wall, the photos, the status updates, and the friends. The site was designed so that it could be accessed from parts of the world with limited broadband speed, but may well have appeal to the average user. It is as yet unclear, however, whether the site will be available in the United States. News of the streamlined site was leaked late last night when Facebook mistakenly sent invites to a wide range of users. Commentators are already suggests that this is a move by Facebook to better compete with Twitter, which it failed the purchase last year.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/?cid=hp:topnav:cs

Just as many marketers are jumping on board FB with applications like fan pages and stores, the game changes.

Back to School: Are You Ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:31:00 +0000

As a multi-minding mom, you can't escape the topic of "back to school." Online sites, news articles, conversations at family or community picnics are all abuzz with "are you ready for back to school?"

My son suppresses the thought of going back to school, so I try to hide back to school prep from him. I order the kids' school uniforms from www.landsend.com because it's so easy... I measure the kids, order everything online, have it delivered to my door step and, they provide a return mailing address slip so I can make returns without having to look up addresses and write out a label. The box of uniforms arrives and my son didn't have to go try on clothes or even think about school before school starts.

On the other hand, I am having the darnedest time trying to find cute, size 1 shoes in any shade of purple (her favorite color) online for my daughter. I may have to actually visit a shoe store. Oh no!

What do you do to prep for back to school and how do you do it? Is any marketer or retailer making it really easy for you? Marketers -- are you doing something for back to school that you want moms to know? Let me know.

The Advertising Show Interview and #9 on Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Will do a fun interview with Ray and Brad, hosts of Ad Age's The Advertising Show. http://www.theadvertisingshow.com/. It's an audio interview that will run this Sunday, Aug. 9 at 5 p.m. ET. Listen in or download it from the site at a later date. The show has great content and you may be interested in some of the past interviews, as well.

The book has been getting some terrific coverage which helped propel it to the #9 spot, in it's category of Business/Marketing/Research, in the Kindle store (8.5.09)!

BlogHer: Deep Discussions and Lots of Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:48:00 +0000

BlogHer '09 was an unbelievably energetic gathering of nearly 1,400 bloggers, influentials, media and marketing folks that covered topics ranging from disclosure and the FTC guidelines to fall fashion and makeovers onthe trade show floor.

I was there to attend the business conference (definitely worthwhile), sign Too Busy to Shop books (see me with Forbes Woman reporter, Heidi Brown at left), and meet and greet the wonderful cadre of bloghers.

Key takeaways from the business conference:

- Don't try to go t from zero to 60 in social media. Listen and take logical next steps. Avoid "cool tools" until they are the logical next step.

- LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN, before, during and after the program. Do nothing before listening.

- Get your organization on board internally, including legal.

- Measure the quality and quantity of online engagement.

- Approach bloggers with an authentic and relevant theme.

- Disclosure and the FTC Guidelines are a hot topic, with disclosure being the key.

By far, the best part was the interaction with other marketers, bloggers and media. What a great group that I am honored to be a part of.

More to come later on the main BlogHer conference.

Great Stats Coming out of BlogHer09

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Hello from BlogHer 09 where over 1,000 bloggers are gathered. What a great atmosphere with great stats coming out of it for marketers.

Next year BlogHer '10 will be held in NY on Aug 6 and 7!

With over 42 million women blogging every week and 30 percent of women ditching newspapers for online news, there is more reason than ever for marketers to be connecting with and engaging bloggers.

More to come!

BlogHer Business '09 Covering Hot Topics

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0000

The room is packed with marketers and companies interested in engaging the women online here at BlogHer Business '09 in Chicago. If you missed it this year, book early for next year.

Up first was the topic of the State of the Social Media World, including paid product reviews and the importance of disclosure. Listening now to Lizzie Schreier, the woman in charge of Internet marketing at AllState. Lessons learned so far:
- the importance of taking small steps
- getting buy-in from legal, educating internal audiences
- analyzing what other industries and companies have done.

Looking forward to upcoming cases that include Fiskaars, Prego, Coachand Trop 50.

Check out my more frequent updates and key takeaways @toobusytoshop.

Heading Out to BlogHer '09

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:22:00 +0000

Can't wait to see many friends and colleagues at BlogHer '09, http://www.blogher.com/. I will be attending the BlogHer Business conference on Thursday, May 23 and will tweet from the conference for those of you who can't make it.

Ketchum is a sponsor of the morning break on Day One (Friday, July 24) from 10 to 10:30. Stop in to the "Ketchum Mixer" and make some new contacts. I will also be participating in the book signings for Too Busy to Shop in the BlogHer bookstore from noon to 1 on Friday. Stop by and say hello!

Engagement Report by Charlene Li

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:32:00 +0000

Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, and research partner Wetpaint, today released the Engagement Report, an analysis of the ranking of the Top 100 brands that correlates deep social media engagement with financial performance. research done by Ketchum in the past clearly shows that online AND offline engagement are keys to reaching multi-minding women, so I am looking forward to digging into this new report.

Check it out at www.engagementdb.com

Join the Cause at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:43:00 +0000

If you haven’t already heard the news – Kellogg Company has announced a transformational partnership with Katalyst, Ashton Kutcher’s social media studio, to raise awareness of the growing hunger epidemic in the U.S. and encourage consumers to donate to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization.

At the forefront of the partnership is a new “people-powered” Web video, directed by Demi Moore and produced by Ashton Kutcher. The video features user-generated content submitted by consumers moved to end hunger following requests that @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) and @mrskutcher (Demi Moore) posted on their respective Twitter feeds and Facebook Pages. The video can be found on the KelloggCares Facebook® Page at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares.

Please check it out and tell anyone you know to join the cause at www.facebook.com/kelloggcares.

The video and partnership is all part of Kellogg Company’s ongoing commitment to fight hunger. In April, the Company announced that it is donating an entire day’s worth of cereal production – more than 55 million cereal servings – to Feeding America. The donation of 3.5 million pounds of cereal is worth approximately $10 million.

Good for Kellogg and please join!

Tom Peters Cites Too Busy to Shop Stats on His Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Marketing guru Tom Peters cites stats from Too Busy to Shop on his blog. Check it out here: http://www.tompeters.com/

Tom, a big proponent of marketing to women, then poses the question "so?" as in so what are we going to do about marketing to women in a better way. If you've read Tom's books or blog, you know he's about marketing excellence, particularly when it comes to women. As he said in his book Trends, which he co-authored with my friend Marti Barletta, "women buy damn near everything."

So, as marketers and business owners, what are we going to do about it?

Chicago Event for Ketchum and Too Busy to Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:52:00 +0000

If you are in Chicago, please join me at a Too Busy to Shop book event hosted by Ketchum. The event is at 5:30 at the Mars Gallery on W. Fulton Market. RSVP to kelly.mcarthur@ketchum.com.

If you have not seen the fantastic article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Marketing to the Modern Woman by Joyce Gannon, check it out here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09130/968829-28.stm?cmpid=newspanel3

Happy Mother's Day to All of My friends

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Wishing all of my friends and colleagues a very happy Mother's Day. Hope you are not "too busy" to enjoy yourself and your families and take some time to relax.

I wanted to share a story that appeared in Forbes.com this week about mothers as role models. My mon, Patty Murray, and I are included. Check it out here: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/04/mothers-daughters-relationships-forbes-woman-power-careers.html

Enjoy!

Too Busy to Shop Book Tour Hits Chicago This Week

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:38:00 +0000

The book event in Dallas last week was fantastic. Lots of friends from Ketchum and wonderful guests. A great crowd. Wine tasting of Stagecoach Vineyards' Veraison Synchrony (2004) was just yummy. I highly recommend it.

This week, the I'll be in Chicago on May 29 and 30 at the M2W Conference, www.m2w.biz, the largest marketing to women conference in the country. Can't wait to see my many friends there. I'll be speaking about the book on the morning of April 29.

Check out my guest blog post that just appeared on cnbc.com. http://www.cnbc.com/id/30389508.

Let me know if you are attending M2W. Hope to see you there.

Too Busy to Shop Book Tour in NY and Dallas

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:03:00 +0000

Had a ball in NY last week at the Too Busy to Shop launch event at the Ketchum office in NY. We had a great turn out at the event, including industry luminaries like Marti Barletta of the Trendsight Group, Emily McKhann of themotherhood.com and Stacy DeBroff of momcentral.com. Also met with ForbesWoman while I was in the city.

This week brings trips to New York and Dallas for the book tour. Will be doing an interview with the NYTimes tomorrow and them off to Dallas for an event for the Ketchum office there.

Lots of exciting coverage of the book. Check out the release on wsj.com http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20090406-904569.html.

More to come!

Check Out Special Mommytrackd.com Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:21:00 +0000

I have been a fan of mommytrackd.com for a long time. With the theme of "managing the chaos of modern motherhood," mommytrackd.com always seems to have something that helps me, or at least makes me think or laugh.

From April 13 - 27, mommytrackd.com is featuring a promotion for my book, Too Busy to Shop. Enter here http://www.mommytrackd.com/to register to win a great prize package for, you guessed it, those women who are too busy to shop.

Check it out and let me know how you enjoyed mommytrackd.com

Too Busy to Shop Book Officially Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:12:00 +0000

As of yesterday, Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women has officially been launched! Check out the news release here: http://www.ketchum.com/Kelley_Skoloda_Too_Busy_to_Shop_news_release. Input from women who have contributed to this blog was used tow write two chapters in the book.

Lots of exciting launch activities planned, including a launch event in Ketchum's NY offices on April 16. Interviews scheduled with ForbesWoman and the New York Times.

Check out www.kelleymurrayskoloda.com for calendar of events and more details.

Too Busy to Shop? Try Good Apples

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Grocery shopping has become such a drag for a busy woman, especially since my family seems to be drinking up the milk at a record pace. What was once a week is now at least a twice a week stop. I try to stock up on canned and staple items for my pantry, but it always seems to be a losing battle.

That's why I've come to love Good Apples, the Virtual Farmers Market. https://www.goodapples.org/index.html. I order select items on a Monday or Tuesday and they are delivered to my office on Thursday. It saves me from that extra, very aggravating stop at the grocery store and the products offered are fresh and organic.

What are you doing to save time when shopping for groceries?

Big Green Purse: Great Place if You Are Too Busy to Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:50:00 +0000

If you have not visited www.biggreenpurse.com or read the book by the same name, now is the time. Diane MacEachern, founder and CEO of Big Green Purse, was just named an "eco-hero" by Glamour Magazine (see Web site above for more details). Congratulations, Diane!

“Future generations depend on our vigilance. We must care,” says Lisa Jackson in the magazine.

Diane is a great example of caring and gives women excellent examples of how they can care and put the power of their purse behind their purchase decisions.

Let me know how you put the power of your purse behind your purchase decisions when it comes to green products.

Recession-hit companies target female consumers -- The Economist

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:18:00 +0000

According to a recent article in The Economist, companies are "taking a different track and trying to get customers to open their purses instead" of their wallets. See story here: http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13278440&source=hptextfeature

Makes perfect sense to me as women, who account for nearly 85% of the household purchases, are the ones who must buy at least some things and will most certainly shop us out of this economy.

It still astounds me that these facts are considered "news." Women have been the primary household shopper for decades. What's more newsworthy now, I think, is what Marti Barletta points out in The Economist piece. She references that 80% of the recession-related job losses have been suffered by men. That means that women are now packing a powerful two-punch of making the purchase decisions and bringing in more of the household income.

Marketers, take note. You must be marketing to multi-minding women. Your future depends on it.

Busy Moms, Try Half Moon in Jamaica for Family Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:36:00 +0000

My husband and I started going to Half Moon in Jamaica years ago with a number of other couples who like to golf. What a ball -- four couples, a villa on the gold course, a swimming pool and lots of rum punch.

That was then.

But what we have discovered is that Half Moon is an even better place for families than it is for couples. The staff and the facilities are very kid-friendly. You can spend quiet days on the beautiful beach or have your fill of play at the children's center, the tennis courts (with lessons for the little ones), the dolphin experience (have a dolphin kiss your cheek), the lovely equestrian center (run by horse pro, Trina DeLisser) and much more.

If you are too busy to shop for a place to go on a family vacation, take a look at some point at Half Moon. http://www.halfmoon.com/. Don't let the Web site fool you, it's not just beautiful people and beaches.

Never Too Busy to Do Some Important Things

noreply@blogger.com (Too Busy To Shop, Kelley) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:43:00 +0000

My family and I had a chance recently to take a vacation and, throughout the week, I was reminded of the things that, even as a multi-minding woman, I'll never be too busy to do:

-Spend time with my lovely children
-Tell my husband I love him
-Be inspired by the color of the sky
-Get up early and get a good night's rest
-Be thankful for life's many blessings

I hope you find time for these things, too!