What Makes a Mom

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published October 24, 2012 in Moms & Family, Speaking

Yesterday, I performed my one woman show “The God Box, A Daughter’s Story” at the day’s end of the annual Marketing to Moms conference in Chicago. At the start, I could tell that the audience of women, most of them moms who had sat through 9 hours of PowerPoint slides and impassioned speeches…were tuckered out. And cocktails beckoned from the next room.

These colleagues of mine are experts in their own right, devoted to the power mothers of America. What could a play teach them? Turns out that love and loss and hope and mother/daughter bonds trump theory and marketing trends. At least that’s what their tears and laughter showed me.

Why should marketers care about digging into the personal lives of women? Because that is where the truth is. Not at a desk. Or from an armchair. Or the back of a focus group room. In our hearts. Crossing that boundary from marketer to actor was worth the risk.

Have to say, I didn’t need a PowerPoint to tell a love story.  Neither do Moms.

Tags: For Women, m2moms, Marketing to Women, marketing with women in mind, Mary Lou Quinlan, moms, The God Box, Whole Truths, working moms, Working Mother

share the love:

{ no comments » }

My latest project: “The God Box,” full of faith, love and letting go

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published May 13, 2012 in Media, Moms & Family, New Ideas

That has been my experience of the past month, every single day.

On April 14th, at the Coaches V Cancer event in my hometown of Philadelphia, I launched my new book The God Box: Sharing my mother’s gift of faith, love and letting go. And seven days a week since then, I have spoken, hugged and shared my story. The book is about the discovery of my Mom’s God Boxes filled with loving prayers, 20 years worth of every worry, hiccup and hope for family, friends and even strangers.

I knew that even writing a book with “God” in the title might make some people wonder what I was up to. After all, business people rarely cross lines of politics or religion or any boundary that might seem too personal. And here I was, on the road talking about faith, motherhood and the heartbreak of losing my mother. But you know what? There’s a lot of yearning out there for honest talk about the relationship that formed us first and the underlying beliefs that get us through life. The book is spiritual and inspirational and I am proud to share that it has been recommended by PARADE, Redbook, Family Circle and this week by USA Today as the number one book for Mother’s Day.

We have been covered in the Wall St. Journal, the Huffington Post and the NY Post and I’ve written blogs for the New York Times’ Motherlode, Parents.com, Belief. net and this Sunday for the Wall St. Journal, all exploring the nature of mothers, both in life and after death.

The book garnered bestseller status in the first two weeks on amazon and Barnes and Noble and both the online and brick and mortar stores blew through their stock in a heartbeat. We have gone to a second printing and we are just getting started. The book is not about one holiday or one life. But about the hopes we harbor for those we love and the way we can learn to let go.

I have traveled so many miles and frankly, shed some tears but I sit here a month later and want to say, this is the loveliest journey into understanding women that I have ever taken. And men are along for this ride too. And in my own way, I believe my Mom is enjoying it as well.

Hope you will check out the book right here on the home page. I can say that right now, I couldn’t be happier.

Tags: Marketing to Women, Mary Lou Quinlan, speaking to women, spirituality, The God Box book, the God Box project, women

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Mad Women for a Change

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published March 2, 2012 in Moms & Family, New Ideas, Work

Last night I was invited to a terrific party hosted by Ken Roman, former chairman of Ogilvy. The occasion was the debut of a new book by the wonderful creative director and writer Jane Maas. It’s called “Mad Women” published by St. Martin’s Press.  The book takes a fun and honest look at what it was really like for women in ad agencies in the sixties and seventies. Was there really that much sex?  Were women relegated to the steno pool, no matter their ambitions and talent? Jane’s book says, yes and even more so than in the Mad Men series. She interviewed me for the book, not because I was one of those women (I was in grade school!) but because my mom worked in ad agencies throughout those decades. For the record, my mom did her share of typing and shorthand but thankfully avoided the seamier side of the inter-departmental relationships that Jane vividly describes.

In her book, Jane retells my story of how I grew up at a dinner table where storyboards and media plans were normal conversation. My mother loved working in advertising, certainly more than cooking dinner. She once worked for an agency where the Campbells soup account came under fire for exaggerating the pile of vegetables in a soup shoot, so she was in charge of counting exactly how many string beans, peas and carrots were in a can and verifying that the bowl was ‘honest’ before the cameras rolled. I love that she loved her work and she inspired me to follow in her footsteps. Not that it was as racy as the TV drama but advertising did bring out the crazy in a lot of people.

Jane is headed out on a 40 city tour, (OMG!) and having done it myself, I wish her a lot of great applause, as many flight upgrades as she can get and a good night’s sleep or three.

Tags: Advertising, m2w, marketing with women in mind, working moms, Working Mother

share the love:

{ no comments » }

My Mom’s 5 Best Tips for a Successful Marriage

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published February 24, 2012 in Moms & Family

Today, February 24th would have been my mom’s 88th birthday if she had lived that long. Of course, if she had lived that long, she’d be pretty upset that I said how old she was. My mother always seemed young. She lived life with optimism and curiosity and genuine delight. She would credit that joy to being married to a man she loved as if she were still his new bride…my Dad, Ray Finlayson. So on her birthday, I’d like to share a blog I wrote this week for Sheknows.com which features her tips for a long and happy relationship. Happy birthday, Mom. And Happily Ever After…

Read the article here: http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/948141/moms-lessons-for-a-happy-marriage

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Strange Talk And P&G Make Cheer More Cheerful

by Libby Kane
Published August 31, 2011 in Moms & Family, New Ideas

It must be the month of awesome laundry product campaigns. Hot on the heels of Tide’s confessions, Cheer has broken out the big guns by sponsoring the video for band Strange Talk’s single Climbing Walls.  But it’s not a deluge of product placement (we’re looking at you, Britney)—it’s a series of interactive pop-ups, where colorful items are highlighted and, once clicked on, bring the viewer to the brand’s Facebook page to enter giveaways for the clicked-upon items. Fun!

It’s also worth mentioning that this just may be the most Gen Y-targeted campaign for a Gen X product we’ve seen of late. Cheer detergent makes you think of immaculately-coiffed housewives laundering their children’s soccer-stained uniforms, not vibrant Passion-Pit-meets-Foster-the-People indie up-and-comers brimming with energy and amps. Not to mention surrounded by fantastic choreography, because there’s that, too.

Cheers to Cheer (forgive us, it was too easy) for walking the walk and imbuing their brand with the color and energy they offer to consumers. And, move fast – a new round of giveaways starts August 31^st, 3pm EST.

Tags: Procter & Gamble, Video

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Don’t Count Us Out. Not Yet. Not Ever.

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published August 24, 2011 in Moms & Family

Image: Gerry Broome/AP via NY Daily News

“I’m 42 and I am being aged out of here.”

– An executive in the publishing industry.

“I have so much ambition, so much energy, so much more I want to do, but the guys up top look right past me.”

– 57 year old lawyer, 30 years of practice, 3 kids, one elderly in law at home

“I don’t want a pity party.”

– Superstar women’s basketball coach, 59, announcing she plans to continue coaching despite early onset dementia.

These women all tell different stories with one theme: persistence.

Ironically, persistence has been running in boomer and first wave X-er blood since the early days of our careers. I can remember working at an ad agency when I was about 38 and being told by a senior male colleague, “Well, even though things won’t work out for you, I guess you feel good that the next generation will reap the rewards of the ground you broke.” I jumped out of my skin and down his throat, “I’m happy for whatever the next generation achieves, but I’m just getting started!” That was a time when the word “pipeline” (“There aren’t enough women yet in the pipeline”) was code for “we aren’t going to promote any of the women we already have even if we are promoting less competent men, just because…” Sadly, I still hear that as an excuse for lagging leadership diversity decades later.

Ageism toward women isn’t new, but I had hoped it wasn’t getting worse. To think that 42 is considered old. But in some industries, it is. (I realize it’s not limited to women, but in practice it’s worse for them with the added burden of young and pretty as an unspoken job requirement.) That a woman who is at the prime of her talent is shuffled into the heap waiting for retirement—crazy! Crazy for men, too, but the lawyer quoted above stayed home for about 10 of her kids’ growing up years, so she feels like she’s got a lot more in her to give at an age where her male peers may be dialing down.

And finally, I was struck by today’s heartbreaking but stirring revelation from Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee’s women’s team, with a record of 1,071 victories, 8 national titles and an Olympic Gold Medal. Only Pat, her school, her team and her doctors can figure out what she ought to do. But I love that she is not giving up. That she is showing what she’s made of, just as she asks her young players to do on the court.

Do not count us out. As consumers. As professionals. As women. Not now. Not ever.

Tags: Advertising, marketing with women in mind

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Guns vs Sloth: The Appeal of Nerf

by Libby Kane
Published June 1, 2011 in Moms & Family, New Ideas

Image: productwiki.com

Which is more upsetting: Your child glued to a TV screen for hours on end, or your child actively playing… with a toy gun?
Hasbro, the longtime providers of all things gun (as an aside, the term “gun” is avoided within the company, where they substitute the word “shooter”) has placed its bets behind our horror of young American couch potatoes.

The Wall Street journal describes how Nerf has progressed beyond your basic party-favor water gun to elaborate launchers of water, paper, and foam. What caught our eye, however, is the growth of the Dart Tag league. Hasbro turned Dart Tag into a sport based on and named after one of its most popular models in 2008, and will now recruit young players (of both sexes) nationally to participate in the first-ever championship game held in Orlando, FL this August.

Let’s do a quick rundown: Engaging consumers? Check. Benefitting youth? Check. Increasing sales? Judging by the 2010 reported 8% sales increase of outdoor toys in a wholly unremarkable toy retail market—check. While the mom in many of us cringes at the thought of children shooting each other with anything, that same side cheers for an activity that can peel our kids off the couch. In fact, the appeal has us justifying our approval (“It’s really only water/paper/Nerf”). Well played, Hasbro.

Tags: Wall Street Journal

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Post with a Purpose Today (3/21)

by Jen Drexler
Published March 21, 2011 in Moms & Family

Post With A Purpose Today

Due to the fact the quake and tsunami hit during the day, most children were in school or nurseries separated from their parents – fears are that many will be orphaned. The triple horror of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and potential nuclear disaster has raised concerns over the long-term impact on children, some of whom are already displaying signs of trauma, from screaming nightmares to silent withdrawal. Today use your blogs, Facebook accounts and Tweets to drive awareness.

Tags: Save the Children

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Texting Keeps Babies Healthy

by Tracy Chapman
Published February 10, 2011 in Moms & Family

As the Verizon Iphone goes on sale this week, we are reminded of the power of the smartphone in our society, especially when it comes to getting information. It’s no wonder that it has become an essential tool in motherhood these days. In fact, recent research that we conducted on behalf of WhattoExpect.com found that 33% of moms and soon-to-be moms use mobile web browsing.

Equally important however is that a whopping 84% are texting. With all the excitement around apps and devices it’s easy to forget about those consumers that might not have access to them.

Text4baby, celebrating their one year anniversary last week, has not forgotten those that need the information the most.

This service, run by the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) sends free text messages to women who are pregnant or whose babies are less than a year old, providing information and reminders to improve their health and the health of their babies.

Text4baby keeps it simple and relevant and tone appropriate, making the messages friendly and informative – it is the perfect balance of prescriptive advice and emotional support that women need, especially when they don’t have access to as many resources as others might.

Congratulations Text4baby for hitting your first birthday and thank you for your support of underserved moms.

How can marketers, whose target is low-income women, learn from the success of this campaign?

Tags: Smartphone

share the love:

{ no comments » }

Hey Marketers, Age Up!

by Mary Lou Quinlan
Published February 10, 2011 in Moms & Family

Last week I read “In a Graying Population, Business Opportunity”  in the New York Times. This smart primer on the state of our aging union examined “gray marketing” now that the first boomers are turning 65. At MIT, they’ve invented a special suit to simulate the physical deterioration. Creaky knees, anyone? Ken Dychtwald, an indefatigable advocate of rethinking aging points to all the opportunites to redub retirement as “rehirement.”

I was hit with three simultaneous reactions:

The Ego Protection Fault Line: In “What She’s Not Telling You,” we exposed five reasons women don’t always do or buy what they say they will. This article exposed one of our Whole Truths, Ego Protection: if products are overtly designed for boomers in a way that gives away their age or uncool factor, like obvious big buttons on phones, they fail. Boomers still see themselves as younger, so if a young person is turned off to a boomer feature, so are they. The GAP learned that lesson the hard way when their concept store for midlife apparel, Forth &Towne flopped by assuming ‘older’ women wanted to look well, older. The Whole Truth? They do want to look their age, but the age in their heads is about 15 younger than the age on their ID.

DejaVu All Over Again: I feel like I have read this article for years. This age resistance issue just won’t die with marketers. No matter how old they are, marketers are blind or at least averting their eyes to the reality of their aging customer base. Dare I admit that in 8 years, I could be featured when they rewrite this again in 2018? Like many women my age, I pass for a lot younger. I think young, I feel young and I like Lady GaGa’s music and I don’t wear pantyhose. But I generally keep my digits under wraps because I think that fellow marketers instantly marginalize anyone over 45…and in some environments, take that down to 40, 39, 38.. Media targets still cling to the dream team of 18-34, 25-40. Even older-suited categories like financial services and healthcare prefer to pursue the ‘peri-retirees’. Are we afraid of our own mortality? Are we in denial of our own mirrors? When will marketers younger and older, start facing the truth and chasing the big money in the marketplace?

The New Age Defiance:  I loved that the piece featured an 86 year old redhead who had her place wired to monitor every move, support her positive health behaviors and keep her at home. My redhead Mom lived at home till 82, still keeping up her crosswords, her high celebrity IQ and her calorie counting. At 91, my Dad relied on his Jitterbug phone, his Lifeline (which saved his life multiple times) and his at-home exercise bike which he pedaled while practicing speech therapy on his tape recorder. My parents were from a generation that aged with spirit and dignity. I think that our next generation of boomers will age with defiance and wishful thinking that will keep them younger longer. If it’s Ego Protection that preserves their youthfulness, so be it. I just hope that the marketers who are smart enough to recognize their power get over their stultified attitudes toward what’s old and what’s beautiful. Like her or not, Grandma ain’t going down easy.

Tags: Age, The New York Times

share the love:

{ 2 comments }