Womentum

One-leggers

Okay, so I was talking with a colleague this afternoon and the minute she told me this story, I knew I’d write about it here. It made my eyebrows go up. Okay, just the right eyebrow went up so I had that look of complete disbelief.

Tara is a successful business owner, and recently decided that she wanted a sunroom. Between her and her husband, she’s the point person on these kinds of decisions and also the main breadwinner.
So, she narrowed down her list and started making some phone calls. Her first phone call was to Temo, and she asked that someone come to her home and give her an estimate. So here’s Tara, ready to spend big bucks, and here’s what the Temo rep told her.

“I can’t come out to your home unless your husband will be there, too.”

Tara explained that he’s not really the main decision-maker and that this was her project. The rep didn’t budge. Tara explained that she’s the main breadwinner. The rep didn’t budge. She asked why. The rep responded that it’s company policy not to go on “one-leggers” and that if she had any questions, she could call the company’s sales director.

So Tara got on the phone with the Sales Director. He confirmed it and Tara told him that he can count on never having her business and that she was going to let other people know about their archaic policy toward selling to women. I believe she used the word “idiot” at least once.

And there you have it. An example of why this blog exists. To eradicate behavior like Temo’s. To educate companies about the new power of the women’s market. To illuminate the differences between selling to men and selling to women. To help companies be more in touch with their consumers.

And today, we’re writing about it for the 100th time, a nice milestone to mark with a good story. Thanks for reading and thanks for creating more Womentum!

Are You A Makeinu?

We’ve been discussing powerful social forces in Japan that are changing their economic landscape. For the first time ever, women are now more economically powerful than men in that country. You can read more about that in my previous two posts. What we’re going to look at today are some brief snapshots from Advertising Age that profile seven groups that are challenging the social status quo with serious economic implications.

• Schoolgirls/teenagers. The true arbiters of cool with wads of disposable cash and a sphere of influence that spans the globe. Obsessed with novelty.

• Makeinu. Single women in their 30s who have opted to forego the traditional marriage-children route in favor of careers and self-indulgence. The word translates to “loser dogs” but these women have taken ownership of the word as they reinvent what it means to be a young woman in Japan.

• Parasite Singles. A subset of Makeinu, these young, single women live at home, have jobs and spend their money on themselves at luxury spas, adventure travel, and other lavish extravagances. Total spending power estimated at $6.5 billion.

• Divorcees. These Boomer Japanese women have shed their husbands who devoted their lifetimes to work and not to their families and personal relationships. Newly empowered, these women are affluent, independent and ready for new experiences that let them flex their new status.

• Freeters. Young men and women who are abandoning their parents’ work ethic, working part-time or starting their own businesses and living at home with their mom and dad to save money. Not wealthy, but trendsetters nonetheless. The rise in young women entrepreneurs will likely have long-lasting repercussions on the expectations of future generations of Japanese girls.

• Otaku. Mostly male anime comic geeks who are deeply involved in the subculture and spend richly on anime-associated products.

• Neets. Stands for “Not in education, employment or training.” These freeloaders are still on mom and dad’s payroll, don’t go to school, don’t work and well, don’t generally contribute much to society as a whole. Estimated at 850,000 and growing. Further evidence of the physics theory that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – this obviously reacting to the decades-long Japanese obsession with work first and foremost.

It’s getting interesting over there, folks. I’ll be watching with fascination as Japanese society weathers this latest cultural earthquake.

Japanese Women, Part 2

October 3, 2005

Yesterday we started talking about the rising economic power of Japanese women, and heck, I ran out of room. So here we are again, kids, with some additional insight into this new phenomenon. The source for this stuff is Advertising Age, so if you’re inclined to read the whole article, go check out the Sept. 19 edition.

According to the article, Japanese schoolgirls are an increasingly influential group with huge amounts of disposable income (as a teenager, isn’t it all disposable? Ah, for the good ole days of 100% disposable income…). These uber-hip teenagers prowl Tokyo’s uber-cool Harajuku district, but their influence spreads well beyond the country’s borders. Consider the popularity of Japanese anime in this country.

Their current obsession seems to be novelty, a trend that’s gotten so big there’s a word for it – otakuism. This pre-occupation with the latest and greatest is reflected on store shelves, where products are turned over at lightening pace. In the soft drink industry, for example, more than 1,000 new products are introduced each year and only three survive the brutal cut.

Another group that’s climbing up the influence ladder is recently divorced women. Japanese women are realizing that thanks to the “company man” behavior that was, and to some degree still is, expected of their husbands – spending more time working and socializing with their colleagues instead of their wives – has taken its toll and they no longer have anything in common. The Japanese term for it translates to “sticky leaves,” meaning retired husbands with no hobbies or outside interests.

Citigroup is addressing this new affluent demographic with a personal finance division with an all-female staff that delivers a message of positive empowerment and independence.

Dang. Here we are again at the end of a post and there’s still more to cover. So come on back again for a quick look at the seven groups that are steering Japanese culture away from traditional expectations.

Until then, here’s something to think about. What forces and groups of consumers in this country are redefining social norms? One example that springs immediately to mind is the new definition of family – if you look around, it’s not just mom, dad, 2.4 kids and a golden retriever named Buddy anymore. But a lot of advertising still clings to that old idea instead of reflecting today’s many different shapes of families – single parents, grandparents raising kids, blended race families, gay families, and singles. Are these new ideas reflected in your communications?