Friday, June 24, 2011

Banikarim on women, and the perils of shopping

"For many women," Chief Marketing Officer Maryam Banikarim writes in a recent MediaPost article, "shopping is not the carefree, blissful experience" often depicted in advertisements.

Banikarim
"In reality, it is anxiety-laden and fraught with peril at each step. Women fully grasp the shopping environment and purchase process -- from coupons and deals to return policies and guarantees. Each purchase is weighed against their chances of gaming 'the system' to their advantage versus becoming prey to it. Should I buy this now? Is it the best deal I can get? What could I be missing out on? These questions are all top of mind for the household’s chief purchasing officer."

She offers nine tips for advertisers in the full article, here.

21 comments:

  1. I will declare first that I am a male, and I found that posting insightful. I hate shopping and do anything I can to avoid it, which is why Amazon.Com is made for me.
    I would be interested if females felt the same way.

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  2. I totally agree! Shopping for women is horrible, returns are worse.

    I tried to take my wife back and all her family would give me was store credit.

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  3. 7:32 Oh, snort. Thank you. I've re-written the headline on this post.

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  4. Nothing like breaking news. That article came out 9 days ago.

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  5. 8:08: Unfortunately, like the rest of the world, everyone has been a little busy finding out whose life Gannett was ruining to notice. I'm thinking shopping takes a back seat to that news.

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  6. What's new here? The "tools"? Madison Avenue has targeted women since the post-war era.
    Gender stereotyping for the new millenium. Lovely. Shopping isn't a "game" or emotional experience for some of us. It's a chore.

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  7. Who's going to be first to call her a lousy b@&*$? Because we all know that readers here know every strong female exec is a b#&*@. And Jim loves allowing personal attacks (check any recent thread for proof). So start attacking now!

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  8. 9:05,
    What's REALLY news here is we might finally have a CMO who can put a few sentences together for the industry's media outlets. This company has zero image among national advertisers other than the one created by its salespeople on the front lines. Senior management has done absolutely nothing to help in this area. Maybe, just maybe, Banikarim can do this. She'd be the first.

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  9. Perhaps Ms. Banikarim can turn her attention to the masterpiece we call the USA TODAY Media Lounge. We should probably decide if our tagline is "What America Wants" or "We're All in this Together." Remnants of misguided marketing management of the past....and present. Geez.

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  11. Heh 9:27 we've never had a CMO before. Just saying

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  12. please explain what this has to do with being Gannett CMO? Does she need something to do within her free time? I do see a future for her as a columnist to Your Life at USA Today. Heather Frank are you around to pay attention? But I am sure our Gannett CMO sees greater exposure with Media Post, whatever that is, than with the shameful Your Life.

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  14. Haven't you heard? Hunke is spending 100K in Cannes courting advertisers. Im sure there will be a massive payoff worthy of a big 2011 bonus.

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  15. Maryam is trying to communicate with active marketers in this company, and about the only way she could find them was through this barely active blog. I don't find this to be any big deal, but she needs to coordinate and find the people out there doing marketing, which (thanks to the way this company operates) might have other titles and duties. It's all as clear as glass when you consider that Robin Pence has a title of p.r. head, yet is involved in designing a branding campaign, and is a personal confidant of Gracia. Robin also is jealous of Maryam's new job, which she wanted, and so Maryam has to go around her instead of through her. Geez.

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  16. Women shop, men hunt.

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  17. 9:27: I don't think I've seen anyone call Maryam a bad name on this blog. I've seen a lot of people expressing their hope that she will somehow save this company from the morons who are slowly killing it off. Maybe the women who have been called B**##es on this blog are truly that. Seems like the guys in corporate have put their female pitbulls into the sites to do their dirty work. If you are one of the women that has been called a B**##, maybe you ought to look at your management style, look at yourself in the mirror and see if you can live with the way you act. It's not necessary to be a pitbull. Maryam seems like a very intelligent woman and from what I've been told, she is very kind hearted. I know, a rarity in this company. Every manager should strive for that reputation. It has been stated before, it doesn't have to be managers against employees. We're all in this together.

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  18. Lets hear it for powerful, creative, dynamic women. Hip hip hooray!

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  19. I really hope Maryam is building some kind of base that leads to concrete marketing deals and business for Garnett. I want to believe in this woman and that he r marketing blogging and in house travelogue are more of a hobby than job function.

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  20. 2:33 To reiterate what I've said many times in the past, I remove all comments that include the word, bitch.

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  21. We are all drowning, and we know it. So we are grabbing at anything that passes by that is promising. Maybe it's straw we are grabbing for, but maybe something else. We are all hoping it is something else, because we all know the eventual outcome.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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