Parallel marketing universes

Part of my responsibilities over the years has been to represent Vibrant Women at marketing conferences. I present, I network, I absorb the latest intelligence to bring back to the team.

Normally, my travels take me to various cool spots around planet earth. I’ve been everywhere from Orlando and New York to a whirlwind tour of seven countries in Europe. But last week was a first. I went to a marketing conference that existed in parallel universes.

The universes existed side by side, separated only by a modest door. On the other side of the door: a room packed with marketing folks from many of the top brands, on the stage and in the audience. On this side of the door, free makeovers by one of the exhibitors: Lancome.

The event was the leading marketing to women conference in the country: M2W. Ironically, producer Nan McCann is “one of us.” She has deep roots in marketing to 50+ women, having produced Beyond the Numbers, which was advertising firm JWT’s now defunct but bold and pioneering effort to promote the size, dollars and viability of this powerhouse demographic.

Heck, she even featured a photo of an attractive woman with gray hair seated at her computer screen smack dab in the middle of her brochure. And, too, Stephen and I have been privileged to play expert roles at M2W. Last year, we each hosted subject-area tables on the subject of marketing to women 50+.

But this year was different. This was the year that if you are in the business of selling products and services, be it electronics, refrigerators, deodorant or automobiles, you have most likely taken up residence in the alternate universe where numbers have completely lost their meaning. On that side of the door, the same presenter can share solid research indicating that new moms are 5% of the marketing-to-woman universe, while women at midlife and beyond represent 62%, and then — defying logic — talk only about marketing to new moms.

Whether you’re speaking about the size of the markets, the discretionary dollars at stake, or who is influencing the purchases, the numbers tell one story — it’s obviously all about midlife women. Ignoring the data, marketer after marketer told another, “Here’s how you sell those electronics, refrigerators, deodorants, automobiles and cosmetics to new moms.” But that was all on the other side of the door.

On this side of the door, I re-entered the universe where things made sense again. Not at the hands of big-name brand marketers, but under the brush of cosmetologists Shelby and Simone.

On my stool, the two experts conferred as I shared my list of needs and wants. Of course there are the basics: I’d love my skin to look as vibrant as possible. But there are issues, too, most notably my perennially peeling nose. With precision, compassion and command of scientific language, they outfitted me with a new moisturizer, exfoliant, “replenishing serum” and something I thought I’d never spring for: a $35 tube of sunscreen with “mexoryl.”(I should note that I already swear by Lancome’s high-end Absolue moisturizer for day, but until Shelby explained it to me, had not yet sprung for Absolue for night.)

As Shelby punched in my purchases, a young mom took the stool next to me for her makeover. Before I could so much as whip my credit card out, the new mom was done. There was no competition for the calculator to total her purchases. She’d purchased exactly one item: the low-end all-in-one moisturizer/serum combo.

In my universe, I outspent the new mom 5 to 1. And this is not the exception. Be it automobiles, household appliances or travel to exotic locations, as a marketer, I’d take a Vibrant Woman consumer over a new mom, soccer mom or teenage girl any day.

It wouldn’t take much to open the door between alternate realities. In fact, marketers don’t even have to turn a knob. All they need to do is open their eyes.