Lifetime VP: Avoid stereotyping women

PROVIDENCE – Businesses marketing to women should forget about the usual stereotypes of working moms and stay-at-home housewives because, according to a vice president of research for Lifetime Networks, they simply do not apply any longer.
Modern women today consider themselves more than just wives or mothers or even career professionals, usually taking on all three roles and more in hectic lives whose exceptional busyness a woman will wear as a “badge of honor,” according to Betsy Rella of Lifetime, a multi-entertainment company best known for its television network of the same name.
The goal of marketers should be “to make their busy lives easier,” Rella said, and show how a business can provide products and services that allow women to save two precious commodities: money and time.
Rella on Friday morning presented a “FemiNation Forum” at Johnson & Wales University’s Harborside Campus, attended by about 60 people and sponsored by Cox Communications and the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales.
Based in New York City, Rella said Lifetime Network regularly surveys women through research departments in New York and Los Angeles. “We’re constantly in the field, talking to women,” she said, to help the network program better and to learn more about the network’s target audience of females aged 18 to 49.
Compared to even 10 years ago, women today are more in control of their personal lives, feel more secure in the financial arena in spite of the recession and, in the workplace, “feel as if the glass ceiling is breaking down,” Rella told the gathering.
More women than men have high school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees today and, “for the first time ever,” women make up more of the workforce than men, Rella said. Some 7.7 million businesses in the nation are majority-owned by women, a 42 percent increase over the last decade, according to Rella. In terms of buying power, women make 85 percent of all household purchasing decisions, ranging from the choice of a cable television provider to the best place to go on vacation, Rella said.
Forget the myth about women lacking technical expertise.
Women in the target age group are fully plugged into the new technology, such as smart phones and iPods, and use these devices in practical ways, to simplify their lives and accomplish more, Rella said. For instance, in response to a question from the audience, Rella said, use of money-saving coupons is “exploding right now” among all sectors and women, in particular, will go online to find coupons rather than clip magazines and newspapers. Stay-at-home moms often will turn to their computers and cell phones to find ways to make money from home, she noted, or locate delivery services that reduce the amount of time needed for such essentials as grocery shopping.
Business owner Cathy Corey has two Curves franchises, located in Middletown and Portsmouth. After hearing Rella speak Friday, she said she will better target her marketing for the women’s fitness centers by focusing on value and time-saving. Corey excitedly discussed tactics she is considering to attract more professional women. “I will be more aggressive about offering a corporate program,” she said, already planning visits to such women-friendly workplaces as banks and government agencies.