By now, we all understand the WHY of marketing to women. But HOW do we successfully create brands for the female consumer that not only look good, but more important, trigger purchases? Renita Van Dusen, an expert in designing and marketing to women, walks us through some creative exercises and compelling case studies that showcase how to create brands that resonate.

Learn the importance of eliciting an emotional response through design. Understand how to create passion brands with the female consumer in mind. Discover that marketing to women isn’t a mystery, but rather a journey. Through fascinating stories of actual brand creation, walk through and uncover three simple steps to reach the most important audience your brand needs to reach: women.

Few marketers will dispute that WOM efforts have become inseparable from marketing to women strategies or that social media efforts should be added to the mix. 

A more relevant question today: is social media strictly a tool to facilitate and amplify word of mouth conversations about products and services or is it radically changing the dynamics of how women get and spread the word?  Furthermore, what makes a marketing message “spread worthy”? What is the optimal mix of social media vs. offline word of mouth activities that will convince women at different lifestages to share your story?

In this revealing session, Jeff Weiss and Deborah Adams of Harbinger unveil groundbreaking North American research into the changing dynamics of word of mouth marketing in the “real” and digital (social media) worlds.  Attendees will leave with a practical framework for applying offline and digital word of mouth marketing strategies specific to a variety of lifestages and product categories.

Join Fara Warner in the creation of her newest book about the power of women. Fara, author of the "The Power of the Purse," will present new insights and research that have inspired her to begin a new book on the world's most powerful economic force--women.

New research from around the world reveals that we are entering a time of exponential growth for women as an economic, social, and political force. No more are we looking at conservative, slow-growth gains for women in the marketplace, but huge leaps in power as the foundations we have built during the past 100 years serve as the catalyst for profound change in the 21st century. To research and report on this revolution, Fara will be looking to you and your social networks around the world to tell the stories of women in the 21st century.

After the conference, continue to join her at www.thepowerofthepurse.com for research, articles, and discussions driven by your conversations about women and their power in the 21st century.

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure - a three-day, 60-mile fundraising walk for breast cancer - faces the same challenges many brands face: tighter marketing budgets, consumer cut-backs and increased competition. Furthermore, the significant commitment of Komen 3-Day for the Cure participants (training to walk 60 miles and raising a minimum of $2300) positions the event as a premium player in the non-profit world. In order to expand marketing efforts to address these challenges, the Komen 3-Day for the Cure implemented a targeted social media strategy to engage customers on a grassroots level, solidify their commitment and provide them with a wide variety of content and tools to enhance their brand connection. Jennifer Cawley, VP, account director at Barkley, will discuss how the social media strategy was developed and how it relates to your brand.

Marketers feel the ground shifting beneath their feet. As consumers gain unparalleled access to and influence over brands, they form new expectations about brand relationships. How can business leaders best adapt from a campaign-driven paradigm to an always-on marketing ecosystem? Learn how brands can adapt and win in the Relationship Era™ by building sustainable relationships with consumers involving both high levels of transaction and trust.

Amanda Stevens is widely recognized as Australasia’s leading authority on marketing to women.

She is the CEO of Splash Consulting Group, a research, strategy, creative and PR firm with offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. Amanda is the creator of the SheMarketing methodology, which includes books, DVD’s and a broadcast qualitative research program called Shevesdrop.

Amanda is flying more than 9 thousand miles from Sydney to Chicago to share her agency’s latest research, case studies and learnings from their years of experience in Marketing To Women Down Under. Her energy, enthusiasm and humor make Amanda Stevens one of Australia’s highest-paid and most popular female speakers.

Amanda will share her thoughts on ‘The Danger of The Disconnect’ - how the experience economy is shaping the marketing to women space and how female consumer word of mouth can make or break a brand. Expect unique case study examples that introduce us to women consumers in Amanda’s part of the world and remind us about how much we have in common!

Don’t miss this session – it will challenge your thinking and deliver powerful take-away insights and practical ideas to dovetail into your existing marketing to women efforts in the U.S. and worldwide.

Investment in digital is moving beyond brand advertising to consumer engagement. Brands have long recognized the power of digital media to enhance targeting within their marketing mix, however proving the link between online community to impact brand preference and in store purchase has been more illusive. New innovative programs that expose targeted consumers to brands messaging and provide "calls to action" are measurably driving consumer preference as well as trackable sales. These new digital social shopping programs are delivering outstanding return andplaying an increasingly important role in the marketing mix. In this session featuring Aliza Freud, Matt Egol and Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, learn how marketers are taking advantage of these new social engagement opportunities and not only creating programs that deliver strong ROI but, are also building scalable brand preference and customer advocates.

At lunch on the second day of M2W®, we've added something extra to the menu: “delicious discussions”! A popular tradition, these lunch roundtables will be hosted by a marketing-to-women speaker or expert. This gives you another opportunity to drill down on a topic of interest to you, network with other attendees, and —in the dynamic of "dining & dishing"— to get better acquainted with the marketing experts at your table.

So, pick up your gourmet lunch, have a seat and join the conversation!

After a decade of interviewing 1000s of women for countless brand leaders, Mary Lou Quinlan & Tracy Chapman of the powerhouse consultancy, Just Ask A Woman, will expose the Half Truths that women are telling market researchers and show you how to dig deeper to get the truth of what your research is really saying.

Through dynamic cases and provocative videos, this engaging session will help you avoid the traps that waste research dollars and undermine strategies. Tapping into the findings of their groundbreaking new book, “What She’s Not Telling You”, co-authors Mary Lou & Tracy will show you how to build share and brand loyalty, while you drive sales based on the Whole Truths of what women are really saying about your brand!

Moderated by Tim Rumpler of imc2 this exclusive, M2W®-only, two-hour pre-con brand panel workshop will show you how to navigate your marketing communications through the latest social media and mobile marketing channels to engage women on a personal basis with your brand. Using real-world examples of successful campaigns you’ll see how to convert women from customers to brand evangelists. Marketing To Women 3.0 is a can’t miss kick-off to the 6th Annual M2W®.

In the brave new, ultra-fragmented, pixilated, news-in-a-nanosecond world of new media, cyber channels, and social media, through the miasma of WOM, and in spite of the decline of old media and the passing of printed text and POP, the marketing mix remains! So what’s a marketer to do? In this stunning case study of Hershey's Kisses Chocolate’s Holiday Cookie Exchange, Jonni Hegenderfer, CEO, Chief Vision Officer, and Founder of JSH&A will detail how this iconic brand integrated social media, traditional media, experiential and word-of-mouth to construct an award winning, benchmark 360° marketing to women campaign. Everything old is new again in this spell-binding study with immediate takeaways for your brand.

What segment of the population is large, loyal, has significant spending power and is screaming to be marketed to?  It’s the approximately 28 Million women who have a disability. The disability community is now considered to be the largest and fastest growing minority market in the world. Learn from industry export, Nadine Vogel, about this market that has a discretionary annual spend of over $200 billion dollars and yet is largely ignored by Corporate America.  These women have the same interests as the general population but they have unique needs relative to those interests and want to be spoken to in a way that conveys that their needs are understood and their business is desired. Not in spite of, but because of those needs.  The best part about marketing to this large, loyal segment of the population is not only that it is “the right thing to do”, it’s a “good thing to do” for purposes of revenue generation. 

Lancome, a division of L’Oreal has experienced the incredible business benefits of marketing to these women, first hand.  Ed Bullock will describe how creating a special event for women who have disabilities, adding a beautiful gift, and Lancome Boutique employees who are specially trained on Disability Etiquette & Awareness, results in a very successful, fun-filled and memorable shopping experience.

“If the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female. If the business world had a sex, it would be male. And therein lies the pickle.” And so begins Bridget Brennan’s new book, Why She Buys, which has been called "essential reading" by the Wall Street Journal and "required reading for anyone burdened with a Y chromosome" by Fortune Small Business. In this illuminating session, Bridget outlines the most important macro trends driving female consumers, which are key to determining their wants and needs. From more women in the labor force to delayed marriages, high divorce rates, more time spent as "singletons" and an aging population, the opportunities are enormous for companies that understand where women are going.

Day 1: (Understanding How She Buys)

Female entrepreneurs contribute $3 trillion dollars to the US economy and their numbers are growing dramatically.  These women not only make purchasing decisions for their businesses but also their households – so win their loyalty in business and benefit by getting their personal spending too.  In this session, Michele Dekinder-Smith will share insights from research with female entrepreneurs about how they make purchases in a wide variety of categories, including “everyday” business needs, big ticket purchases, and selecting vendor partners for services or products integrated into their own offerings.  Attend this session and understand what female entrepreneurs are thinking about when they make buying decisions, the “deal-breakers” that will cause you to lose their business, and how you can win their loyalty.

Day 2: (Understanding Who She Is)

Female entrepreneurs contribute $3 trillion dollars to the US economy and their numbers are growing dramatically.  But these women are not all created equally!  Jane Out of the Box research has uncovered five unique segments of female entrepreneurs – each with different needs and expectations from your business.  In this lively session, Michele will introduce you to the five types of entrepreneurial women via video vignettes, while rich discussion shows how understanding these segments will help you better tap into their purchasing power by creating products, services, and messages that truly resonate with the most profitable segments for your business. 

Your female customers are talking, Tweeting, texting and tubing (YouTubing, that is) and they have a lot to say. Do you, as a marketer, hear them? Do you care? What impact does that input have on your company? How are you changing the way you do business as a result of listening to consumers? How do you let them know you’ve heard them? Have you joined the conversation? How do you measure this activity?

These are questions that women are asking of your business or brand. If you don’t hear them, then you are not listening well enough. There are more channels than ever before to listen to opinions, recommendations and dissatisfactions, and those channels are available to you and to your consumers. Active and real-time listening is critical to succeed in marketing with women.

But, listening is the easy part. Joining the conversation and making changes based on that listening is much more difficult, but can be the lynchpin in engaging women in your brand. Your consumers should be helping to manage your brands through improved product development and more relevant marketing and communications.

Companies that have been successful in marketing with women are doing both.

Kelley Skoloda, partner at Ketchum and author of Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women, will host a panel discussion with companies that are both listening and adapting to better succeed with their female consumers.

The only thing more difficult than building a new brand is changing an existing one. This is especially true for companies that operate in a category where the perception among women can range from skeptical to downright hostile.   Midas needed to be different.  In this session, Garry Rosenfeldt will share how marketing research at Midas lead the way to a corporate-wide policy shift toward designing, implementing and sustaining a superior customer experience that not only addressed the needs of the woman consumer, but lifted the entire brand along the way.

These days, with extra pressure to stretch every dollar of your budget, wouldn't it be great to have a short list of easy fixes that made every element of your marketing mix work harder - without costing one extra dime? Then be sure to get the hand-out from this presentation, because that's exactly what you'll be taking back from the conference!

In this second day opening keynote, Marti Barletta, the woman who literally wrote the book on marketing to women, gives you a check-list of tips and tactics you can put into practice the day you get back to work. Inspired by the paradoxical dynamic highlighted in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and in Tom Peters' brand new release, 163 little BIG Things, these pragmatic techniques demand little planning but deliver a big pay-off. Aimed at savvy marketers who realize that while women are complicated, marketing to women doesn't have to be, this session will smooth your re-entry to the office with surprisingly simple tools that transform a modest effort into a major impact.

What would a bank be like if it was designed around females’ relationship to money? What's a superhero for girls vs. a girl superhero? What suit makes a millennial female feel powerful, and does it show curves? We don't know the answers to these questions, or to countless other just like these. However, if you did you could unlock massive economic opportunities.

In this talk, Heidi Dangelmaier shows you how to approach innovation from an entirely different vantage point. She will share with you Girlapproved, a new invention paradigm for females that she invented after collaborating with hundreds of young female creatives.

When it comes to “What a woman wants”, there are untapped business opportunities everywhere. This workshop will open your eyes to exciting possibilities and introduce you to a new way of thinking, researching and innovating.

ConAgra Foods has called on House Party more than once to help them connect with their brands’ target consumer:  women. And what better way than in-home parties? House Party, the company that pioneered the fusion of in-home and digital marketing, specializes in engaging thousands of qualified consumer advocates to host in-home parties where a brand or product is at the center of the party. Managed via a proprietary, customized online community space for each brand event, the parties enable consumers to engage both in-home and online to explore and promote brands they love. Kitty Kolding of House Party and Genevieve Mazzeo of ConAgra Foods will share how ConAgra Foods has utilized insights-driven marketing to engage different facets of women through their House Party events.

Take a closer look at the high growth segment of U.S. Latina women and how they manifest their culture and brand choices across many industries such as the beauty, health care, food, automotive, and financial services.  Understand why marketing to the 23 million Latinas in the U.S. is key to securing long-term growth for your brand.  In this panel session, moderated by Miriam Muley, learn startling facts from a panel of experts about consumption patterns for Latinas, media usage, and successful sales strategies, including why in-culture branding is a fundamental differentiator for growth.