Customer Reviews

Eveolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

7 Stars *******

I am a big Faith Popcorn fan. That led me to go into reading this book with high expectations. What a great deal it was to have those expectations well exceeded!

Tom Peters first raised the theme of this book in his book, The Circle of Innovation. The vast bulk of most consumer purchases are either made or strongly influenced by women. Stop marketing generally, and be sure you marketing is gender friendly in the broadest sense. But Tom, as a man, could only take that point so far.

Faith Popcorn has really explained it very well. She has identified 8 key principles:

(1) Women link (the marketer's job is to make that easier for women -- witness the success of women-only Web sites)

(2) Serve all of a woman's needs, not just the ones she has part of the day (if she needs convenient ordering, be sure to offer everything she wants to buy conveniently -- take-out foods for all meals)

(3) Women want their needs anticipated (if she has to tell you what she wants, it's all over -- lots of work, stress, home responsibilities and money mean that home spas are doing well)

(4) Use the indirect approach (women prefer to notice things on their own and apply them, rather than getting a direct, hard sell -- women notice institutional appliances in great restaurants and put them into their own kitchens)

(5) Go to her and make it easy (witness the success of at-home direct selling)

(6) Sell one generation of women, and you get the next as well (see how children now dress like adults at a very young age, because Mom and daughter want to look like each other)

(7) Take on a role as a trustworthy adult to help women, and they will link with your brand (GE Financial Assurance provides a mentor role for women entrepreneurs)

(8) All the details matter (organic foods are taking off because they are healthier, even though very expensive).

As interesting as these points are, Faith Popcorn also deserves praise for the superb way she explains her ideas. In the beginning of the book, she has one example of each concept. Then there is a chapter on each principle. The chapter has many examples, and finalizes with one thorough one drawn from her consulting experience. Then, to be sure you've got the point, she takes well-known brands in each chapter and points out what they are NOT doing that they should be.

The crowning glory is a chapter on all of the things that Ron Perelman and Revlon are doing wrong, and compares it with how the brand was run originally. Faith couldn't find much of anything she likes about the Revlon approach. As a matter of fact, the company has done poorly.

But, at a broader level, this book is also about marketing in the 21st century. Although the focus of the book is women, those who market to men will often benefit from following the same advice. Saturn, a role model she describes, is not just appealing to women. Men like to be treated like people, too, when they buy a car. As a loyal Saturn owner, I know the approach worked well with me.

I can hardly wait for her next book! Have a great time as marketers begin to apply these principles, providing a better consumer experience for customers and more business success for their companies.

One trend she did not explicitly address are the many consumer goods companies that are converting to having mostly women in product design and marketing. That should help, too.

I used to look forward to Faith Popcorn's books. This one, like the others, is well-written in her typical chatty, breezy style. But in the end, "EVEolution" is tired and unoriginal in both concept and approach. Even the title appears to be recycled from a 1989 book by Ken Brown entitled "Adam and Eveolution". And it goes downhill from there. Much of "EVEolution" reads like the stale monologue of a middle-aged comic (Women always go to the bathroom together! Women chat endlessly with anyone, even waiters! Women are REALLY, REALLY DIFFERENT from men! ). While this routine may seem insightful to some poor souls, I found it boring and mildly offensive - certainly no basis for seriously addressing the marketing strategies required to attract and keep female customers. There is very little substance behind the anecdotes here. Instead, the reader is force-fed a major serving of highly annoying and rather meaningless Popcornesque marketing jargon. Socioquake. Excuse me? EVESdropping. Oh, please. How about FaithFatigue?

As a woman (and businesswoman), I considered this book offensive. To say I bond with the brands I buy is laughable. I buy products (not brands) for what they can do for me, not what they sell to me. I do not "bond" with them emotionally. And I do not look to them to solve life's problems. Example: The authors tout the idea that the makers of a diet cookie can somehow improve the bonds between mothers and daughters by holding seminars under that cookie's banner. It is a sad day when mother/daughter relationships are facilitated by blatant marketing. This book is wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. End of story.

EVEolution is a case of spin over substance. Popcorn and Marigold's incessant jargon creation (FutureScape, TrendProbe, SocioQuake, EVEsdropping) rob their ideas of any real power. Once past the packaging, it quickly becomes clear that EVEolution is built on a shaky assumption. Popcorn and Marigold argue that "Women don't buy brands; they join them." While some of the techniques described in the book are innovative and even interesting, they ignore the simple fact that women are smart enough to know the difference between an invitation to "join" and a sales pitch.

I second the "Stale Popcorn" review below -- I'm a woman, and I don't "bond" with the brands/products I use. Nor do I run and tell everyone I know they should use them too (even if I'm happy with the product or service).

But, aside from that, some of Faith's ideas are downright wacky! Email access in department store fitting rooms? (p. 89) (It's supposed to make shopping less stressful -- but what's the point?)

Hallmark should turn their web site into a "feelings exchange"? This will "recapture.. the high-ground lost to.. Internet communities". Huh? Wouldn't a "feelings exchange" just be another kind of Internet chat? And if you're expressing your own feelings in your own words, why buy the Hallmark card?

How 'bout (on p. 49) "Office Depot should become Life Depot". Faith suggests that a woman business-owner should be able to order "a case of Coke [and a bottle of] Shout stain remover" with her ink cartridges. So companies should ignore their own "bottom lines", stockholders and mission statements to become glorified go-fers? Would that really keep women running to Office Depot rather than a competitor?

But my favorite is on page 118: "Consider the parking lot as the...last uncharted territory... Large product renderings [such as Cheerios and Snapple], interpreted by well-known artists, could be painted in each parking spot... This would be far more exciting than ugly blacktop." Ugh! Aren't we already inundated by "product placement"?

My suggestion -- hang on to your money and skip this book.

Put simply, this book is to marketing what astrology is to astronomy. Basically Faith Popcorn seems to sit down at a cafe, watch people do things and randomly interpret it into a "trend". I know this is not supposed to be a master thesis, but you need a little bit more than a vivid imagination to write a serious book.

Here's a bonus trend: 4 out of five MBA's from my class thought the Faith Popcorn site was a humour site.

This book deserves more than five stars!

I am a big Faith Popcorn fan. That led me to go into reading this book with high expectations. What a great deal it was to have those expectations well exceeded!

Tom Peters first raised the theme of this book in his book, The Circle of Innovation. The vast bulk of most consumer purchases are either made or strongly influenced by women. Stop marketing generally, and be sure you marketing is gender friendly in the broadest sense. But Tom, as a man, could only take that point so far.

Faith Popcorn has really explained it very well. She has identified 8 key principles:

(1) Women link (the marketer's job is to make that easier for women -- witness the success of women-only Web sites)

(2) Serve all of a woman's needs, not just the ones she has part of the day (if she needs convenient ordering, be sure to offer everything she wants to buy conveniently -- take-out foods for all meals)

(3) Women want their needs anticipated (if she has to tell you what she wants, it's all over -- lots of work, stress, home responsibilities and money mean that home spas are doing well)

(4) Use the indirect approach (women prefer to notice things on their own and apply them, rather than getting a direct, hard sell -- women notice institutional appliances in great restaurants and put them into their own kitchens)

(5) Go to her and make it easy (witness the success of at-home direct selling)

(6) Sell one generation of women, and you get the next as well (see how children now dress like adults at a very young age, because Mom and daughter want to look like each other)

(7) Take on a role as a trustworthy adult to help women, and they will link with your brand (GE Financial Assurance provides a mentor role for women entrepreneurs)

(8) All the details matter (organic foods are taking off because they are healthier, even though very expensive).

As interesting as these points are, Faith Popcorn also deserves praise for the superb way she explains her ideas. In the beginning of the book, she has one example of each concept. Then there is a chapter on each principle. The chapter has many examples, and finalizes with one thorough one drawn from her consulting experience. Then, to be sure you've got the point, she takes well-known brands in each chapter and points out what they are NOT doing that they should be.

The crowning glory is a chapter on all of the things that Ron Perelman and Revlon are doing wrong, and compares it with how the brand was run originally. Faith couldn't find much of anything she likes about the Revlon approach. As a matter of fact, the company has done poorly.

But, at a broader level, this book is also about marketing in the 21st century. Although the focus of the book is women, those who market to men will often benefit from following the same advice. Saturn, a role model she describes, is not just appealing to women. Men like to be treated like people, too, when they buy a car. As a loyal Saturn owner, I know the approach worked well with me.

I can hardly wait for her next book! Have a great time as marketers begin to apply these principles, providing a better consumer experience for customers and more business success for their companies.

One trend she did not explicitly address are the many consumer goods companies that are converting to having mostly women in product design and marketing. That should help, too.

I suggest that you also think about what trends may emerge for women in the future, and begin to serve the needs that those trends create. For example, families are getting smaller. How can you make your products and services fit the one child family better?

I can't get over the preachy ... about how all men can do in the home is "breathe" and women do everything; women-think is a million times better than man-think, yadda yadda. She is a sexist bigot ranting about the feminist takeover, like some cartoon from the late 70's.

She has some Archie Bunker throwback mentality about the typical household. As a male, I (and all my male friends) share equally in the chores, including grocery shopping, house-cleaning, dish-washing, laundry, bill-paying, child-care and chauffeur etc. I guess she thinks I'm my father, sitting in front of the tube.

I do agree that men and women think differently; that is supported by hard evidence in brain scans, but she is as full of ...to claim the female method is superior as I would be to claim the male method were superior. I prefer to think they complement each other.

She is inconsistent. In one chapter she lauds the female method of shopping as being absorbed and paying attention to details, clearly implying males are apes in the mall. Elsewhere she claims the opposite is true when shopping for cars. The REAL truth is we both are absorbed and pay attention to details when we shop for something we know and understand and feel is important, but Faith doesn't get that, she can't take off her unrelentingly feminist goggles for long enough to see anything from a male point of view, or even a gender-neutral POV.

Also inconsistent: In a later chapter she gives a list of all the things an eighteen year-old has never used: Rotary dial telephone, 45 record, etc. This after suggesting in an earlier chapter that Mr. Potato Head's kid could be called Spud-nik. How many 5-7 year olds have heard of Sputnik? Or for that matter, how much of the target audience even knows that "Spud" is synonymous with "Potato"? How does this name get any traction after the joke?

She doesn't have a clue about technology. It is utter BS to say virtually all purchases will be web-based in ten years. No way in hell.

She is uninformed. She thinks Consumer Reports should sell the items they review, when a cornerstone of CR's subscriber relationship is objectivity and refusal to even take ads that might suggest anything other than objectivity in their ratings.

She is impractical, seeming hung up on things that would make her wealthy lifestyle easier for her without any regard to the costs or how that is going to be profitable. She mentions some "home altar" numerous times as if all women are naturally religious, it is irritating. (At least four of the women I know are confirmed atheists). Yes, statistically women are more religiously committed than men are, but I don't know any pining for a home altar.

Her fantasies about future marketing are laughable -- Touch the screen and Calista Flockhart will turn into your own personal salesgirl for the garment she is wearing; complete with full knowledge of your closet inventory, itinerary and personal tastes. Ha! At the current exponential pace of technological development Calista Flockhart will be 100 years old before that is even remotely possible; and then it won't be necessary because other developments will make the idea moot. When AI are capable of controlling virtual actors to that degree of sophistication, they will likewise be able to find clothes for you that you are in love with; and understand you when you say "I like that dress!" while watching the show and add it to its repertoire.

In other words, most of the many off-the-cuff ideas she has are junk; as if she did not spend even ten minutes investigating the practicality or ramifications of them.

Overall this book is too much of a slog for a few interesting case studies. I bought this book because I liked "The Popcorn Report" and kind of liked "Clicking", but I'm sorry I spent the money on it.

Maybe Faith has reached the end of her relevance.

The book is largely subjective, and not really a guide to help you understand how to market to women. Don't get me wrong, you can pick up some useful tips. But the fanciful dreams of future marketing are very unrealistic.

One of the main concepts is cross-marketing products and services to your target customer. But the author does not seem to realize that a company which is the best at one thing, isn't necessarily going to be any good at something else, and usually isn't. The author seems to think that women want to buy their business stationery from the same company that sells them diapers, a new car, cosmetics, fresh flowers, and sanitary products. No company will be the best at all those things, or even competent. More options does not always translate to BETTER options, but the author doesn't acknowledge this much.

In general, I found the book impractical, unhelpful for the most part, preachy, and condescending (her "speeches" are pretty much directed toward men, and doesn't seem to realize that a woman may be reading it).

I really do not recommend this book for anyone looking for current ways to market to women, or wanting to know the REAL trends of future marketing.

Faith Popcorn's EVEolution lays out some very important, practical principles (she calls them truths) for effectively marketing to women. How one would deliver on the truths of connecting women to each other, marketing to all of her lives, making sure she doesn't have to ask, marketing to her peripheral vision, etc. will be very different for a personal care brand versus money management brand. Nevertheless, if appropriately applied, these truths can make a brand more successful. I have seen results first hand.

The key to getting through this book is keeping the above in mind while wading through what in the end should be considered several minor flaws, even though they tend to dominate the pages of the book.

Notwithstanding several good case examples (e.g., Saturn), the book is filled with an array of very loosely thought out ideas that are so easy to poke holes into, they may leave the reader questioning whether or not following the truths really works.

Faith also, based on my marketing experience, correctly claims that "women don't bond with brands that market to them in an overly aggressive way. A full frontal attack isn't the way to turn a woman on." However, the entire book is presented via an "in your face" approach, which will likely turn off some women (and some men for that matter).

And finally, Faith attempts to make the case that women are superior to men... on all levels. I would agree that women are superior in many aspects, but they are neither superior nor inferior overall. This approach tends to diminish her credibility.

Nevertheless, Faith has keen insight into the way women think and operate. It's really true that "women don't buy brands, they join brands." Therefore, we must do all we can to join our brands in every way possible. Faith's 8 Essential Truths provide unique insight on how to achieve this. Creative, appropriate application of these principles to your band or business is up to you. It actually takes hard work, but as I said before, it will deliver results. For this reason alone, the book is well worth reading.