Kelley Skoloda Discusses Her New Book, Too Busy to Shop, in Dallas on April 22

Contact:         

Teri Daley

Ketchum

+1-469-939-3712

teri.daley@ketchum.com 

 

 

Dallas, April 21, 2009 – Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women, a just-released book by Praeger Publishers, reveals what marketers and business owners need to know and do to capture the purchasing power of today’s most coveted buying audience – women. Given today’s economy and intense competition for every consumer dollar, marketing to women – which includes a group that controls 85 percent of all consumer purchases and a growing number of business purchases – is an activity that must be done well. Indeed, according to The Economist, recession-hit companies are increasingly targeting female customers in an effort to improve their sales.

 

The book will be introduced at a book signing and discussion in Dallas on Wednesday, April 22. The RSVP-only event will take place at 6 p.m. at CADD Art Lab, 1608-C Main Street. As space for this event is limited, media members and marketers interested in attending must RSVP to Jessica Lindsey at +1-214-259-3424 or jessica.lindsey@ketchum.com.  

 

Called a “must read” and “a treasure trove of timely insights” by Publishers Weekly, Too Busy to Shop explores one of the biggest challenges in marketing to women today: multi-minding. Multi-minding – mentally juggling a complex mix of family, career and self-care decisions at any given moment with little time for attention to commercial messages – is a cultural phenomenon that adds to the complexity in reaching women today.

           

Written by Ketchum Global Brand Marketing Practice Director and marketing expert Kelley Murray Skoloda, Too Busy to Shop offers advice to more effectively reach female consumers through interviews with some of the most experienced and knowledgeable experts in the field. With a foreword by Geraldine Laybourne, the former CEO of the Oxygen network, the book is based on research, interviews, and Skoloda’s 20 years of leading-edge work in brand marketing with major clients. Skoloda’s book builds on her decades of experience working with clients who market to women. The concept of multi-minding is based on proprietary research and insights undertaken to develop Ketchum’s Women 25to54 offering.

 

“Women in the South and all across the world are busier than ever juggling their lives at work and at home; they don’t respond to the tried-and-true marketing approaches,” said Skoloda. “And given their buying power, if marketers aren’t targeting women effectively, they’ll lose.”

 

Based on current trends and the input of experts interviewed in the book, the book allows readers to learn how to connect with multi-minding women, gain their trust, and tap into their purchasing power. Besides theory and insight, readers will get how-to’s and action items, packaged as “M² Must-Dos,” designed to ensure women view their brands favorably and "hear" the marketing message. Too Busy to Shop also predicts what the future of marketing to women will look like – namely, consumer co-brand management. In addition, the book contains insiders' views of some of the most successful marketing-to-women campaigns of recent times.

 

Interviewees include Hedy Lukas, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications, Kimberly-Clark Corporation; Mark Baynes, Global CMO of Kellogg Company; Susan Molinari, Senior Principal, Bracewell & Giuliani; Denis Darragh, General Manager, Forbo Flooring Systems, North America and Asia; Dale Bornstein, Senior Partner and Director of Global Practices, Ketchum; Stacy DeBroff, CEO and founder, Mom Central; Marti Barletta, CEO and founder, TrendSight Group, and author of Prime Time Women; Amy Keroes, founder and CEO, Mommytrackd; Janet Riccio, Executive Vice President, Omnicom Group, and CEO, G23; and Paul Rand, President and CEO, Zócalo Group. Local launch events and book signings are scheduled in Dallas, Chicago and New York.

 

Too Busy to Shop is published by Praeger Publishers, a part of the Greenwood Publishing Group. Among other outlets, the book is available at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and at www.greenwood.com. For more information about Too to Busy to Shop and Skoloda, please visit www.ketchum.com/multiminding.  

 

Kelley Skoloda is an MBA, author and public relations executive in Pittsburgh, Pa. She is currently a partner and director of Ketchum’s Global Brand Marketing Practice. A recognized authority on marketing to women, Skoloda and her work have been widely covered in the media, including BusinessWeek Online, Brandweek, CNNMoney.com, Today’s Chicago Woman, The Washington Post, PRWeek and others.

 

Skoloda was named one of the most influential women in business in the Pittsburgh region by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in its “Women at the Helm” special edition. She has served on the advisory board for Pink magazine and is featured in a BBC-produced television show, “Beat the Boss,” which is airing in the winter and spring of 2009 on the BBC. Skoloda’s blog, Too Busy to Shop, http://toobusytoshop.blogspot.com, helped to collect input from women for Too Busy to Shop: Marketing to Multi-Minding Women.

 

Skoloda earned her MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and her undergraduate degree from Seton Hill University.

 

A communications innovator, Ketchum ranks among the largest global public relations agencies, operating in more than 50 countries. With five global practices – Brand Marketing, Corporate, Healthcare, Food and Nutrition, and Technology – and specialty capabilities that include Access Communications (high- and consumer-tech PR), Concentric Communications (experiential marketing, events and meetings), MMG (clinical trial recruitment), Ketchum Global Research Network, Ketchum Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and Stromberg Consulting (change management and workplace communications), Ketchum leverages its marketing and corporate communication expertise to build brands and reputations for clients. In 2009, Advertising Age named Ketchum to its annual “Ones to Watch” Agency A-List, noting the agency’s long-standing client partnerships, digital and disruptive media expertise, and CSR and sustainability programming. For more information on Ketchum, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), visit www.ketchum.com.