Kelley Skoloda Publishes New Book, Too Busy to Shop, to Explain How to Connect With "Multi-Minding" Women

 

Contacts:         

Mike Banas                                                      

Ketchum                                                              

+1-312-228-6924                                                  

                                       

Alicia Stetzer

Ketchum

+1-646-935-3910

 

 

New York and Pittsburgh, April 6, 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 -- who control 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.

           

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, especially those between the ages of 25 and 54, are busier than ever juggling their lives at work and at home and don’t respond to the tried and true marketing approaches,” said Skoloda. “Marketers need to rethink their ideas about a 24-hour day and find an appropriate place for their messages. And given women’s buying power, if marketers aren’t targeting women in this economy, they’ll lose.”

 

Based on current trends and the input of experts interviewed in the book, Too Busy to Shop enables readers to learn how to connect with multi-minding women, gain their trust, and tap into their purchasing power. Besides theory and insight, readers 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, 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 New York, Chicago and Dallas. The RSVP-only New York event will take place at 4 p.m., April 16, at Ketchum’s headquarters in New York and will include Skoloda; Jonathan Kopp, global director, Ketchum Digital; Janet Riccio, executive vice president, Omnicom Group, and CEO, G23; and Emily McKhann, CEO and co-founder of the Web site The Motherhood. As space for this event is limited, media members and marketers interested in attending must RSVP by April 14 to Hayley McLaughlin at +1-646-935-4104 or hayley.mclaughlin@ketchum.com. 

 

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 Busy to Shop and Skoloda, please visit www.ketchum.com/brand or www.ketchum.com/women. 

 

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.