Les Girls

An avid reader of the New York Times and other trade and consumer publications, I pick up bits and pieces of marketing data and information that only bring forth the big picture when synthesized--one of the primary purposes of this blog.

Recently, a lot of information is hitting the media about girls and their mothers. To no surprise, women are attracted to the internet in droves, particularly to the high content and social networking sites. In the '80's, as editor of Catalog Age magazine (now called Mulit-Channel Merchant), I was repeatedly given new media demonstrations, sponsored by anyone seeking press, but most notably IBM at the time (It was pushing Prodigy--remember that--along with Sears). To IBM back then--and to so many others I can recall--I said that the web and e-commerce developers need to address the behaviors and attitudes of women before this channel would come into its own, providing avenues for reading, browsing, shopping, networking (gossiping)--the traditional domains of women.

Women's shopping behavior is not always "go-and-get" (or click), the hunt. It's foraging--browse and buy, compare and enjoy, especially with your friends. Now that the internet has adopted many of these more female behavioral modes into their sites--and as the social networks have evolved--women are becoming a dominant emarket source.

For example: (95% of mothers go online at least once a day--Source: MarketTools (San Francisco). According to a recent article in the NYT ("Sorry, Boys, This is Our Domain"):
". . . a study published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among Web users ages 12 to 17, signficantly more girls than boys blog (35 percent of girls compared with 20 percent of boys) and create or work their own Web pages (32 percent of girls compared with 22 percent of boys).

Girls also eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70 percent of girsl 15 to 17 have one, versus 57 percent of boys 15 to 17). Video posting was the sole area in which boys outdid girls: boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.

Object-oriented behavior vs. love of narrative? You be the judge.

On a tangentially related topic: Tween girls behavior is pretty contradictory. Of course, they're 'tweens. Contrast the website www.stardoll.com/en/ with KGOY (kids getting older younger)phenomenon. At the Swedish site Stardoll, the average age of the girl visitor is 13.8, and she spends 2-2.5 hours a day at the site putting together virtual paper dolls, many of which are celebs, or decking herself out a "MeDoll." The site has 7.9 million unique visitors/month and is published in 15 languages.

Full-blown KGOY, with its accompanying indulgent "helicopter" parents and grandparents, is on view in the newest fad--make-up and "make-over" parties for little girls, some as young as 3 years old. Having a "primping party"--spa b-day parties for grade schoolers--is the new cool among a certain set of girls, with stores like Sweet & Sassy and Dashing Diva catering to these Britney or, rather, Hannah Montana wannabes (who would want to be Britney, really?).

What does this all mean? That we're raising a contingent of pedicured, active bloggers and web developers who lead their lives vicariously through the sleazy exploits of semi-talented, needy attention-grabbers? (Information taken from two recent NYT articles--"Dress Up for Dollars"--2.17.08) and "Skin Deep: Never Too Young for That First Pedicure--2.28.08). Don't think so. Sounds more like a lot of creativity yearning for an outlet, self-expression confined now to what's available. Art, music, home ec--much of this is cut out of current school systems. 4H, Girls Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, assemblies, bulletin boards--I guess not so popular any more.

To come: Flash Facts--interesting tidbits I happen to come across, appearing whenever they appear.