Even more food for thought as we are a day away from talking about the power of philanthropy
Check out Lisa Belkin's article on the growth of women-funded philanthropy

I'm looking forward to speaking to the Women's Fund of Central Ohio tomorrow--Thursday, Sept. 17. I'll provide a post-speech discussion on Friday morning to keep the discussion going.
Here is some food for thought as we look at the power of women in the 21st century.

Check out this article on Harvard Business Review--women control $20 trillion in spending worldwide!

You would think as a journalist that the transition to, or the addition of, blogging would come naturally to me.

But I need an event, a story, a person, an idea to inspire me. So I'm looking forward to being inspired by two days at the Marketing to Women conference next week at Chicago's Cultural Center. I will be live blogging throughout the conference so catch up with my thoughts on the speakers, ideas, and presentations.

You can also catch me on Twitter. Just click on the feed on this page. You can also search for #m2w to see what all of us are tweeting about.

I also will moderate a panel of top marketers from brands such as Frito-Lay, Shutterfly, and Office Max on the final day, April 30, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. I hope you'll join us as we talk about the freshest ideas in reaching the women's market

Watching Sarah Palin nail her speech earlier this week did nothing to change my personal feelings about her--and her politics. But watching her deliver a strong, powerful speech that energized the Republicans in St. Paul gave me much to worry about.

Palin wasn't just playing politics, she was playing branding--or her conservative Republican handlers were.

Her speech was a classic branding play. Here is a brand--call her Brand Palin--who was tarnished right out of the gate. It was easy a week ago to dismiss Palin as unqualified. It was easy to be snarky about her hair. It was easy to criticize her mothering skills. She reminded me of a brand that many of us love to hate--Wal-Mart. We like to be snarky about that brand too: it's too big, it's too brash, it's bad for the environment despite changing its lightbulbs, it's sold guns.

But we forget that there are lots of Wal-Mart moms out there. If we diss and dismiss Palin, we diss those women. Today, Palin and McCain are headed to suburban counties outside of big metro centers--including one in my backyard, Macomb County just north of Detroit. They are reaching out to women who do see themselves in Palin as hard as that is to believe.

They like her brand even if they don't necessarily like her politics. A good number of these women likely have political leanings that would compel them to vote Democrat. But they don't see themselves in the Obama-Biden brand. That brand is too highbrow, too classy. Obama-Biden isn't even Target; it's more of Whole Foods no matter Biden's working class background.

Palin makes them feel proud of who they are. They may not be the salmon hunting, pistol packing, basketball shooting women--as Cindy McCain so proudly pointed out about Palin. But they do like that she tells jokes about being a hockey mom. They are hockey moms--particularly the women of Macomb county who probably can find Red Wings branded merchandise somewhere in their house. Hockey moms are a tougher breed than the old soccer moms. Palin makes them feel good about being one. I'm just waiting for hair salons to receive requests for the "Palin" up-do. That's not being snarky. These women want to identify with someone and Palin gives them a brand that they can wear comfortably--all the way up from her new suits to her hair.

And what of her family? She embraced them, showing off all of them to the world. Just like a good marketer facing crisis she turned her negatives into positives. She was proud of them, all of them. That was a star turn of branding. Of course, now she can't complain when someone wants to question issues surrounding her family. She used them to her advantage. She'll have to learn what marketers often have learned the hard way--when you embrace your faults others will nail you for them. It's not nice, it's not fair, but it's reality. It's politics.

Since I posted my blog on Sarah Palin yesterday, I have had a number of colleagues and friends email me about my opinion. There was the expected, "right on, you nailed it." But the more illuminating have been the conversations with those who tell me I'm so, so, so wrong.

They point out that Barack Obama is equally unqualified for the presidency as Palin. Others are parsing Obama's qualifications against Palin. I'll leave my comments on that for a later blog.

But what these conversations have made me ponder is this: will we choose our president the way we choose our brand of cars, stores we shop at, clothes we where? Are we Target or Wal-Mart? Are we Chevys or Toyotas? Will we choose our president because we see ourselves in them? Do we, in fact, need to see the candidate in the mirror?

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My first reaction to John McCain's vice presidential pick was: slam dunk.
Why? Because I've been saying for weeks that both candidates have to win over white suburban women--and not only the women who are Hillary Clinton supporters. Sarah Palin is the kind of women other women can like--especially married women with children who are social conservatives. Obama doesn't appeal to these women. Nor does his wife Michelle. She's too poised while Palin is pretty and approachable. I don't actually think Hillary appealed to these women either. So McCain, I thought, had seen the need to reach out these women...

But as the news sinks in of Palin's overnight rise to vice presidential nominee, I find myself insulted. Insulted and disrespected and angry. I think every women in America should feel the same way.

McCain's decision reminds me of marketers who think if they put a woman in their ads, paint their products a pretty color, and tell us they are thinking of us that we will buy whatever they are selling.

Many marketers have grown up since then. John McCain, the marketer and politician, still has a lot to learn. Women aren't a single, homogenous market who will be wowed by the simple choice of a woman being on the ticket.

But McCain seems to think that choosing a woman, any woman, is enough. He doesn't realize that choosing this woman--so inexperienced that it's frightening to think of her as the person a heartbeat away from the presidency--could be and should be viewed as condescending and patronizing. I hope he learns the same lesson as those marketers who wonder why we don't buy their products. It's because their ads don't work. We don't like the colors they pick. We won't stand for being patted on the head and told: "see I was thinking of you."

I would have applauded McCain for picking a woman--but out of all the women in the Republican Party--this was his best choice? I think all women should be asking themselves just what was McCain thinking, but most of all I think Republican women should be asking this:
Is this the best you could do, Mr. McCain?

Two weeks ago on May 8, I gave a speech on the global power of the purse at the Marketing to Women conference in Chicago. From what I could tell from questions from the audience, discussions afterward and the applause (thank you), it was a success. But what continues to surprise me are the frank discussions I have with women who listened to my speech and then said: I never thought of women and economics that way.

What way? I often ask. The way, they say, in which education, money, and economic independence have made us what we are today. Too often as American women, we take for granted all those foundational elements--education, the right to vote, access to capital, the right to own a business--which have made us powerful consumers, powerful voting blocks, and powerful in the country's economy. It isn't until they listen to what is happening to women in other countries that they begin to see the power of what we have in American society today--and that power isn't just about what we can buy. Indeed it is far more about what we can produce from the education that we receive.

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