Women Have the Power to Make or Break a Brand
By: Peggy O'Flaherty
Tags: Cashback, Blogger, Social Media, Shopping Apps, Moms

As Summer comes to an end, children are boarding school buses and women are gathering all across America at coffee houses, kitchen tables, and parks to share life as they know it. In doing so, women share aspects of life that help support each other as women and as mothers, such as parenting, marriage, and their lifestyle. It’s been reported that 70 percent of millennial consumers are influenced by the recommendations of their peers with their buying decisions and 60 percent of consumers claim that social content from friends and family impacts their purchasing decisions.

Undoubtedly, women care greatly about making a positive impact, whether within their own families, friends, their communities. Helping a friend discover something new, trendy or fun holds especially true, as women share ideas with each other for the perfect holiday gift, a unique birthday surprise or a special gift for a friend. Mothers are estimated to be responsible for $2.1 trillion of U.S. consumer spending, controlling about 80 percent of household expenditures, according to BSM Media. They’re also active online: 87 percent use the Web regularly, per comScore. What’s more, 60 percent of their online conversations — the type of discussions also heard at playgrounds everywhere — include a mention of brands or products, according to a study done last year by BabyCenter and Keller Fay Group.

Increasingly in opening social media channels they are flooded with promotional, paid or sponsored ads from featured brands. In other cases, products are being promoted by social media influencers or celebrity influencers. Yet, everyday women share products and brands naturally and authentically within their own network of friends and family on a day to day basis, especially if they believe it will save another woman time, money or provide a greater value of convenience. Yet, are everyday women being compensated similar to social media or celebrity influencers?

The short answer is of course, NO. As Direct To Consumer brands seek out new channels to distribute their goods, while at the same time, trying to combat rising costs to acquire a customer via established social networks, it seems evident that everyday women can help them combat these rising costs and help them acquire not only a new customer but a more loyal customer with potential repeat purchases at that!

Women surely have the power to make or break a brand. Forbes reminds us of the Volkswagen scandal of 2015. Due to the decision to “cheat” emissions testing, the brand’s public perception took a blow. Social media seemed to amplify the damage, and the brand saw a flurry of negative comments on Facebook. One user wrote: “As someone who has owned, driven and loved Volkswagens for more than 40 years, because of your criminal actions, I will probably never buy another.” A collective power comes from a community of women who can lock arms to shop and share products together, especially those by female-founders, philanthropic, affordable, and those offering a sustainable solution that sometimes doesn’t have the wear-with-all to get noticed ahead of the big brands. Platforms that can provide this service are creating that virtuous circles that empower the coolest, less known brands who have a unique value proposition into the inner circle, where they deserved to get noticed. And the women who discover and use those brands now have a voice to rate, share, comment and give feedback on products that reinforce their own values.

Mavely is the solution to connect everyday women and brands creating a viral effect of sharing and earning. More to come in my article.