Purse Strings

Maria interviews power blogger, author, and HGTV personality Heather Armstrong. Heather is arguably one of the most powerful blogger in the United States …. Her blog Dooce draws 157,100 of visitors monthly. That puts Dooce in the top 10 blogs. Armstrong was featured by Forbes magazine among 30 honorees on its list of The Most Influential Women In Media for 2009.

Maria speaks with Angela Jia Kim with Savor the Success… a new publication that launched in May. This magazine with a twist – as she describes it, is all about women entrepreneurs. She herself has started several businesses. The secret of her success and why shes now sharing with that with her readers.

Jeff LeFever is Director of Marketing for Jack Links Beef Jerky He discusses how Jerky is going from Man Snack to Smart Snack and how this company is making a formerly male product female-friendly.

Maria speaks with Sandy Sabean, Chief Creative Officer for W O M E N K ! N D, a New York-based agency, which harnesses women to produce advertising geared toward their own sex.

Mya Frazier is content director at Engauge. Mya is the author of Reality of the Working Woman: Her Impact on the female target beyond consumption, a white paper recently published in national business magazine Advertising Age.

Cynthia Good, founding editor and CEO of PINK magazine talks to Maria about how the magazine has changed, why and what companies need to be doing to support women-owned businesses.

Maria chats with Susan Stoev, director of current products at Kodak. Kodak is this year’s sponsor of the Marketing to Moms conference. Maria and Susan about Kodak’s approach to capturing Mom’s attention and driving her to purchase, and how to make this practical in any business.

Maria is joined by Renita Van Dusen, Founder and CEO of Affina, a strategic design firm that specializes in marketing to women. They discuss the influence of design on women and the three top tips Renita has for companies seeking to market to women.

Heidi Dangelmaier is the founder and CEO of Girl Approved, formerly called 3iying. Girl Approved is an all-girl innovation think tank. She and her girl teamwork with major brands giving them the insights, creative concepts, and strategies they need to succeed in the future generations of females. She has contributed to four books, published 24 articles and been the subject of more than 30 press pieces and news shows on Bravo and CNN. She has been an industry-appointed design judge for the Industrial Design Association, Computer Game Developers, Graphis, AIGA, Siggraph, Advertising Association and the Webbys.  We'll be talking about the power of the purse girl style.

Maria is joined by Brent Schulkin, founder of Carrotmob. Carrotmob is a type of consumer activism in which businesses compete at how socially responsible they can be, and then a network of consumers spends money to support whichever business makes the strongest offer. They discuss making it possible to make the most out of socially responsible business practices and how to make it profitable.