Purse Strings

Carol Evans, CEO and founder of Working Mother Media - home of Working Mother Magazine. Carol founded working mother media in 2001. Between Working Mothers 100 Best Companies list to their Town Halls and Multi-Cultural Conferences, Carol and her team are making life better for the 26 million working moms in American and their families.

Carol discusses some of the challenges facing working moms today and how marketers can help.

Julie Gilbert, Founder of Wolf Means Business. Wolf is a sustainable innovation platform enabling organizations mobilize and leverage the global purchasing power and passion of critical customer groups and employees to drive superior and sustainable business, policy and community outcomes.

Wolf says its the only company with a proven system that has significantly increased sales, market share and cost savings through the engagement of employees and female customers in a disciplined program of innovation.

Julie founded Wolf at Best Buy, then struck out on her own to build her consultancy. Find out why she feels a company must change internally before it can ever reach its female audience and move sales.

Ann Mack is director of trend spotting at JWT. JWT is a global marketing communications network with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries employing nearly 10000 professionals. Ann oversees trends analysis, thought leadership and other content initiatives.

She discusses the white paper she released with co-author Marissa Miley, a Manhattan-based journalist and New York Times best selling author, who is a former staff writer at Advertising Age.

This white paper was recently showcased in Advertising Age… its entitled: The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the Real Mom.

Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress. She is also the co-author of the book Sick and Tired, Working Women and their Health. She tells us about a report that the Center for American Progress and Maria Shriver released last fall titled The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything. How companies aren’t keeping up with the demands of their female workforce.

Jody Turner, Founder and Lead Consultant, CultureofFuture.com will be on the program to share some unique insights how world events is impacting our society's take on generosity and how social media is amplifying the cause.

Maria interviews Tom Anderson, Founder and Managing Partner for Anderson Anayltics. Tom has worked on product and market development projects across several countries and industries including financial services, telecommunications, packaged goods, and travel and entertainment.

Tom provides hands-on personalized consultation, high-level advanced statistical and qualitative analysis, and actionable advice to Anderson Analytics clients. He will share ways to accomplish insightful research in this cash-strapped economy.

Lucinda Cross is the author of the book Corporate Mom Dropouts and self-described business mid-wife. Her company Ultimate VA Support works with high-end coaches, speakers and authors, supporting them with implementation of their marketing plans and strategies.

She discusses how women are seeking more control over their lives and how this impacts companies seeking to do business with them.

Maria celebrates the 100th Episode of Purse Strings, and she looks back on the interviews she has conducted with high-powered guests ranging from corporate CEOs and marketing executives to authors, creative directors, bloggers, interactive strategists, trend spotters and market researchers.

Angela Walseng, partner with the Social Studies Group, and Andrea Learned (author, blogger and gender insights/marketing to women thought leader) partnered on a research project that has lead to a white paper entitled: The Green Mom Eco-Cosm: A social study into their motivations, convictions and influence.

The research focused on uncovering the various levels of green when it comes to female consumerism in this space. Specifically, how do self-identifying green moms - who are incredibly influencial - really think about environmental issues.

Dena Patton is the founder of Chat, Chew and Chocolate… which is all about providing fun, friendship and inspiration for busy Superwomen. So how does a female focused company about making some me Time capture womens attention when they have so little of it to give?