Guest-blogger Robin Marty shares part of her experience of being part of a desirable demographic at the recent Blogher convention in San Francisco.

When I first entered the exhibitor’s hall at Blogher the national conference for women who write on the web, it was like stepping into another world. After all of the time I spent reading parenting magazines demanding I keep my child away from television and movies and  removing her from all commercial influences, being inundated with this much paraphernalia was shocking. 

I strolled past the PBS Kids table, then moseyed by the Sprout.  In the room across the hall I could play with V Tech toys or Leapfrog leap pads, and a little
further along I could try out a Wii .  T-Mobile was passing out surveys on how young is old enough for a cell phone (”Not seven months,” I told a disappointed rep who was talking up family plans.).

We all know moms are hot, but it appear the advertisers agree.  Parties were thrown by Macy’s, TNT, yes, even by personal lubricant maker KY (somehow that one slipped my mind).  The lunch meeting with Rocco Dispirito filled quickly by women willing to listen to the virtues of Bertoli Pasta  if it meant seeing the Restaurant bad boy in the flesh.  You could visit the Sesame Street Suite to create a video to take home to your child or get a cup of coffee in the I-Robot room.  Everywhere you turned was a new sponsor, from makeovers to financial planner to the Michelin man pointing you to the fresh croissants.

Although the workshops, panels and keynotes were geared to all women who
write, the marketing was an obvious reflection of the large percentage of
attendees that were mothers and the impressive amount of collective clout
the women have, both on line and in their homes.  After copious freebies,
demos and handouts, I never felt so valued as a potential consumer.

Can a bag full of schwag and some wooing by the stars of TNT’s Saving Grace truly change my shopping and viewing habits?  Of course not — I’m a mother and a wife, I eat emotional manipulation for breakfast.  But it’s nice to be appreciated for the powerhouse I really am, especially since my family sometimes forgets that fact.

Cribsheeters- have you felt the barrage of  being a target market ? Have any attempts won you over or influenced how you shop?

Robin Marty is the Deputy Program Manager for the Center for Independent
Media and former editor of  the Minnesota Independent . Robin blogs at  Powerliberal which has slowly turned from politics to mommy blogging.

She’s bringing a bag full of Blogher schwag to the Cribsheet playdate tomorrow (!) and will have a post on privacy and your children online next week.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am and is filed under Guest Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.