STORES Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 26)

COVER PEOPLE EXECUTIVE SUITE / RETAIL STORY Just Ask Mary Lou Getting personal with women for the good of corporate America Mary Lou Quinlan Founder and CEO, Just Ask a Woman New York City M ary Lou Quinlan turned her Madison Avenue marketing know-how into a successful consulting business in 1999. Devoted to bringing a woman’s perspective to the marketplace, Just Ask a Woman has been called the premier women’s marketing company in the United States. Quinlan’s 25-year career includes director of advertising at Avon, executive vice president with DDBNeedham Worldwide and a stint as CEO of N.W. Ayer, a New York City-based branding and advertising agency. She’s a sought-after speaker on the subject of women as consumers and professionals, having addressed more than 300 corporations, conferences and universities. Quinlan is also the best-selling author of “Just Ask a Woman: Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy” and “Time Off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives.” She also served as a judge on the ABC reality TV program “American Inventor.” How do you feel about being dubbed the “Oprah of marketing?” What’s the one thing you’d like to tell retailers of any stripe? Women know that they are powerful but they don’t feel that you treat them that way. [Retailers] don’t listen and [they] infuriate women with their declining customer service, confusing store layouts and policies that put more of the burden on them when it comes to refunds and correcting their mistakes. As an “American Inventor” judge, do you have any advice to share? The biggest eye opener to me was the inability of some inventors to listen to or accept the truth. I guess they expect rejection as part of the process, so criticism rolls off their backs. But helpful advice, which we gave tons of off-camera, was sometimes disregarded when it could have saved some inventors lots of money and heartache. Any humorous behind-the-scenes moments? Who wouldn’t want to be compared in any way at all to Oprah? It isn’t that I am anywhere in her stratosphere, but that at Just Ask a Woman, we live the life of asking women personal questions in an effort to help corporate America do well for them. So, listening and giving back — that’s what we try to do. What’s Talk-TV? How do you use it? It’s the way we listen differently. We don’t do traditional “focus groups,” which generally get you traditional answers. Our format puts female customers where they belong: front and center on stage. There are no two-way mirrors or hidden rooms. Everything is as it should be — out in the open. The clients, the cameras — everything is within their sight so that they can relax and open up. And have fun! Our Just Ask a Woman “LIVE” sessions are meant to help us and our clients power-listen — that is, listen more deeply without the backroom distractions of sending e-mails, taking calls and talking, which unfortunately substitutes for listening in traditional research. 26 STORES / JANUARY 2008 Most of them happened right on camera, but when I – deservedly — called one of the other judges an “ hole” offcamera, that made [it into] the opening show. Watching in Florida, my 82-year-old Mom leaned over to my 88-year-old Dad and said, “Ray, did Mary Lou actually just call that guy an hole on national television?” What’s on the bedside stand? I listen to Oprah. Just finished “Eat, Pray, Love” and I’m now reading “Love in the Time of Cholera.” Music on the CD or iPod? Patty Griffin. I love her! What’s a little-know fact about yourself? I haven’t given up on Broadway. StORES — Janet Groeber WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - January 2008

STORES Magazine - January 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Build a 'Bot Sneak Peek at Fashion Trends What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Fishing for Talent Retail CEO Compensation Research Concept2Watch E-Commerce Payment Solutions Online Merchandising POS LPInformation LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Industry Watch Cover Story: Making LP PCI-Compliant Mall Security Video Surveillance Industry Perspective Forum RFID Business Intelligence Data Management Logistics Turning Green into Gold Love of – and for – the Outdoors Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - January 2008

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