I stumbled on this site the other day. From the site (US stats);

This market is continually growing at a rapid pace, yet how many commercials have you seen speak to these women? Perhaps this would change if more marketing companies realized that over 57% of single women currently own their own homes and live fully independent lives. Single women now equal one-fifth of the nation’s population and 42 percent of all registered women voters.  

Do you know that when it comes to politics our politicians are also missing the boat? Without a clear message to this market it is no wonder that statistics show that very few single women exercise their right to vote. In the 2000 presidential election 68 percent of married women voted, but only 52 percent of single women voted.

If I were in charge of a political campaign my first order of business would be to spend time discovering what keeps these women from voting. If I were running a company and I knew I had been missing this demographic I’d be calling a meeting to make sure I don’t continue to make such a costly mistake. How can you market to them? It can be done in three steps:

• Learn what their concerns are?
• Find out what is keeping them up at night?
• Use the above answers to outline how to be more inclusive and explain policies and goals that would improve the lives of these single women, not just “working families.”

This is not rocket science - this is Marketing 101 to an untapped market. Single women have the ability to alter the outcome of an election. They have the ability to grow your businesses and increase your sales. Perhaps it’s time we all began to speak clearly to this market.

Are any of the campaigns here thinking like that, I doubt it. They have their demographics, but it’s based off the old model I think. But I think we’re going to see a shift in how election campaigns are run in the next few years. With web 2.0 creating communities for blogging, youtube videos, etc. the media is changing. Who defines who are the experts is changing. We’ll see campaigns analyzing demographics more carefully as they see that the media is shifting and how they can reach those demographics. Or at least I hope that NB catches up because I know for sure that the rest of Canada and the US is going that way. In many ways, the everyday voter will finally be able to have a stronger voice, should they choose to excise it.

And that’s it for me for election stuff, on to real life again;)

I’m actually going to be making my vote early next week due to my upcoming trip to Austen, TX (yahooooo, ok, ok, I’m having trouble containing my enthusiasm). I’ve never been to the Boston or Atlanta airport, I must make sure that I don’t walk around with my jaw hanging open that practically screams “I’m from NB” lol. I’ve certainly travelled in Canada a fair bit, lived in Toronto and Montreal, but haven’t really visted the U.S. and I understand that the Atlanta airport is a fair size larger than the Toronto Airport. So I confess I might be a bit in awe over the whole thing;)