People come to together in a time of crisis. The Internet is enabling the spirit of mutuality but more interestingly the recession is driving people towards collective buying.  A strategy that people have little time for when the economy is good. In harsher times collective buying could turn tables on companies who are seen to be greedy.

Last week’s Economist describes how the residents of the San Francisco have been signing up enthusiastically for a new green energy campaign called 1BOG- short for “One Block off the Grid”. It asks homeowners to switch solar energy one block at a time by organising them into buying-clubs. The more people who sign up, at any time the bigger the discounts. Finally the contract to supply, install and maintain the system is put out to tender the “Carrotmob” outsources the work to the most competitive bidder.

Marketers have long harped on about the shift of power moving from the company to the consumer, but it’s not actually happened until now in any great measure (with the exception of a few groups on Facebook).  The fact remains that the majority of technology companies are still interested in what interests them rather than what interests their customers.

So many women tell me that technology is “way to complicated” “designed by men for men” “lacks any intuition” “is frustrating and dull.”

Imagine another world, where women Carrotmob for intuitive and sexy technology.  Technology that was made with women in mind.  Where substantial numbers of women gather together and say what they want. Where ten-thousand women were to draw up a list of their ideal next phone/TV/PVR/console and pledge to buy it. Where tech brands bid to build and support this product knowing that they had guaranteed buyers, and in return women would have to honor their contract.

It’s about time we carrotmobbed for intuitive, human technology that reflects what we are interested in.

What would your ideal phone/TV/PVR/console/piece of kit look like?  How would it feel using it?  How would it be different from whats out there now?

Marketers seem to have finally come around to see that mothers use the Web 2.0. The insightful report called Digital Mom was produced by Razorfish and CafeMom.

 

The first part of the report is based on a survey with 1,500 mothers who are users of Web 2.0. The report produced some interesting findings:

1.    65% of mums use social networking sites, 56% SMS and 52% game online or via a game console. This is for me the most striking finding showing that gaming is no longer a niche activity for adolescent boys but has gone mainstream.

2.    There are also age differences. Moms over 35  are more likely to use the web as an information tool while moms under 35 are more likely to use social network sites. Also women with children over 12 tend to game more (57%) than women with children under 12 (51%).

3.    The mothers’ interests go beyond parenting. These women retain many interests. In the last three months the surveyed mothers had researched or purchases fashion items or clothing (40%), food and cooking (31%) and baby/parenting (26%), banking (22%), computer and electronics (21%) and medication/medical condition (20%).

Part 2 is based on an in-depth survey of 1,750 women active in CafeMum.

4.    Digitalmoms spent 18.5 hours per week online.

5.    These mums are active in social networking sites not passive consumers.

6.    The report develops five segments of digital mums: the self-expressor, the utility mum, the groupster, the infoseeker and the hyperconnector.

Marketers seems to have discovered that mums online a worthwhile target group. I wonder when we will see the Digital Dad.