Hartford, CT – March 24, 2009— From innovative campaigns and online initiatives to changing corporate culture and creating a WOM marketing force, companies like Unilever, Shutterfly, Frito-Lay, Best Buy and OfficeMax are mixing it up and engaging their female consumers like never before.  Moderated by The Power of the Purse author Fara Warner, executives from these top companies will be part of a dynamic panel sharing the fresh, new ways they are reaching women during the 5th Annual M2W®-The Marketing To Women Conference, April 29 & 30, 2009, Chicago Cultural Center.

“With WOLF Means Business, wetransformed Best Buy, a 40 year-old company built to serve the male consumer, to serve women by directly engaging more than 35,000female employees and female consumers to innovate each facet of the company.   It is only bypulling in the voices of females from the inside out and outside in that you will ever AUTHENTICALLY be THE place for women to work and shop,” says panelist Julie Gilbert, former SVP Best Buy and CEO/Founder of WOLF Means Business (Women’s Leadership Forum). She explains the impact of the innovative Best Buy WOLF Means Business process stating, “Best Buy has not only reduced female employee turnover by more than 5% each year and increased the number of women at all levels of the company by more than 20%, but has increased female revenue by more than $4.4 billion dollars in less than 5 years. Engage women's voices and you improve business for all, regardless of gender!"

“As the primary purchasers of office supplies—spending approximately $44.5 billion on office supplies per year—women are the core of our audience,” says M2W® panel participant Julie Krueger, VP of Marketing and Advertising for OfficeMax.  “We continue to create more fashionable products and value promotions and have established a panel of women to give us feedback on everything from product development to their use of circulars and coupons.”  This panel of women is just one of the many ways the OfficeMax brand has become more relevant to working women.

Retail repositioning, relationship marketing, viral videos and behavioral targeting will all be part of this M2W® Brand Panel discussion which is one of the many opportunities marketing executives will have to learn firsthand what new tactics and strategies are working with women.  During the 2009 M2W® program, attendees will connect and learn from one another through solution-based workshops, drill-down discussion groups, insightful case studies and great networking events. 

Women@NBCU is the Exclusive Presenting Sponsor of M2W® with Associate Sponsors Ketchum,  Draftfcb, Engauge, SheSpeaks, Lifetime, Paramount Market Publishing, JSH&A, General Growth Properties, Barkley, Booz & Co. and MS&L.   imc2 is the Pre Conference Workshop Sponsor and Affina, BlogHer, Shutterfly and ecojot are Hospitality Sponsors.  SNiPPiES is the Video Journalism Resource and Getty Images is the Imagery Resource.

M2W® is produced by PME® Enterprises, Hartford, CT. Please visit www.m2w.biz or call 860.724.2649 x 11 for more details or to register for M2W®.