The Creative Controller

Maria Reitan
Senior Principal
9/17/2012
 

9/17/2012

Life is too crowded. Your schedule is overwhelming. You desperately want to say “no” to the stuff that’s demanding your attention. You seek to control your time and your cluttered spaces. If these statements describe you, then you are a “Creative Controller.”

Earlier this year, Carmichael Lynch Spong and Carmichael Lynch fielded proprietary research that sought to answer the question, “How are women emerging from the recession?” We found that women, who’ve been dealing with the recession for at least four years now, were coping with their new normal in three distinctly different ways. Most women had a dominant coping mind-set, along with an evident secondary mind-set. We termed these mind-sets Creative Controller, Connection Craver and Escape Artist. In a series of three articles, I’ll explore each mind-set, starting with the Creative Controller.

The Creative Controller is a woman driven by the economic, political and environmental instability around her. Her life is overcrowded, in part because of the number of hats she wears. This woman values simplicity, efficiency and harmony. But they often elude her. Despite this, the Creative Controller has a positive outlook on life. She feels empowered to pull herself up by her own bootstraps and believes that if anyone can improve her lot in life, she can.

So how is she coping? Unlike the stereotypical woman who is too busy to take care of herself, the Creative Controller employs what we call the oxygen mask rule: She knows that she’s no good to her loved ones if she’s not taking care of herself first. So she seeks to carve out time to exercise, eat right and get enough sleep.

She seeks control first – so that means she’s methodically researching, planning and budgeting her way through her day. She uses an arsenal of tech to assist her, even if it means spending some money to get the latest smart technology. The Creative Controller knows that in the long run, it will save her precious time and money. Because she’s not a shopper, she looks to make her list, clip her coupons, get in the store and get out quickly. And she rarely deviates from that list.

Money is a hot topic with this mind-set. Based on the shaky economy, she seeks now more than ever to weave financial safety nets in the form of savings. She puts money away for a rainy day.

She says “no” to more things now, and is not afraid to turn down an invitation or commitment if it’s going to suck more of her time and resources than she feels ready to give. And she puts controls around her physical stuff too, looking for brands and products that help her get the chaos under wraps. We found that she lowers her stress by cleaning her house; even her refrigerator.

So how can you connect with the Creative Controller?  Help her help herself. Ensure your product benefits are solutions-oriented. Give her tools to help her plan and budget. Make your retail environment one that is easy to navigate and intuitively laid out so she can maneuver quickly.

While the Creative Controller represents the largest percentage of our mind-set population in our research, the next mind-set exemplifies what many marketers envision as the ultimate female consumer. Stay tuned for the “Connection Craver” in the next installation of our research results.