Zeno Group Blog

One of the most unfortunate effects of an economic downturn is the increase in domestic violence. But there are signs of hope, thanks to the efforts of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) which is making great strides to increase awareness and reduce acts of domestic violence.

Sue Else has been the President of NNEDV since 2006. She started her career in the field as a volunteer at a battered women’s shelter in Ames, Iowa while earning her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State University. She was eventually hired as the volunteer coordinator at the shelter—one of two paid staff positions—and quickly became the Executive Director. Later, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri and served as President and CEO of Hope House for 18 years.

She recently sat down to discuss the organization’s work in the last year, providing insights on the challenges overcome and those that lie ahead.

Q: What are the core services NNEDV provides?
A: NNEDV started as a policy arm of state coalitions against domestic violence, to advocate for the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, which was introduced by then Senator Joe Biden, now our country’s Vice President. We were created to monitor, watch and affect legislation on all key issues that deal with family violence, such as housing, safety, health insurance and most importantly national domestic violence legislation. In addition, we work with state organizations to monitor what is occurring at the state level and what type of effect it could have at national level.

We also focus on issues surrounding training and economic literacy. For example, through our partnership with The Allstate Foundation, we provide survivors with economic literacy training, an important empowering skill for abused women. In many cases, domestic violence occurs – and is perpetuated – by the fact that the victim does not possess sound financial skills, and therefore depends on the abuser for economic support. (For more information on this program visit www.nnedv.org/projects/allstatefoundtion.html.

Another area where we provide support and training is around the risks and benefits that everyday technology provides. Working with survivors of domestic violence and advocacy groups, as well as police departments, we help educate how technology plays a role in domestic violence. For example, many women don’t know that a simple electronic greeting card sent to them can contain Spyware, allowing their abuser to monitor their email traffic. Or that police departments can use the GPS tracking system inside of a cell phone to find a missing person.

Q: Why is NNEDV’s work so important? Are incidents of domestic violence on the rise?
A: Our work is needed and important no matter the time or place. In the U.S. there are 2.3 million cases of domestic abuse in a year. One in four women in their lifetimes will experience domestic violence in some manner. In one day alone, local programs provided service to 61,000 domestic violence victims and answered over 21,000 crisis hotline calls.

Unfortunately, each day people lose their lives to domestic violence. Due to societal pressures and family matters, many people don’t talk about the subject. There is far too much blame felt by victims of domestic violence. The constant question — “Why didn’t she get out sooner?” – continues this myth. Women represent roughly 85 percent of domestic violence victims, but men can be victims, too.

Creating awareness and talking about domestic violence is so important if we want to end it. Domestic violence has a high cost to our economy, people lose work productivity due to it, healthcare costs are a higher and children who come from families that have domestic violence issues tend to do poorer in school and are more likely to join gangs.

Q: What new initiatives are on the horizon to broaden people’s knowledge of domestic violence?
A: One very important and exciting new development we have is that there is a new White House advisor on violence against women, Lynn Rosenthal, who also served as the former Executive Director of NNEDV. This is such a tremendous leap for us because we now have a touchstone for our work inside the White House, something that we never had before. This allows us to galvanize greater support, advocacy and understanding about domestic violence issues than ever before.

We’re also reaching out to the media through a project supported by The Allstate Foundation. We are educating members of the media on the importance of using language that does not stigmatize or place blame when domestic violence is reported. For example, the use the word “dispute” is often used to describe domestic violence, when in fact this is not the case at all. A better example is the recent “messaging” around the Chris Brown and Rihanna case in which the media confused the issue blurring the line as to who was to blame.

Q: What is the best way that companies and non-profit organizations can work together to build partnerships to combat domestic violence?
A: Getting involved with a cause holds some great benefits not only for the local shelter or group by providing needed services or money, but it also provides the partnering organization positive benefits by raising their profile, as well.

Another way that organizations can become active in addressing violence in the workplace is to create policies and procedures that help employees. For example, if a women is being stalked, her employer should provide a security guard to walk her to her car each night when she leaves work, allow for time off for her to go to court to handle any legal issues, or create a domestic violence education program within the workplace to heighten understanding.

Other simple, but effective, steps include taking up a collection for a local shelter, becoming a board member at a local program to put your skills to use, offering to drive a domestic violence victim to a doctor’s appointment or court case, or just volunteering at a local shelter.

Q: What are the shifting trends that you see emerging in public policy issues related to domestic violence?
A: The White House advisor is a positive. We do, however need legislation specifically designed to help teenagers. There is increasing abuse, and even death, at the teenage level, and we need proper protection orders and curriculum in the school systems to educate families and teens about domestic violence. Many teens don’t feel comfortable going to their parents, and the only way now that a teen can do anything in most states is to have their parents file the necessary report.

Finally, there is a lot of legislation within the criminal justice system for violence against women. That legislation doesn’t address ancillary issues like housing and finances. We are seeing an expanded effort to serve victims of domestic violence beyond the criminal justice system. For example, efforts are underway to protect victims from getting evicted from housing or losing access to their money due to domestic violence incidents.

When the world’s most influential consumer speaks, marketers listen. Well, at least now they do. Once relegated to a niche market, research shows that women are marketers’ MVC—Most Valuable Consumer. She makes upwards of 80% of all household purchases and drives $5 trillion in consumer spending. Women spend and influence household purchases beyond most marketers’ wildest expectations. For example, not only does she pay the bills (80%), but she also takes care of auto repairs (65%) and even influences the digital cable selection in 92% of American households. She’s not a niche market – in most cases, she is the market.

Then why is it that it’s taking so long for her to get the respect – and the products – she deserves when shopping the aisles at her local Target store? This was a hot topic at this year’s M2W Marketing-to-Women conference held last week in Chicago. As a part of Zeno Group’s Speaking Female practice, dedicated to just this topic, I sat with the best and the brightest marketers and thought-leaders in the field who shared my passion and discussed strategies, practices and trends in our pursuit. We discussed a woman’s propensity to become social butterflies – social media, that is. We’ve all heard the reports, and it’s true, women are all a-flutter about Twitter. And it’s official; mark your calendar, effective April 17th women have adopted Twitter. Why? The Oprah Effect, April 17th will go down in the history books as the day Oprah posted her first tweet, resulting in an immediate 24% spike in visitors to the Twitter Web site. So goes Oprah, and so go American women.

It all makes sense. Dr. Melissa Read of Engauge told us that women’s brains are wired differently than men’s. Women need to feel engaged in relationships more than men, whether it’s the girlfriend grapevine or the companies with whom they choose to do business. Women are wired to need this interaction, or dialogue.

While the insights, research and discourse on social media measurement set the room abuzz, the voice that emerged above all else was that of Marti Barletta, author of Marketing to Women, PrimeTime Women and a pioneer in the field. Simply, she said, “Don’t ignore her.” While we’ve come a long way with smart and effective campaigns that that speak to women, there’s still a good distance to go. Marketers, women want to be heard and it’s time to listen. Her voice can be heard booming with BlogHer, in the workplace and at the grocery check-out. For any marketing communications campaign to be effective with this MVC, marketers must engage and be engaged in a dialogue with her. Regardless of gender, it’s just good business.

Simple, maybe. Priceless, definitely.