Research indicates that most women do it at least ten times every five minutes. What is it? Multi-minding—mentally juggling a complex mix of family, career, and self-care decisions at any given moment, with little time for commercial messages to seep into the mix. How do marketers reach women, who still make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions? This book, based on research, interviews, and Kelley Skoloda’s twenty years of leading-edge work in brand marketing with major clients, explains how to connect with multi-minding women, gain their trust, and tap into their purchasing power.

Multi-minding is a cultural phenomenon that is here to stay. A multi-minding woman, even if she appears to be relaxing in front of a late-night television show, reading a magazine in the pediatrician’s office, or tackling a complicated analytic study at work, is at the same time thinking about and preparing for the other dimensions of her life. She’s weighing the benefits of changing her 401k plan, plotting out her organic vegetable garden, ticking off birthday-party logistics, and longing for a neck massage. That’s why one study shows women feel they are packing 38 hours of activity into a 24-hour period. But studies also show that most women feel marketers are ignoring their needs. That’s a big mistake considering women spend $3.3 trillion annually on consumer products. Too Busy to Shop explains what marketers need to know about multi-minding—a word coined by Skoloda and Ketchum—and its implications for companies seeking to speak to women buyers. Besides theory and insight, readers get how-tos and action items designed to ensure women view their brands favorably and hear the marketing message. The book also contains insiders’ views of some of the most successful marketing-to-women campaigns of recent times. In short, Too Busy to Shop helps marketers understand multi-minding in depth—an essential task if they want to reach today’s overloaded female consumer.