Lifetime Looking Deep Into Women’s Minds

By Jon Lafayette

Since joining Lifetime from MTV, Mike Greco has been figuring out what women want.

“Professionally, yes,” he said, adding, “Personally, I haven’t been able to translate the research into communication with my wife or my daughters.”

WHAT WOMEN WANT Mike Greco, executive vice president of research at Lifetime, has put all the data the network has accumulated on women into a single report called FemiNation.

Lifetime, cable’s longtime leader in women’s programming, collects a lot of data on what women are thinking and doing through studies, focus groups and other forms of research. Mr. Greco, executive VP of research, has put all the data the network has accumulated on women into a single report called FemiNation.

“We wanted to position ourselves as experts on women in the same way that MTV is expert among the young or Nickelodeon is expert among kids,” Mr. Greco said. “It’s not like one study. To understand the consumer, you can’t do dipstick research and do one big study a year anymore, or even [one] a quarter. So this is kind of a combination we pulled from everything that we do.”

The study is being used both internally and externally. Internally it is being used as guidance for developing programming and marketing campaigns.

“I think you just have to be constantly in communication with the audience to make sure that you’re contemporary and relevant,” he said. “I think that’s the most important thing as we put more shows on the air.”

Externally, the advertising sales group is using the study as a resource to be shared with the network’s clients.

“I found it to be very useful, given the depth of the research that they’ve done,” said Kristen Colonna, group director, national TV, on the Frito-Lay account at OMD.

Unlike most network reports, which relate to their particular audience, Lifetime’s research offered details and insights to help the client understand women in a variety of demographics while saying little about Lifetime itself.

While the report alone won’t guarantee Lifetime gets a piece of the next OMD ad buy, the research shows Lifetime is committed to forming partnerships with advertisers, Ms. Colonna said.

“If you don’t show that you have a certain insight into the target, you’re not going to be at the top of the list to be included in a media plan,” she said. “Lifetime has to prove continually that they’re relevant and that they are the experts in women, because while it’s their heritage, everything is under so much scrutiny now. For them to have a study like that shows they are committed to continuing to understand who their core target audience is and developing programming that speaks to those people.”

Like nearly all networks, Lifetime would like its viewership to skew a bit younger. Andrea Wong, who became CEO of Lifetime last year, said she wants to make the network more contemporary. But despite his MTV background, Mr. Greco doesn’t envision a radical transformation.

“I don’t think we’re looking to get ‘The Hills’ younger. I don’t think we’re ever going to get 22-year-old younger. But we’re going in the right direction.”

Lifetime doesn’t want to “throw out the baby with the bathwater” by alienating its loyal older viewers, but “I think we want to portray and attract what the modern woman of today looks like,” Mr. Greco said.

Some of the findings in Lifetime’s FemiNation report are already being used in program development, he said.

Mr. Greco said the study shows women are creating their own definitions of what it means to be a modern woman. Included in her makeup are June Cleaver-like qualities such as being patient, nurturing and graceful, mixed in with the ideas of being a leader, an executive and empowered, he said.

Balancing work and family is a key dynamic among women. When asked how they are, women are most likely to respond “good,” but their No. 2 answer is “busy,” Mr. Greco said. “If you ask them why they don’t just give up some of the things they’re doing, they look at you like you have three heads. Being busy is a badge of honor to them.”

Women are responding to their busy lives not by dropping things but by squeezing in time for personal interests and projects. Those could be scrapbooking, playing a musical instrument, volunteering, watching TV, reading a book or taking an uninterrupted bath.

“They feel like it makes them a better mom or better executive or a better wife because they’re taking care of themselves,” Mr. Greco said.

Some of those themes play out in the new comedy Lifetime will be airing in the fall, “Rita Rocks,” about a working wife who recalls her guitar-playing high school days and forms a garage band.

Women also are evolving their own notions of beauty. Rather than being a size 0, it’s showing confidence and self-esteem, an idea that shows up in “How to Look Good Naked.”

“It’s not about changing the person, just changing the way you carry yourself, changing the way you feel about yourself,” Mr. Greco said.

Attitudes toward becoming healthier also are personal among women.

“They believe in some combination of getting off the couch, not smoking and so on. But in the end there’s a real paradox. They can be overweight but they can feel healthy because they haven’t eaten fast food in a long time,” Mr. Greco said. “We have a few shows in development that are trying to get at that.”

Overall, what busy women are looking for is not an exotic vacation, but a less scheduled day in which they can stay in their pajamas, have a glass of wine and maybe spend some time with their significant other.

“We want to put on programming that provides that kind of decompression for women,” he said.