One of the truths about how women buy involves the "inside scoop" factor. All things being equal (quality/price/customer experience), the smaller the perceived "club" of existing buyers, the hipper the brand will seem and the more those in-the-know will want to tell others.

Yeah - that's right: women are attracted to the idea of being one of few, but then they immediately turn around to invite their closest friends into the club.

That type of organic, consumer-driven customer growth may seem small-scale and too slow for a lot of marketers, but it is a psychological/buying behavior phenomenon worth exploring.

And, it seems that T.J. Maxx has done just that in trying a new way to leverage the "in-the-know" club's word-of-mouth (that's a lot of hyphens...). As reported by Sarah Mahoney in a MediaPost article, the brand has begun a "Maxx Moments" campaign based on knowledge they gained from some recent online research. A survey of 7,300 women found that 25% immediately phone someone to share their shopping prowess. (About 37% tell a friend, 16% tell Mom, and 9% call their husbands.)

Here's where I bet we all could insert an anecdote or two or three of our own about T.J.Maxx or its equivalent. Mine goes like this: A week or so ago I ran into a neighbor down the block at the local fine chocolate factory (where we all seem to magically gather). She had on this very cute, orange/yellow/purple plaid wool coat and looked very stylish. I complemented her on it, and she said - "oh, it's a T.J. Maxx score."

It helps that the store is located on the main drag all my friends drive daily, and that living in Vermont we have limited retail chain possibilities, but still. The point is - while we might be a bit embarassed to tell people about our more expensive purchases in this time of over-abundance, we LOVE to get people into the retail-deal club, and almost cheerlead each other into it. The secret club may not be so secret anymore, but the fact is we each feel like we handpicked the other members.

Thrilled and delighted, inside-scoop loving club-member customers will absolutely line up to be your evangelists, so let them at it.

As for the new T.J. Maxx campaign - I like it. They seem to have gotten the humor and tone exactly right. Check out the Maxxmoment.com site to see video of the ad campaign, and to register your own moment for their sweepstakes.