"Joanne's workshop is interesting and thought provoking. She presents a compelling case which anyone in the sales business needs to hear. She has made me and others in my company start to think and act differently in regard to this important buying group."

Mike Donoghue
President & CEO
Allstate Canada

back to top

"Reaching the Real World of Women Consumers is an entertaining and highly informative seminar. I'd recommend it strongly for men and women marketing personnel alike. The research is surprising, and will dispel many of the myths and assumptions surrounding the women's market."

Robyn E. Graham,
Vice President, Institutional Business Development Altamira Investment Services Inc.

back to top

"Bruce Power recognizes that women are enormously influential public opinion stakeholders. In order to be the most effective in our job of communicating with the public, we needed to understand women better. For us, that meant The Thomas Yaccato Group. Using the company's innovative Gender Intelligence Lab, we gained unprecedented access to the hearts and minds of women thought and opinion leaders. As a result of this work, we now have powerful insights and strategies that help us communicate sensitive issues in a way that women will hear."

Susan Brissette
Vice President Corporate Communications
Bruce Power

back to top

"Joanne Thomas Yaccato performed superbly, touring seven cities as part of the CENTURY 21 Canada Fall Power Conference Tour. Her professional presentation and light hearted approach to dealing with personal financial management left our audience feeling enthused about taking control of their financial investment — themselves. Joanne effectively showed that today’s real estate professionals cannot afford to overlook taking care of their financial future."

Donald E. Lawby,
President and CEO,
Century 21 Real Estate Canada Ltd

back to top

“I had the privilege of working with Joanne during our 2006 national road show for our retail clients. Travelling across the country with her, I witnessed her down to earth, engaging and professional speaking style appeal to the very wide demographic that made up our audiences. Her ability to seamlessly integrate her research and personal experiences created a meaningful connection to the audience. Our clients' really enjoyed her!”

Richard Campbell
Chief Investment Officer
CIBC Global Asset Management

back to top

"The response to Joanne’s session was exceptional as evidenced by her securing the top ranking in our conference speaker survey. She really connected with the group and they responded enthusiastically not only to her irreverent delivery style, but to the insights shared about women consumers and all that this means to the credit union movement."

Gayle Stevenson
Manager, Creative Services
Credit Union Central of BC

back to top

"Joanne Thomas Yaccato offers a unique perspective into the automotive industry and its relationship with women car buyers. Her focus groups provided us with thoughtful insight into this important consumer and her innovative and analytic ability helped us rethink and reframe our point of sale materials away from "finance and car-speak" into a language women want to hear."

Peter Sinuita,
President,
Ford Credit Canada

back to top

"The Thomas Yaccato Group clearly understands the importance of incorporating gender in every aspect of customer-facing marketing. In today's economic climate, it is this type of differentiation that will drive revenue and client satisfaction. Joanne Thomas Yaccato is a superb speaker and truly engages her audience. Her ability to convey the key messages with both humor and logic helped us to exceed our event expectations and deliver value to our clients and partners."

Leyland P. Brown
Vice President Marketing,
Commercial Business, Personal Systems Group
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.

back to top

"Joanne doesn’t spend a lot of time looking in the rear-view mirror – she’s a lady that’s focuses forward. Listen to the advice she gives: her message is critical in helping leaders understand this emerging and dynamic market."

Annette Verschuren
President
The Home Depot Canada

back to top

"The Thomas Yaccato Group has been a valuable resource for IKEA Canada as we have been realigning our marketing strategy in Canada. Their extensive understanding of how to market to women, who are responsible for 80 per cent of household purchasing decisions and represent an important core customer for IKEA, has been invaluable to our organization."

Luc Lauwers
President
IKEA Canada

back to top

"In today's dynamic workplace, identifying new ways to communicate effectively with colleagues and work efficiently as a team is an ongoing responsibility and challenge. Through her "Women and Men as Effective Teams" course, Joanne Thomas Yaccato uses both a business-like and light-hearted approach to highlight the complexities of communication between men and women and how this impacts our day-to-day working relationships. By the end of Joanne’s session, participants come away with a greater appreciation and understanding of differences in style. Most importantly, she focuses on how we can use our individual qualities to our advantage to motivate each other and work together to achieve both personal and corporate success."

Sanford Riley,
President and CEO,
Investors Group

back to top

"Investors Group clients had the pleasure of hearing Joanne speak on the very unique issues faced by members of the Sandwich Generation. Drawing on her personal experiences, Joanne walked us through the process of raising sensitive issues such as wills, estate planning, long term care decisions, Powers of Attorney and funeral arrangements with parents who are ill-prepared for their future and reluctant to discuss details with their children. At times the serious subject matter yielded gales of laughter as Joanne brought the topic to life with her anecdotes and wry humour. The response was overwhelmingly positive and the audience kept Joanne talking late into the evening with their questions and their compelling personal stories. I have heard Joanne speak on many different occasions and on different topics, but for me, this was, by far, her most enlightening and moving presentation."

Doug McLeish,
Regional Director, Vancouver
Investors Group

back to top

"Joanne brilliantly elevates our heads out the sand to really see and understand what is happening around us in the world of gender differences. Her indispensable and arresting insights in her conference keynote, often layered with humour and wit will definitely leave you with a dose of reality of our dynamic marketplace today. Her practical approach with real life experiences further lend support to better position ourselves as an organization to navigate the world of the most powerful consumer of them all...women!"

Mona Fanous
Director, Pharmacy Practice and Professional Programs
Katz Group Canada

back to top

"Joanne is a lively and energetic speaker. She speaks with passion, commitment and humour in a manner that anyone from the CEO to front-line staff can relate to."

Todd Hutchings,
Program Planner,
OHA Educational Services

back to top

"This is What I Really Mean…" keynote speech was extremely successful and very timely. We have never before had women physicians attend the Ontario Medical Association's Annual Meeting in such numbers. The topic was relevant, the content was educational, and Joanne Thomas Yaccato's presentation style was extremely entertaining. We will do this again and you can rest assured that we will give Joanne even more time to work her magic at the next Annual Meeting."

Dr. Lesia Wynnychuk,
Board Member,
Ontario Medical Association
Chair, Organizing Committee

back to top

"Joanne is a dynamic speaker who, through her research and humourous style, helped us understand the huge economic power of the women's market. She was very successful in sensitizing our group to gender issues."

Brian Spain,
Vice President,
Group Account Director,
Padulo Advertising

back to top

“The workshop was very helpful for farmers; both in their business and personal lives. In an industry where bad news is more common than good news, it was great to see a group of farmers laughing and having fun together. They expressed their enjoyment of the day and will be making changes to better serve women. They expect improvements in their businesses that came as a result of the workshop with Joanne. ”

Kent Thompson
Product Development Officer
PEI Department of Agriculture

back to top

“As a marketer, I’m expected to understand how our guests think and feel about our products and services. Joanne’s seminar made me realize that at least 50% of the population doesn’t necessarily react and respond to our offers and promotions in the same way I do. After the seminar our Marketing leadership team is now looking at our site level experience through a much different lens.”

Phil Churton
Vice President of Marketing
Petro-Canada

back to top

"Joanne's speaking style is lively and entertaining, and the content of her presentation is fresh, informative and edgy. Her use of multi-media to point out current trends in marketing holds the attention of her audiences and ensures delivery of very good information.

She has a wicked sense of humor and was a pleasure to deal with in every way. I would recommend Joanne to any event organizer."
Brian A. Butters, Executive Director
Professional Golfers' Association of B.C.

back to top

"Joanne Thomas Yaccato has done us all a big favour. She has worked to show us the "real" world. By helping to open our eyes to the world we live in, she opens the doors of opportunity. It is often difficult for old institutions first to recognize and then to react to our changed and changing demands as a society. Joanne helps us see and then navigate the new world with sound insights and an eye that sees our follies and then focuses on a better way to meet the demands of the future."

Gordon Campbell
Former Premier
Province of British Columbia

back to top

"The Thomas Yaccato Group translates what women are looking for from the public and private sector into powerful and effective strategies that go considerable distance in helping organizations meet the needs of this critically important constituency."

Greg Sorbara
Former Minister of Finance
Province of Ontario

back to top

"As part of our market research program, the Quebec Furniture Manufacturers' Association hired Joanne to conduct a Gender Intelligence Lab™ on the home furnishings industry to get a better sense of what women need when it comes to their home and the furniture they choose to put in it-an unprecedented step in our industry. Although we instinctively knew that women played a huge role in our industry, we had no idea how powerful the findings would be.

The new insights uncovered through TYG's Gender Intelligence Lab™ touched on all stages of the furniture buying process: from research to the actual shopping experience, through to the moment furniture arrives in the home. These findings have literally transformed the way our manufacturers view and relate to this powerful constituency.

Joanne is passionate, engaging and really knows how to captivate her audience - even an audience whose first language isn't English! She presented her findings to our members and conducted workshops with them on several occasions and was able to effectively transfer all of the new research insights to them. More importantly, our members were able to walk away with newfound inspiration and tools that they could immediately apply to their product design, communications tools and entire organization. They now know that by making it women-friendly they make it everybody-friendly!"

Jean François Michaud
President and CEO

back to top

"While there is no doubt that the course has excellent content and can really help sales people understand how small business people want to be treated, the real value of the program lies in the facilitators. The Thomas Yaccato Group offers the best small business experts who are entrepreneurs themselves. The impact of hearing the message not from the Bank but from someone who speaks from experience adds a credibility factor that cannot be replicated in-house."

Don Whittemore,
Manager Learning Design,
RBC Financial Group

back to top

"We use Joanne as a keynote speaker right across the country. No matter what part of Canada we send her to, Joanne has consistently drawn huge numbers of qualified prospects to our events, which our account managers have effectively turned into clients. The audience falls in love with her wit and her wisdom, laughing while they learn. She is one of the best marketing investments the bank has made."

Betty Wood,
Senior National Marketing Manager,
Royal Bank

back to top

"Royal Bank used The Thomas Yaccato Group’s Reaching the Real World of Women Entrepreneurs as an integral part of our bank-wide core training program and we have reaped incredible benefits as a result. One year after its implementation, Royal Bank saw the highest-ever increase in satisfaction levels of women entrepreneurs with their account managers, a whopping 30% increase in one year. Even more impressive was the 10% market share increase within the same year. Royal Bank continues to win international awards for our work in the women’s market - Reaching the Real World of Women Entrepreneurs is one of the major reasons. Joanne is truly a leader in her field and an inspiration to many. Her seminars for Royal Bank have provided great insight for our staff and she continues to spark the imaginations in all of us."

Charles Coffey,
Executive Vice President,
Royal Bank Financial Group

back to top

"Scotiabank hired Joanne’s company who brought unparalleled experience in the entrepreneurial market and a unique ability to communicate a very powerful message to our employees. Joanne and her staff developed a course specifically for Scotiabank called Reaching the Entrepreneur, which we rolled out to over 1000 bank managers across the country. It has literally taken the bank by storm. Thanks to her course, we are witnessing incredible enthusiasm and excitement by our bankers around the entrepreneurial market that we have not seen previously. Happily, our customer satisfaction numbers reflect this."

Susan Kennedy-Loewen,
Vice President,
Scotiabank

back to top

"Joanne Thomas Yaccato's work with our store design, management and planning group helped us create simple, economical customer focused changes to our free standing store design. Sear's Canada opened 4 this year. The customer response has been excellent."

Ethel Taylor
Senior Vice President Corporate Store Sales
Sears Canada

back to top

"The understanding we gained from The 80% Minority: Reaching the Real World of Women Consumers, followed by direct advice from Joanne, led us to tap into the minds of our female customers. It made us smarter and better at what we do. It was an exhilarating experience for our women customers who participated from the planning stage through the opening of two specifically 'designed by women' homes. Imagine how even more revealing Joanne's advice was when we won a national award for one of the models. Joanne inspired us to do what we should have always been doing!"

Shane Wenzel
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Shane Homes

back to top

"Many managers agree that tapping into the women's market is key to growing their business. It's figuring out how to do this that causes a problem. Joanne's training seminars have provided our clients and us with valuable information on how to avoid alienating this key market with our advertising message, and, more importantly, given us some great ideas on how to reach women effectively."

TJ Flynn
Vice President, Sales
Telemedia Publishing
Women's Service Group

back to top