If you're having trouble marketing consumer products to design-conscious teenage girls, don't worry. Just give Heidi Dangelmaier a buzz. Dangelmaier is CEO of a company called 3iYing, a name that
combines a reference to the third eye on the U.S. dollar bill with "ying," representing feminine potential. Her company consists of 20 young women who help marketers develop new strategies for
companies finding it difficult to attract women in the 15 to 25 age group. Their keen instincts on what makes the so-called girl market tick have worked for companies like videogame maker Sega and
Virgin Mobile, among many others. In its 10 months, Dangelmaier's young team has come up with radical ideas on how to design and sell everything from condoms and lingerie to food. To assemble her
team, Dangelmaier scoured the New York High School of Art & Design and LaGuardia High School of Music & Performing Arts. Students at both schools "have a very developed sense of design, which is why
they're able to think forward," she says. Demographic trends indicate that the potential for the young outfit is huge; between 1990 and 2000, the number of teens aged 12 to 19 soared to 32 million, an
increase of nearly 4.5 million.
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