STEAL THIS BAG ... ... AND LOOK INSIDE: There's a lot more than lipstick and keys in there. A hundred women show marketers what floats their totes-and what doesn't.(News)(Survey)

Byline: JACK NEFF

jneff@adage.com

The purse is relatively unexplored territory for marketers. And no wonder: It's scary in there, filled with old gum wrappers, crumbs, lipstick with the cap off, tampons with the wrappers coming off and all manner of things best left unsaid.

But no more. Kelley Styring, a former market researcher for Procter & Gamble Co. and PepsiCo's Frito-Lay, and now principal of the marketing consultancy InsightFarm, Newburg, Ore., recently completed what she said is the first comprehensive look inside women's purses. She intercepted 100 women in malls in Oregon and Texas who were willing to let strangers sort through and film the contents of their purses.

She's …