Women’s empowerment as the message of a brand
Women’s empowerment means promoting women’s sense of self-worth, their capacity to make their own choices, and their right to influence social change for themselves and others. It is important to find out how women across different age groups perceive women’s empowerment and what type of messaging would resonate best with them. Now women are not portrayed as flawless beings, having their unspoken but understood place in the home, office, and social arena. But there seems to have been a change in the representation of women. It seems to acknowledge the fact that women of all ages, races, and sizes deserve to be celebrated and not ignored.
Women feel empowered when they see women to who they can relate to. Given below are the ways in which brands that represent women’s empowerment can lead to multifaceted gains
a) Positive brand image – Getty Images has created a portfolio of women called ‘Lean In Collection’ in their stock photography stack. For this purpose, they partnered with Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. The new portfolio, which had images of empowered women, witnessed a 65% growth in revenue. Dove saw an increase in sales from $2.5 billion to $4 since the launch of its campaign for Real Beauty. Almost every business that launched campaigns that aimed at empowering women saw a significant boost in its reputation and brand image.
b) Address issues – Domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid used their award-winning campaign in 2016 to make people stop and take notice of a public justice issue: domestic violence. It put up interactive out-of-home ads featuring a picture of a beaten and bruised woman. The more people stopped and looked at the poster, the more quickly the woman’s injuries would disappear. Fanpageit’s ‘Slap her’ was another video that highlighted the absurdity of violence against women. The reaction of the boys in the video showed how violence against women is not something natural but rather a learned behavior.
c) Better business opportunities- Empowered women go on to empower other women and together an environment is created where more people join the active mainstream consumer population which is a great thing for business. For instance, Angolan businesswoman Isabel de Santos has been working towards making Africa adopt the entrepreneurial spirit in a major way. She meets young women all across Africa helping and motivating them to pursue their dreams and work towards creating a developed Africa by adopting digitization and innovation.
d) Marketing efforts should feel authentic – Marketing efforts that focus on women’s empowerment should feel authentic and not opportunistic. A business should steer clear of ‘femvertising’, the tendency for brands to leverage issues surrounding women in a superficial way. Women will be able to spot inauthentic platitudes. Businesses that cast real-life inspiring women make a huge impact with their messaging. 69-year-old Maye Musk became a CoverGirl in 2017 challenging the idea that beauty is only attainable within a certain age group.
