Consumer Gender and Corporate Social Responsibility
Since about 2001, this marketing to women path I’ve been on has been an interesting ride. Where I expected to get more and more focused on the ‘business” end, I have instead gone broader and broader with the “whys” of gendered consumer behavior. If I think about my background and life experiences, it makes sense. I never take the direct route or explore the front and center. As I suggested in my most recent newsletter article* – my “focus” tends to be the out-of-focus, or the peripheral. While it can be easily missed, what’s coming up alongside, on the fringes, can be very important for understanding how consumers behave now (or will soon) and how marketers should be reaching them.
Tomorrow I begin a weeklong residency for a master’s program** in which I will be digging into something I’ve seen in that women’s market periphery for a while now: corporate social responsibility. I intend to apply my years of experience with gender in marketing to something that should no longer be in the periphery for any corporation.
What are women known to do in the way they experience the world and their daily lives, as well as in the ways they buy? They think holistically, or “it all matters.” Why do consumers now demand corporate social responsibility from the brands they buy? It all matters.
No longer can a brand say they are serving consumers well with one hand while they mistreat employees with the other. Gone are the days when environmental practices can be greenwashed, because consumers are looking at brands with magnifying glasses. And, go ahead and say goodbye to doing the right thing in pubic relations terms while hiding corrupt practices behind the curtain. She sees you.
And, what “she” is doing with that information influences how she buys. But, in the twenty-first century, her ways are also starting to rub off a bit more on how men buy. So yes, women continue to be the leading indicators of values-based buying behavior, but they are only the leaders – there’s a whole other group of consumers who are following that lead and we can’t neglect them! Part of my work in this next two years will be to explore the nuances, the periphery, of gendered consumer behavior as it relates to brands and their corporate social responsibility. I suspect that consumer values take priority over consumer gender differences in the new marketplace. But, my research will look at how marketers in socially responsible businesses can integrate the greater subtleties of gendered buying behavior to serve shared consumer values with that much more relevance.
I firmly believe the brands that pay attention and work toward more socially responsible practices will win with women, and men, for the much longer term. Keep reading my posts and articles along the way, and you’ll share in my learning process.
*If you’d like to see a copy of this newsletter, but prefer not to subscribe, email me and I’ll forward it to you.( andrea @ learnedonwomen dot com)
**Please note: my twitter presence and blog posts will be on the “light” side this next week due to this residency.
