Bridging Gender, Consumer Behavior & Social Responsibility
A few trends are aligning that have already and individually been making a difference in the world of marketing. They have to do with consumer gender, corporate responsibility and values-based humans (as consumers and employees). While addressing these will be challenging for marketers, I believe it will be worth it. What those trends represent is likely to be the most rewarding business and cultural shift we’ll experience in our lifetimes.
The separate trends I see now combining to cause that shift include:
1) A new perspective on gender, and how it influences consumer behavior.
2) The evolution of business practices from shareholder-centered/traditional/linear to more stakeholder-centered/socially responsible/holistic.
3) Personal values being more integrated between our consumer and professional perspectives.
***
Today’s consumers are forcing these issues and in the process building bridges from old, “spindly,” ineffective ways of doing business to new, customer-centric, steel-girded ways of serving consumers. Below are the opportunities for marketers therein:
The bridging opportunity in trend #1: More and more men are allowing for their perhaps more “feminine” sensibilities to influence their purchases. In the meantime, many a brand’s marketing to women efforts – which should now be appealing to the highest consumer standard – are instead stuck in the old days, creating a bit of a pink ghetto. The now cliched “for women” ways are for the most part unnecessary and may well turn off the men who are buying a broader array of products than ever before. The new approach- and the one that savvy brands need to take – is to treat the “feminine sensibilities” as your marker. Be guided and inspired by what women expect, and you’ll serve everyone with more relevance. No gender about it.
The bridging opportunity in trend #2: As of fall 2008, it became official – the sole corporate pursuit of profits with responsibility only to shareholders backfired. It’s simply not sustainable to think and do business in such an old, linear way. Businesses that have traditionally measured success on those terms are being called to task by consumers. Today stakeholders (not solely shareholders), in their many shapes, sizes and levels of interaction with a company are key to long term growth. A company’s decisions must serve that entire “membership” of people to be strong. By bridging to the new stakeholder framework, profits are but one part of a triple business bottom line that includes people and planet.
The bridging opportunity for trend #3: The old way of doing business has often meant that humans dropped their personal values at the office door each morning. But, today’s values-based buyer has changed all that. He or she can see under the radar and behind that door. Consumers are driving businesses to more socially responsible practices that cross the bridge to a new place: where as consumers and employees, human beings can live and work in tune with their personal values.
Though these trends were gaining momentum individually before, if slowly, perhaps it took the economic downturn of Fall 2008 for businesses for them to combine. Companies were forced to look inward and realize those bridges needed serious tending. I believe consumers have been anxiously waiting to walk over them.
Note: If corporate social responsibility is on your radar, I am posting some great links on that topic via twitter these days, so feel free to follow me: @AndreaLearned
Pingback: Link Roundup #9 « Brand You
Pingback: Link Roundup #10 « Brand You