Women make up the majority of the buying decisions across many categories of businesses. In fact, 85% of purchases are made by women in the U.S.; and women account for $31.8 trillion in global spending. Unfortunately, this statistic is excluding trans women, as the group has been largely overlooked or excluded from most advertising and marketing campaigns as well as market research.
However, trans people make up 1 million of the population and have an important voice given more young people in the last few years are identifying as transgender.
More than half of the U.S. population is made up of women. 60% of women control personal wealth in the U.S. due to 52% of women moving up in management and professional positions across Corporate America. Despite this shift in economics, White women, in particular, still make 78 cents on the dollar compared to their white male counterparts. While women of color make significantly less; Black women make 63 cents for every dollar and Latinx women make 54 cents. Trans women also earn significantly less making only 60 cents for every dollar, without accounting for race.
Not only are economic disparities not addressed in the U.S., but 91% of women feel that they are not being understood when advertised to or showcased beyond outdated tropes that do not honor the shifts in cultural, socio-political, and economic strides women have made in the last 50+ years.
More likely than not, a lot of marketing strategies target womxn simply by applying a one-size-fits-all persona and utilizing it to fit all of the female demographic. Or, they tend to objectify womxn in their advertising campaigns.
It is important if you wish to connect to womxn customers, to embrace inclusivity and create campaigns that resonate on a human level, rather than simply embracing gendered tropes that debase womxn and their individual experiences.
Tip #1 Celebrate the authenticity of womxn’s voices
Similar to all demographics, womxn are not a monolith and have diverse voices that reflect very different experiences. Simply having your organization’s marketing persona being defined as “womxn” creates challenges because it doesn’t aim to tell a story or share the human experiences of womxn that speak beyond their gender.
In fact, most advertising continues to display women in revealing clothing or partially nude. More women in advertisements are also verbally objectified over their male counterparts.
Particularly, for trans women, though there is some growing representation of this segment over the years; the representation is still very minimal and the stories are mostly stereotypical or trite. Most brands exclude trans women and trans representation altogether, especially when their external appearances do not fit the typical cis-representations of gender. This is especially true in the beauty industry where trans women typically are excluded from marketing campaigns because they do not represent the concept of a “cis-gendered woman” according to current bias.
It is important that your organization veer far away from marketing to womxn based on their sex appeal or outer appearances. Instead, consider womxn’s needs, priorities, relationships, and different perspectives. For example, Lottie London, the makeup brand, did a great job of this in their inspiring #embraceTRANSition campaign on International Women’s Day, where they showcased diverse transwomen in their beauty products and shared each of their transition journeys. Hershey’s Canada created an authentic marketing campaign featuring diverse womxn from different lived experiences on their limited-edition packaging range. Their packaging showcased each of these womxn’s backgrounds and what they achieved including words that highlighted their character such as “fearless”, “hardworking”, and “loving.”
Tip #2 Seek to learn the intersectionality of womxn
Intersectionality is incredibly important when marketing to the womxn’s community. Womxn face a multitude of consequences due to the intersections of their identity including: race, gender, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, and other social dynamics. In order to build trust, your brand must be willing to learn the intersectionality of womxn and how it affects their experiences.
Use asset-based language in your marketing campaigns that evoke confidence and assuredness amongst womxn consumers. Normalize imagery and voices of a community rich in intersectionality. Include diverse influencers and brand ambassadors in your marketing campaigns to build trust and confidence in your brand’s understanding of intersectional identities. Normalize the depth of their diverse stories and bring equity to the way you acknowledge their different family dynamics, non-stereotypical preferences, and interests.
Conduct listening sessions with a diverse group of womxn and pay attention to the intersectionality of their identities. Also, creating specific, accurate, and well-defined personas will help you be more effective in catering to the nuances across womxn consumers.
Tip #3 Don’t be afraid to challenge gender norms
Women have moved far away from being only homemakers. In fact, approximately 40% of women out-earn their husbands, shifting the stereotypical gender roles of men being the breadwinner and women being stay-at-home moms.
The roles of women and gender are changing drastically as younger generations mostly see gender as a spectrum and cannot be defined by previous stereotypes. Therefore, your marketing strategies should capitalize on this shift and strip away genderizing your marketing campaigns.
Ditch the pink. Remove the need to put pink or pastel colors on your products as if that is the only identifier that symbolizes womanhood or “made for womxn.” These marketing strategies date back centuries and don’t address the shifts and strides in consumer sentiment and gender roles more generally.
In fact, a great example of a brand challenging stereotypical gender roles is GoldieBox. Its Kickstarter campaign featured a viral video aimed to inspire the next generation of young girls to build engineering concepts to jumpstart their future “STEM” careers.
Tip #4 Make your content easily shareable for womxn to introduce to their trusted circle
Womxn respond to relational marketing, meaning marketing that promotes building brand loyalty and trust, where the relationship between the brand and the audience is mutually beneficial, rather than transactional. Trans women also respond to “mutual trust”, where your brand resonates with them on an emotional level and creates a connection with their lived experiences.
Therefore, in order for your brand to resonate amongst womxn, you may want to create content that has been shared or can be shared by everyday people. In fact, 76% of women say they resonate with content shared in this manner. 81% of female millennials say that social media was the best way for brands to reach them. Keep in mind that the majority of influencers are womxn. Womxn are more likely going to be attracted to the content shared by other womxn, especially those they follow, which is naturally going to help you build brand awareness and credibility. Plus, social media is simply a great tool to be used to reach micro-influencers and everyday brand customers who have real experiences with your brand. Instead of having to create new content, you can leverage their real-world experiences to grow your brand awareness organically.
Particularly for trans women and the trans community at large, social media can be an extremely effective way to understand and engage with your trans audience. Create content that trans influencers and activists can share that is meaningful to the social, political, health, and wellness issues that affect the community the most. Keep in mind that, unlike other segments of the womxn’s community, who to some extent have traditionally had safe spaces to create community outside the digital space, trans women still face heinous acts of violence and harassment in their daily lives. In particular, the real world is even more dangerous for transgender people of color who exceedingly face more violence than their White counterparts. Social media can create social connections and safer interactions for trans people to just be themselves. And, upon discovering their authentic selves, most transgender people create new social networks to affirm their identity. Trans people are more likely to trust brands that are in their network, foster real-life connections and community, and uplift their most authentic versions of selves.
Tip #5 Normalize health and wellness for womxn
Womxn’s bodies do amazing things and are very multifaceted. From body hair, menstruation, pregnancy, aging, and even mental health, womxn’s bodies come in all shapes and sizes and go through various bodily changes. Most womxn feel misunderstood by the healthcare industry. Many businesses still feel that discussing and marketing to womxn’s healthcare is considered taboo.
The stigmas surrounding womxn’s health are even more dangerous amongst womxn of color and transwomen. Womxn of color and transwomen remain broadly under-represented in medical research and misogynistic perceptions continue to permeate their narrative.
Without marketing or even acknowledging womxn’s health, your brand fails to consider womxn’s human experiences and may alienate your audience. As womxn’s healthcare is getting diminished by key legislation across the States, it is important that in order to genuinely connect with your womxn audience, your brand must take an interest in their well-being.
A good example of this is Nana, which is a leading feminine hygiene brand in the UAE that has created a globally renowned marketing campaign called #Wombstories. #Wombstories allows women to talk about intimate stories around their physical and emotional journeys, from puberty to menopause, without being belittled or shamed. It also brings to light hidden and unspoken experiences that oftentimes lead to undiagnosed pain or disease because women have not had the space to discuss their biological and physiological changes and needs openly without judgment.
Another great example of this is Oprah Daily’s latest campaign which provides their readership with educational content on menopause including an A to Z guide, quiz, and class where Oprah, Drew Barrymore, and Maria Shriver sit down with two doctors to debunk the myths around menopause.
