Why do so many brands still misunderstand women’s lives?

For more than 100 years International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated worldwide to commemorate women, highlight their achievements, and shed light on the challenges.  

Too often [brands are] still failing to understand the way women want to live, or how best to use female talent.

But, despite years of discussions around damaging stereotypes and the need for more women in senior roles and in creative leadership seats, too many big brands still don’t understand modern women’s lives.  

While many brands are busy focussing on their purpose, too often they’re still failing to understand the way women want to live, or how best to use female talent, which impacts their brand values, marketing messages and customer relationships.

Above: International Women's Day has been celebrating women for more than 100 years, but brands still have more work to do.

Big brands have products and services that women need for their health and wellbeing, their financial security and more but, too often, too little investment is put into both designing products for women and, beyond limited stereotypes, ways of marketing to them. By underserving half of the population they’re missing out on a huge potential customer base.  

Legacy brands need to breathe more female insight in their brand strategies, and they can learn a lot from their start up counterparts.

While IWD can be a cause for celebration, it should also be a cause for reflection. Despite all the advances in our society, in many communities we are currently seeing a declining life expectancy among women, and this was before we faced the Covid-19 health crisis. Since then, women have the added challenge that Covid brought for both long term health and working life.

Broad societal gains cannot be taken for granted as benefiting the whole population, and it is against this backdrop that brands need to better support women. Legacy brands need to breathe more female insight in their brand strategies, and they can learn a lot from their start up counterparts who are fuelling stellar growth through better understanding of their female customers.

Above: Women control more than $31.8 trillion in worldwide spending. 

Marketing to women needs a refresh

Women control more than $31.8 trillion in worldwide spending. According to Kantar's WhatWomenWant?research, 85% of women said film and advertising does a poor job of depicting real world women, and those brands that do promote the perfect gender balance are worth, collectively, more than £774 billion.

According to Kantar's WhatWomenWant?research, 85% of women said film and advertising does a poor job of depicting real world women.

The issues surrounding marketing to women were brought to the fore by Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts. In their book, Brandsplaining: Why Marketing is (Still) Sexist and How to Fix It, they explained that while the Mad Men era has long gone, there is still ‘sneaky sexism’ in the industry in the form of ‘femversting’ and ‘fempowerment.’  

They draw on legacy brands such as Dove and Nike, who have done brilliant work championing women, but could also be accused of telling women what they should want – ‘be brave, be strong’ – rather than getting under their skin and really listening to what they need.

Above: Last year, shots' Culture Editor Amy Kean spoke to authors Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts about how brands talk to women.

Femtech to the fore

Conversely, the huge growth of the femtech industry shows how listening to what women really want and need can drive exponential returns. There are some incredible femtech firms embracing emerging technologies, such as trackable wearables, artificial intelligence and non-invasive hardware, that are already making huge strides forward in advancing female health.

Legacy brands don’t have the benefit of starting afresh [but] they have infrastructure, talent and investment to adapt and adjust.

These include the likes of Ava, a multi-sensor bracelet that predicts the most fertile days to improve a women’s chance of conception, and Bloomlife, a wearable monitor that non-invasively tracks the health of mother and baby throughout pregnancy. 

These brands have listened to women’s real-life issues and built and marketed their brand around them. While legacy brands don’t have the benefit of starting afresh in this way, they have infrastructure, talent and investment to adapt and adjust. Now they just need the will.  

Above: Victoria's Secret has attempted to move away from his ultra-sexy image to a more inclusive approach.

Brand strategies need more female insight

As marketeers, it is our job to tell stories that represent the real world and those within it, while staying true to a brand’s values and image. So, if the industry is looking to directly appeal to (and better relate to) women, we should be encouraging more female leadership in businesses and hiring more creative female leads as the audience we serve is demanding change and greater authenticity.  

If the industry is looking to directly appeal to (and better relate to) women, we should be encouraging more female leadership.

In 2021, Victoria’s Secret, a male-founded company, re-branded, ditching its ‘Angels’ slogan for more body-positive role models. Some of its senior male team stepped down and a new product and marketing direction saw the launch of its very first maternity and mastectomy bras.

Looking at the financial services sector, brands such as Starling Bank have disrupted a typically male dominated industry. As a female-founded businesses, Starling’s founder Anne Boden, has taken the issues facing women when it comes to financial services head on, creating a product that is relatable, practical and easy to use. Her introduction of ‘human-first’ banking and improving the experience for everyone has helped build the app-based bank into a £1.1 billion company.