The She Spot: Where Women Drive Social Change
Posted on | September 15, 2008 | 1 Comment
by Andrea Learned
Women have a lot of economic and political clout these days. No surprise there. But, it isn’t only as consumers that women wield their power. In fact, by leveraging their well-earned money and time, the women’s market may be an even greater catalyst for social change. Talk about power to the people…
Interestingly, part of the particular strength of women in “encouraging” change comes from their years of practice in becoming very savvy consumers. Women have long demanded a much higher standard from the brands they buy, and NOW, they can put all that “demanding” practice to its ultimate challenge: the funding and development of causes that will greatly and positively affect society for years to come.
Leveraging all the collective knowledge on reaching women for world-changing reasons has been on my mind for some time, but it is the new book by Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen that really got me going (and ever more hopeful). In The She Spot, the co-authors start right out by stating the case and showing why women are so heard in the nonprofit sector, particularly. Among other things:
- Women account for roughly 60 percent of socially conscious investing, and,
- Women are, and have been, behind major social movements (think volunteerism and suffrage, for two).
That’s no small potatoes and all roads seem to lead to women continuing, if not growing, their interest in such things.
The She Spot is full of case studies and guidelines for applying solid women’s market truths to nonprofit work. And, throughout, the co-authors remind readers that none of what they suggest is meant to leave men out of the social change equation – it is just that serving the higher expectations of women with your nonprofit and cause marketing will reach everyone. Marketers from any industry cannot be reminded of this truth enough…
In the book, Witter and Chen serve up a lot of great advice and insights, so read it with hi-lighter in hand. In fact, I’d like to second (third and fourth) two that are incredibly applicable to corporate as well as nonprofit marketing:
In the online realm, women are more likely to click on the “about us” page. Don’t be a faceless organization. In general, and all along the way, demonstrate your impact. Even if you are making only incremental progress toward your goal (toward environmental or social responsible practices, for instance), let your market know.
I emailed Witter and Chen about the surprises that have filtered up as they’ve been promoting The She Spot, and here’s how they answered my questions:
AL: Â What makes people raise their eyebrows in an “I had no idea” moment when they read/hear your She Spot work?
W&C: Â That women buy more riding lawn mowers, are online more than men, that they blog more than men and use social networks more than men. And…that if you effectively reach women you get men too, but not the other way around.
AL: Â I realize that the things that seem so obvious to people who study the women’s market, like those reading this blog post, may still be difficult for a lot of more traditional marketers to absorb. Do you have a sense for why this might be so?
W&C:Â First, we think people still have trouble admitting that women are different because somehow they feel that they are admitting that women aren’t equal. In The She Spot, we really try to emphasize that just like we wouldn’t want to live in a color blind world, we don’t want to live in a gender blind world – and that differences are good!
Also, marketers still, for the most part, forget that women are tougher customers and want the details of an organization, a big gift, a campaign, or a piece of legislation before they make their decisions. Organizations often think that the heart-tugging story is enough with women when, for the most part, it isn’t really the case if you want to deeply engage them.
AL: Â You mention how much nonprofits might be able to learn from corporate/brand marketing, but when I read The She Spot, I saw it the other way around too. Brand marketers think they’ve got it all down, but stepping back and learning from some of the successful cause campaigns may really be a wise move. Brands get the bullet points, but causes have gotten pretty good at the emotion/connecting/storytelling. What are your thoughts?
W&C:  Causes are pretty good at the emotion/connecting/storytelling because the staff are there with the heart and passion. It’s very much driven by the emotion and commitment to the work. I’d imagine it’s not the same (for the most part) when you sell a product. People in NGOs are mission driven, so it makes communicating about it a bit easier – especially from an authentic place. That said, I still see a lot NGOs that aren’t good at this and get stuck on the intellectual answer to their mission vs. the emotional one.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI89WhcjUaE[/youtube]
Tags: > Andrea Learned > Lisa Chen > Lisa Witter > Not-for-Profit Marketing > social change > The She Spot
Comments
One Response to “The She Spot: Where Women Drive Social Change”
Leave a Reply
September 15th, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
Great post, Andrea. Having worked in the nonprofit sector for many years, and now consulting and speaking, I agree that staff and volunteers have passion for the mission. I’ve also seen plenty of organizations that struggle with their messaging and getting to the heart of what they do.