Ensure Brand Respects Women as Part of Retaining Woman

Yesterday, we discussed how to attract and retain women professionals and identified having a woman-friendly brand as essential to your efforts. But how exactly do you establish a woman-friendly brand in today’s noisy marketplace?


Think Respect. Long ago, companies designed pink products “just for ladies.” That doesn’t fly anymore. The key is to respect women, which means staying authentic and treating all customers as intelligent consumers who want to make smart choices about the things they purchase.
Think Convenience. Women lead busy lives and want to do what’s best for themselves and their families. Allow them to manage their interactions with your company online, but also provide good customer service when a problem occurs. That means a toll-free customer service phone number with a human being on the other end.
Ban All Sexist Messaging. Blatant sexism is easy to spot, but sometimes it’s the undertones you need to mind. Take a look at your publicity. Do men speak in your ads and women just nod their heads? Are men ever shown as caregivers and nurturers? Do your models feature only younger women?
Be Willing to Listen. No brand is perfect, so if you make a misstep, be willing to listen to your women customers and fix the problem. Engaging with customers is key these days and a little honesty and transparency could prove very refreshing.
Promote Empowerment…and Mean It—Don’t just opportunistically jump on the “women can do anything” bandwagon. Women can sense the insincerity a mile away. You have to be show that your company walks the walk promoting women leaders within your company and providing a woman-friendly workplace (see yesterday’s article).
Care about Women and Girls—Speaking of walking the walk, make sure your corporate social responsibility program assists women’s education and empowerment. If you do already, tell that story. A strong commitment to helping others makes for brand authenticity that’s attractive to all thinking adults.