“Girls rule the world” was cited as a top disruptive marketing trend by Geoffrey Colon a few months ago here on Branding Strategy Insider.

But this trend extends beyond just ruling the world. Across society, cultural norms are being challenged by ideas of what women are capable of and how they should be regarded. Just recently, a L.A.-based sitcom writer told me that a network executive asked their show to remove a scene where the female lead was eating because, ready for this? “Nobody wants to see a woman eating in prime time.” Yep, true story.

Ideas of women being single and empowered, body positivity, and increased demand for diversity everywhere is helping to propel many related trends concerning women. Here are a few brands should take note of:

1. Out Of The Box: While we hope better data will lead to more informed and nuanced market profiling, it is still too easy and common to assume that most women want to get married and have children. Of those who want to get married, many are doing so later in life, and in most of the western world, fewer women are having children. Or, they are at least having children much later in life. Some brands are reimagining the narrative for single women. Take Singles Swag, a subscription service that treats subscribers to a collection of curated products based on preferences. While the concept of subscribing to a monthly service is not new, the narrative and targeting for this one is. Brands can learn from this by getting creative with narratives and applying them in ways that allow successful concepts to be remixed.

2. From Shhhh To Chic: Back in 2015’s Future 100, JWT Intelligence cited a trend that “previously taboo aspects of femininity are being brought to the forefront of cultural discourse.” We started to see some feminine care products getting a makeover, but now this trend is going global, even in more conservative societies.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui told an interviewer that her failure to take home a medal was in part because, “I just got my period yesterday and I’m still a bit weak and really tired.” CNN’s account of this says she ‘smashed taboo and won the internet.’ As JWT notes in this year’s Future 100, China launched its first domestic tampon brand called Femme. It is being marketed as a premium product aiming to dispel the stigma around tampon usage. By smashing taboo, and empowered by social media, barriers are coming down where real results in health, education and quality of life can be seen.

3. Body Positive: Nearly a decade ago, Dove stunned the world with its ‘real beauty’ campaign. But last year in London, a weight-loss ad by Protein World prompted a major backlash when an athletic bikini-clad model was featured with the headline “Are You Beach Body Ready?” A vocal group of critics felt the message was intended to make individuals feel inferior and while the brand tried to fight back, so did London’s mayor. In a press release, the mayor’s office said that “from [August], Transport for London will not allow ads which could reasonably be seen as likely to cause pressure to conform to an unrealistic or unhealthy body shape, or as likely to create body confidence issues, particularly among young people.”

Today, in the U.S., 67% of women are over a size 14 yet they are reflected in only 2% of imagery. As real life photography is more readily available and user-generated content increases, brands need to be mindful of being inclusive and of the impact they can have on a society that seems to be increasingly demanding of a more accurate reflection of the world we live in. But if the world we live in is less healthy, brands need to be cautious about how much they reflect versus how much they can motivate and inspire.

Another way to look at these examples is to see them less about empowerment, and more about acknowledgement and acceptance. As we fast approach the end of the year, we can see 2016 has had a shocking and polarizing effect across many societies. Fake news, the diminishing notion of political correctness and many other effects have left many wondering “What is real?” and “Who can I relate to?”

Brands that answer those questions smartly and sensitively will better align themselves with our changing world as well as gain new customers and advocates in the year ahead.

Don’t let the future leave you behind. Join us in Hollywood, California for Brand Leadership in the Age of Disruption, our 5th annual competitive-learning event designed around brand strategy.

The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers

In this session, attendees heard from two former agency executives charged with leading the transformation of Well Fargo’s 200-person creative services organization. They discussed how they laid the foundations for the shift to a true agency model. From fractionalized to unified. From servicing to leading. From vertical to horizontal. That’s only a few of the pivots that were explored in this session.

– the book:  People First Leadership: How the Best Leaders Use Culture and Emotion to Drive Unprecedented Results

– the brain:  Eduardo Braun.  In his role as the former Director of the World Business Forum, Eduardo has interviewed world leaders such as Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, and Mikhail Gorbachev and business luminaries including Jack Welch, Tom Peters, and Herb Kelleher.  This front-row seat to leadership in action has given Eduardo keen insight into what great leaders do.

– the best bits:  Eduardo starts with an introduction to the role of culture relative to strategy and the importance of culture in driving individual and group success.

“Culture and strategy are not wholly independent variables; they are intimately interrelated.  Culture is an important variable in the strategy implementation process — it affects what people do, how they act, how they compete.”

“…You need both the right strategy and a strong culture.  However, if you recognize that culture can be a unique way of competing, you will discover that culture may in fact be the essence and heart of the strategy!”

The book then introduces the concept of the CEO as the Chief Emotions Officer.

“…Culture generates emotions, so, inasmuch as your role as a leader is to create and manage your company’s culture, your role as a leader is essentially to produce certain emotions.  Leaders multiply results by creating cultures because cultures generate emotions, such as a sense of purpose, pride, and trust.”

“…It is the duty of a leader to understand that she can control and use certain stimuli to create the appropriate emotions that, in turn, increase performance at work.”

The bulk of the book examines the five roles that make up the job of the Chief Emotions Officer:

• Define and ignite the vision for the people in the organization.
• Recruit and take care of the people, and develop their talent and well-being as much as possible.
• Establish formal and informal systems for people to communicate and connect with each other
• Design a decision-making system that empowers people
• Develop and leverage the appropriate culture for the success of the organization

Some of the best bits of the book come from the many quotes from leaders that fill the pages.  A few examples:

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City:  “The first and most important principle of leadership is: ‘To be a leader, you have to have strong beliefs; you have to know what you believe; you have to know what you stand for.’”

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks  “We are in the business of people serving coffee, and not in the business of coffee serving people.”

Bill Clinton, former President of the United States:  “My work as president could best be described as Chief Decision-Making Officer.”

Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general in the United States Army:  “You must not hang onto your ego or your past success.  Be passionate about what you think, but not so in love with your original idea that you ignore when it’s time to change it.  If you want to be successful, you have to be ready to throw that which is no longer relevant overboard.”

Carly Fiorina, former CEO HP:  “Run to the problem.   So if you have a crisis, run to it.  Don’t avoid it; don’t run away from it; don’t hide it; run to it.  Run to it.  Identify it.  Acknowledge it.  Deal with it.”

– the brand story:  Because People First Leadership includes quotes and insights from leaders of some of the greatest organizations in the world, it conveys the outlines of many great brands.  Southwest Airlines stood out to me because of clear connection between the leadership provided by Herb Kelleher, Cofounder, Chairman Emeritus, and Former CEO of the company and the positioning and success of the brand.

Kelleher explains it saying, “Given enough time and money, your competitors can duplicate almost everything you’ve got working for you.  They can hire away some of your best people.  They can reverse-engineer your processes.  But the only thing they cannot duplicate is your culture.  They can copy what we do, but not who we are or what we believe in, and without that, it’s not enough.”

Other quotes describe the unique culture he cultivated at Southwest.  For example, he says, “I really think that our humanistic approach to our people was probably more essential than anything else, because we value them as individuals, not just as workers.”

And he explains the basis of Southwest’s culture:  “Employees and my team come first; then comes the customer.  I don’t think you can really honor, respect, and dignify your people if you say that the customer is always right…So, we don’t tolerate abuse of our employees by our customers. And our employees love that.”

Kelleher concludes, “I always thought that our esprit de corps, the attitude of our employees, was one of our biggest competitive advantages.  You know, people like to be treated nice…and our people do that from the goodness of their hearts.  And that is our advantage over other carriers.”

– the bottom line:  If you are a leader or simply aspiring to be one, read this book.  If all leaders did, more organizations would be successful, more people would be fulfilled, and more brands would be great.

Listen to my conversation with Eduardo to learn:

• what background P&G’s AG Lafley, Disney’s Michael Eisner, and other admired leaders attribute their success as leaders to
• how people first leadership relates to all people, even those not in formal leadership roles
• how culture and brand are interrelated

Learn more about and contact Eduardo at:

• his website:  http://www.eduardo-braun.com/
• Twitter
• Facebook

related Brand Book Bites:

The Relationship Engine by Ed Wallace

Onward by Howard Schultz

Dare to Serve by Cheryl Bachelder

The post brand book bites from people first leadership appeared first on Denise Lee Yohn.

Michelle Diggles, a senior political analyst with third way, a centrist think tank that addresses such problems as public policy, recently spoke with Gary Larkin, the corporate governance research associate at The Conference Board. As another US presidential cycle has wound down, corporations are facing a huge perception problem when it comes to corporate political […]

Great ideas are killed every day. The 2017 ANDY jury will stop at nothing to save them.

Lawyers? Focus groups? Last minute client feedback? If you’ve ever had an idea die an unnecessary death, the 2017 ANDY Awards call for entries is a must watch. The humorous, animated campaign, out of Deutsch’s New York office, mocks the stereotypical PSA-style campaign with an industry twist; because while we support fighting to save the whales, the ANDY Awards Jury is fighting to save great ideas while highlighting the show’s mission to raise the standard of craftsmanship, and as the first show of the season, setting the tone for the industry

But it wouldn’t be a mock PSA without gratuitous violence. In the first of three films animated by South Korean company Superfiction, we see a creative director trying to kill an idea unnecessarily – that’s when ANDY Jury member and Burger King SVP of Global Brand Management, Fernando Machado, steps in to save it in the nick of time; by ending the creative director’s life with his bare hands.

“It takes a lot to get a great idea through the advertising gauntlet,” says Gina Grillo, President & CEO of The ADVERTISING CLUB of New York and International ANDY Awards. “At its core, this campaign is about everyone in our industry – clients, creatives, lawyers, etc. – collaborating to be brave and stand up for creativity. Our hope is creative types everywhere will live vicariously through these scenarios and vow to fight harder for the ideas they believe in.”

“Experiencing the death of a brave idea is gut wrenching, but we’ve all been through it. Sadly, some people get used to it,” says Pete Favat, 2017 Chairman of the ANDY Awards and CCO of Deutsch North America. “Unfortunately, provocative ideas die in quiet, private places with no one watching. We want to expose the sometimes ridiculous reasons why these ideas die every day and hopefully put a stop to it. Maybe people will use these short films to help stop the insanity and produce braver work.”

Why? Because for more than 50 years, the International ANDY Awards have been the first to recognize the best and bravest ideas. So, have you been brave enough to defend your great ideas? If so, enter them into the 2017 ANDY Awards before January 13th. The first video of three is already up on the ANDY Awards’ website, and the call-for-entries campaign will be running from now through February , as videos, on social, and in banners.

CREDITS:
Animation Design: Superfiction
Animation: Anima Boutique
Concept: Deutsch New York

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ANA, in partnership with GfK, conducted research to help bring clarity to the current state of shopper marketing and make predictions about where it’s headed.

Our Executive Director, Douglas Chia, has penned an article on gender board diversity for the recent issue of Directors & Boards. Below is an excerpt: The reasons women aren’t landing on boards—or perhaps excuses—are not new: not a priority . . . fear of change . . . unconscious bias. In conversations with male and […]

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights.

Bike on the Seine … literally. Carlo Ratti Associati unveiled a concept for the Paris Navigating Gym, a boat that would use the energy from passengers’ stationary-bike workouts to propel itself through Paris along the Seine. Aboard the 20-meter-long vessel, 45 exercisers can enjoy sweeping views of the city as they work up a sweat, while enjoying the disconcerting experience of pedaling forward while moving sideways. Users can track their energy output and the environmental conditions of the river, captured in real time by sensors built into the vessel. Will it get built? Doesn’t matter — it’s fun to think about. (Watch Carlo’s TED Talk)

Rendering of the Paris Navigating Gym courtesy of Carlo Ratti Associati.

VR hits Sundance 2017. Three TED speakers will be showcased as part of New Frontier at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival: virtual reality filmmakers Nonny de la Peña and Chris Milk. Out of Exile, the work of de la Peña and team, tells the story of Daniel Ashley Pierce, a teenager who was accosted by his family and kicked out of his house because they disapproved of his sexuality. The work uses audio footage that Pierce secretly recorded during the encounter. Meanwhile, Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin (and Pharrell!) have created the ambitious Life of Us, which captures the complete story of the evolution of life on Earth. (Watch Nonny’s TED Talk, Chris’ TED Talk, and Aaron’s TED Talk)

A pioneering hunter. Morgan Spurlock is the executive producer of The Eagle Huntress, a documentary following 13-year-old Aisholpan, a young Kazakh girl living in Northwest Mongolia, who is training to become the first girl in twelve generations of her family to hunt eagles. While many Kazakh eagle hunters reject the notion that a female can take part in the tradition, Aisholpan — with the support of her father — is determined to prove otherwise. The documentary is one of 15 finalists for the best feature documentary Oscar; also on the list is TEDster Ava DuVernay’s powerful film 13th. (Watch Morgan’s TED Talk and read our interview with Ava DuVernay)

Crowdsourced ways to tackle fake news. Eli Pariser is crowdsourcing the effort to tackle fake news. Inside a Google Doc, he’s leading a group of volunteers to brainstorm ideas and approaches to the problem as well as compile resources and background reading on the subject. The group is exploring a wide range of approaches, from domain checking to the blockchain, reports Wired, and work on the document is ongoing. (Watch Eli’s TED Talk)

Singapore is tops in global education. On December 6, the results from PISA’s latest global education test were revealed, with Singapore, Japan, Finland and Estonia on top, the US in the middle, and overall a lack of proficiency in basic science (read the press release). Reviewing the results, The New York Times reports that countries that did best generally “acted to make teaching more prestigious and selective; directed more resources to their neediest children; enrolled most children in high-quality preschools; helped schools establish cultures of constant improvement; and applied rigorous, consistent standards across all classrooms.” The test, overseen by TED speaker Andreas Schleicher, is administered every 3 years to half a million 15-year-olds in 69 countries to evaluate not just what they’ve memorized, but their ability to think. (Watch Andreas’ TED Talk)

New light on Alzheimer’s. Ed Boyden is part of a team of researchers that showed that they can reduce the beta amyloid plaque characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease –and believed to be harmful to brain cells — in the visual cortex of mice, using LED lights that flicker at a specific frequency. The researchers believe that the lights stimulate brain waves called gamma oscillations, which they discovered help suppress beta amyloid production and induce its destruction. Boyden, along with colleague Li-Huei Tsai, have started a company called Cognito Therapeutics to explore the possibility of using the technique to treat human patients. (Watch Ed’s TED Talk)

How to navigate a world that moves 100mph. On December 6, Joi Ito released Whiplash, a guide to surviving our faster future that he co-wrote with Wired writer Jeff Howe. Drawing on case studies, research and philosophies from MIT’s Media Lab, which Ito directs, the book proposes 9 organizing principles to reframe your thinking to adapt to our rapidly changing, unpredictable world. (Watch Joi’s TED Talk)

Have a news item to share? Write us at [email protected] and you may see it included in this weekly round-up.

Cartier lights up Paris and New York in it’s 2016 Winter Tale ad created by Publicis 133 Paris. Enchantment awaits…

CREATIVE CREDITS:
Ad Agency: Publicis 133 – Paris, France

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