The morning of November 5, 2008 I was in the middle of an email exchange with my publishing think tank about tweaking the editorial direction of my next book, when a remark made by one of my (male) colleagues struck me as very prescient:
“Now that we have an African-American president,
maybe America is ready to consider the fact that
women are essential to the American economy, both
as workers and as consumers, and embrace the
different perspective women bring.
In short, I believe America can be feminized
without becoming ‘feminist.’â€
No matter which candidate you voted for, the election of Barack Obama as president signals what future historians will call a massive change in the cultural and societal ideals of the United States. Just as Roy H. Williams predicted back in 2004, the pendulum has begun to swing back toward a “civic†generation mentality.
I would take it one step further – the pendulum is swinging back toward the feminine side of our society. The inclusive ideology of “we the people†is based on connection and a big-picture view of the world – a very right-brained way of thinking that is predominantly feminine.
The presidential election was just the first ripple in a sea change of perspective, and it will impact your business in ways you never dreamed, because now women are more important than ever. In fact, the satisfaction and happiness of your female customers and employees may very well be the deciding factor in whether or not your business survives our current economic crisis.
56% of American women voted for Barack Obama, compared to John McCain’s 43%. Here are just two underlying factors in the Obama campaign’s strategy that not only helped to attract female voters, but also foretell the future of what women will be looking for when determining whether or not to do business with you:
Technology
The Internet became the soapbox of the 21st century in the 2008 election, not just for the candidate, but for supporters as well. For the first time, voters were having multi-faceted conversations with campaign staff and other supporters. The creation of a Facebook-type social network meant that every individual had the opportunity to create a customized “My Obama†page where they could do things like track donations, sign up for phone banks, blog, and create events. It’s estimated than 200,000 campaign events were created by My Obama website users. Millions of supporters connected with each other and created a viral campaign that changed the face of American society.
So, no more sticking your head in the sand – it is imperative that your business utilize technology as a tool for communicating with your customers and employees through dialogue, not monologue. Don’t have a website? Better get one. Have a website? Probably not good enough. Women, through a desire for connection and communication, will be demanding to have conversations with the brands they choose, and will want to customize their experience with you as much as possible. Time for reading newspapers and magazines, and sitting down to watch TV are on the decline; time for research, personalized shopping experiences and conversation through Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are on the rise. Forward-thinking uses of technology will have to become an important part of your marketing budget.
Transparency
The Obama campaign’s “open conversation†model was successful due in part to a promise made to voters that the campaign would be as transparent as possible. When controversial decisions were made (such as Obama’s decision to decline public campaign financing), the news and reasoning were presented to voters through emails and videos. Action was proactive, not reactive. Whether or not supporters agreed with a decision, they still felt plugged in directly to the central source. And it didn’t take a high-end video with a flag waving in the background; it was not uncommon to receive an email from David Plouffe that he’d just recorded on his web cam, sitting at his computer in shirt and jeans.
Now, president-elect Obama has launched a new website, www.change.gov, which aims for the same level of transparency with all U.S. citizens. While still in its infancy, it has the potential to become a one-stop system of communication with all members of government that until now, voters could only dream about.
With four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, a woman’s BS meter is in hyper-drive, so authenticity and transparency are key to making the connection with another individual, a political campaign, or a brand. The more she can “see you real†as a consumer, the more she’ll love you (warts and all). And the more transparent you are with your female employees, the more confidence they have in their employer, leading to ironclad loyalty.
In the next three to five years, the traditional top-down, hierarchical, whisper-campaign way of doing business will have to change. Those that continue down this road will simply dissolve into the ether; companies that suck it up and embrace truthfulness and humility will experience tremendous profit.
Change is here, and it’s just the beginning. A word to the wise: the very existence of your business depends on whether or not you choose to evolve with the world and that which makes it spin. It’s the business challenge of the 21st century – what an exciting time. The only question that remains, is, how will you make history?
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