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Judith Martin of FORBES.com writes about “the feminine brand,” saying “The landscape of our new economy, by default, has become female-centric in a way we’ve not seen in the past.”
When I think of a powerful woman’s brand, I don’t think of girlie products like high heels or lip gloss. I think of Oprah, Hillary, Martha — women who made themselves into branded products with an unmistakable message. These three, and there are others, like Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, are their own action-figures. They are franchises. They are brands. And we buy into whatever they are “selling” or saying because we feel personal intimacy with them. This was especially the case with Oprah, who could seamlessly move from a hard-hitting, heart-wrenching interview or a tragic subject to a bubbly endorsement for Spanx or another consumer product which made her coveted “Favorite Things” list.
Elsie Maio, branding guru and Founder and President of Maio & Company, calls this phenomenon “SoulBranding.” Her mission is to transform capitalism away from the steely, traditional masculine model, which requires dehumanization. Maio also contradicts the opposing line of messaging which continues in the self-help business arena, which cautions woman against being “too nice”, books with titles like “NICE GIRLS JUST DON’T GET IT” by Frankel and Frohlinger. How nice is too nice? How nice is just nice enough? And, by not being nice at all, don’t we miss out on opportunities, too?
“You could think of it as the ascendance of the Feminine Principle,” says Maio. Basically, her point is that women need to stop thinking that they need to behave like men in order to succeed. Maio, who speaks all over the world on the future of capitalism, says that women’s basic capacity for nurturing is not a weakness, but a strength. And that when women lead in the business world by calling upon the best of the Feminine Principle, the world will be more humane, and business will prosper.
“The Feminine’s natural impulse is to nurture, care for and include the collective,” says Maio, adding that women are no longer afraid to publically embrace those values, talk about them and associate them with their brand. “Compartmentalizing our humanity is what got us into trouble, integration is the key and you see it in women’s branding trends.”
The future of business is frankly feminine, in terms of the values which enable organizations and societies to flourish. Organizations which thrive in the new global economy will do so as the result of their humanistic, collaborative approach. So, our mission as women who work is not to imitate our male colleagues, but rather to lead them to a more sustainable definition of success.