As a brand designer, I like to observe what brands do. I love to see brands claim and fall in love with those who follow up with action apart from flying a flag. As a brand manager, I tell my clients to get involved in branding. They don’t have to be hands-on but at least heads up. CEOs or business owners are the ship’s captains, and although they don’t need to pull the cords and steer at the same time, that is why they have a crew. They need to give clear direction to those who do the work.
We just passed International woman’s day. We will have different days where we’ll need or want to revindicate throughout the year. And I saw excellent leadership posts and actions. But I also saw gifs of women who work on companies saying, “Happy IWD!”. I don’t want to be rude, but it is not Christmas is a day when we need to be vocal, and most of it take action.
In a couple of months, we’ll see rainbow-coloured logos in most businesses wishing a nice Pride. And we’ll also see the demonstrations for BLM, and of course, we see calls for Peace. And all the above is a fantastic way to show support but we can’t just use these causes as Marketing. We have to be coherent and make sure what we say is reflected in what we do.
The customer of the 21st Century is very educated, and won’t take long to see what is posing and what is the real value. So flying a flag, is great but it also means that businesses have to include women on the boards. It means that they have to stand against violence even if it means losing a big client. It means that they have to do more than recycling to call themselves sustainable.