The brave new world of feminised brands - Building Gender Balanced Business

Looking out at the world today, the astute business leader will observe a significant sea-change taking place: the world is getting in touch with its feminine side.

In politics: the top-down, competitive, and often combative forms of the recent past are giving way to a more sympathetic, more human, more collective spirit exemplified by the likely shift from Bush to Obama, and the move from the ‘on-your-bike-each-man-for-himself’ individualism of old Conservative politics in the UK to the new ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ of shadow leader David Cameron.

In design: the hard-lines and mono-chromic of modernism being superseded by softer, more organic, and more decorative approaches.

In the corporate world: the old rigid hierarchies and command and control management styles giving way to structures that are flatter, more relationship-based, more networked and more flexible.

Philippa Roberts and Jane Cunningham are the authors of Inside Her Pretty Little Head€“ the UK’s best-selling book on marketing to women. They are also the founders of Pretty Little Head – a strategic consultancy that specialises in helping businesses connect better with the female audience. Their clients include The Ford Motor Company, Bank of America, Tesco and The Conservative Party. They can be contacted at prettylittlehead.co.uk or on +44 (0)207 624 1571.