It is so easy to skim through life on the surface of superficiality.  It takes work to look beyond the masks people wear.   But when you take the time to dig deeper, you find so much depth and meaning. 

This has been our experience on the Jane Nation Listening Tour.  And it was voiced so eloquently by one of the young women we met with while in Seattle.  She said, “We need to judge based on values and character, not face and cover.”  And while she was talking about how women treat each other, she could have just as easily been talking about how women feel about companies and brands.  And, more importantly, what women expect from companies and brands.

Without exception, every group (and there have been 22 so far as of this post) have mentioned the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty as an example of a company getting it right—looking beyond the exterior to something far more important—the inner beauty and strength that comes from feeling good about who you are, regardless of how you look.

Women want marketers to stop focusing on the surface of what they think it means to be a woman today.  We don’t love to clean.  We don’t live for the next product reformulation.  We don’t judge our worth by the absence of laundry in the basket.  And believe it or not, while we want to put our best face forward every day, it is far more important that we are giving our best and making a difference in some small way every day.

Marketers be forewarned.  Women are digging below the surface of your slick ad campaigns and glossy web sites.  They are reading and researching and talking and trying your products to see if they stand up to the promises you make.  They want to know what you value and how you treat the people who work for you—male and female alike.  They want to know the real you.  And they want you to know the real them.