Identifiers for women’s companies: a worthy strategy for Latin America
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In the United States there is already more than one way of knowing what businesses belong to women, being this a help to support other women who, together, can make a difference
US designer and entrepreneur, Rebecca Minkoff, last week introduced an initiative that would help bring attention to companies belonging to women in order to give them visibility and guide consumers who want to support them. In addition, the Yelp review platform, introduced a new search category: 'women-owned', which also helps to attract customers interested in supporting companies belonging to women.
Leer en español: Identificadores para empresas de mujeres: una estrategia que vale la pena traer a Latinoamérica
"First of all, we want a symbol that can be identified in the packaging, web pages and shop windows. We want to convince a community to buy and support each other", said Minkoff. "We can educate the consumer in the same way that you have been educated to check if a product is organic or not", he added.
The Yelp initiative, which also advanced in partnership with Minkoff and its organization, Female Founder Collective (FFC), is Minkoff's first breakthrough to achieve its goal of massifying an identifier for women's businesses. Through Yelp, the business owners can access a sticker for their showcases, as well as an entire category on the page dedicated to highlighting these companies to potential customers.
Since Yelp is the main platform for customer reviews and experiences in the United States, it is an important starting point to begin to encourage the use of what would be called the Female Founder Seal.
"By working with a large company like Yelp, we are highlighting our joint goal of closing the economic gender gap. Our alliance seeks to reach the largest number of people, whether they are companies that are headed by women or are consumers in search of companies belonging to women", Minkoff said in a Yelp statement.
Minkoff's Female Founder Collective, which has 3,000 members since its birth in September 2018, is also advancing another alliance, with Visa, to provide greater support to women's ventures globally. According to the study that supports the initiative, 73% of female entrepreneurs find it difficult to get the necessary capital to start their business, something that Visa, FFC and Chase bank seek to correct through workshops on access to credit among other strategies .
A logical strategy
While this and countless other studies identify women's difficulties in advancing entrepreneurship projects, the role of the consumer in strengthening the capacities of women-led businesses has rarely been given the necessary importance.
According to a study by Merkle and Levo, 'millennial' women join to form a market of more than $170,000 million, and are not afraid to spend their income, demonstrating greater spending capacity than the average adult. According to the study, this year the segment of young women will be, worldwide, the segment with the greatest capacity and intention to purchase worldwide.
Also read: What are the industries dominated by women?
The CTF strategy has its eyes on the right place, redirecting consumers' attention to women's businesses can make the difference for the survival of these companies. With adequate discourse and broad coverage, surely many women will be persuaded to modify their consumption habits to give greater support to companies made up of other women.
Latin America does not have initiatives of this type, and, in general, has a purchasing power much lower than that of the United States or Europe, which in turn means a segment of women with lower purchasing power. But this does not mean that a strategy such as the CTF can be ignored; giving visibility to women's companies vis-à-vis the consumer is an easy and logical way to gather useful support and loyal customers.
LatinAmerican Post | Pedro Bernal
Translated from "Identificadores para empresas de mujeres: una estrategia que vale la pena traer a Latinoamérica"
