It is important to ensure inclusivity and diversity in your marketing campaigns, but if these efforts are not matched with a positive message, it might just slip by your consumers altogether. The world is filled with negative news and so, as a marketer, it is essential to provide a breakaway from daily life for clients. Enter positive messages in marketing.

media update’s Talisa Jansen van Rensburg spoke to Monie Freeme and Roxie van der Venter, co-owners and sisters of the Positive Pants brand, to find out how marketers can share more positive brand messages with their female audience.

How does happiness and positivity build a brand's image?

For us, happiness and optimism are two of the most crucial qualities that your brand needs to stand for. In a world that is often overridden with cynicism and negativity, being able to inspire positivity and happiness in your consumers is a huge asset. People will not only be able to invest into purchasing your product offering, but they will also invest into you as a brand, which is absolutely essential for success.

Furthermore, by being a brand that is passionate about pursuing happiness and promoting positivity, you are sending a clear message that you care for the wellbeing of your customer. Changing the way a person feels about themselves or putting a smile on their faces creates a warm and fuzzy feeling of comfort — and who doesn’t love that?

In general, people tend to gravitate towards things that make them feel good and inspire them. If you are able to change the way a person feels, you have empowered them with a positive, happy experience when using your brand. If you do this consistently and authentically, you will:
  • create a movement of happy women, and
  • have a supportive customer that is invested in helping you make your brand a success.
Why should more marketers share positive messages to women?

At Positive Pants, we believe that an empowered woman can achieve anything. Positivity is contagious and has the ability to empower women to change their entire outlook and perspectives on life.

So, if something as simple as promoting self-love, acceptance and optimism in our marketing channels has the ability to make a real impact on the lives of so many, then why not?

How can marketers focus on creating positive messages for women?

Creating messages imbued with positivity is easy. The tricky part is earning the trust of women. If you are able to build and create a brand that is relatable to the ‘everyday woman on the street’, you create a safe space for her, a place that she comes to for advice, comfort and support.

Only once this crucial element of trust has been established will your messages of positivity have a real and material impact on their lives.

However, the basics of creative positive messages for women as follows;

1. Be authentic — If your brand is trying to push an agenda or principle that it does not really believe in, women will pick up on this and will not resonate with your brand’s positioning or messaging, no matter how ‘positively’ it comes across.

2. Representation — One of the best ways to uplift and inspire women is to make them feel valid, represented and loved. If a woman doesn’t see herself in your marketing material, the last feeling she will have is that of positivity.

3. Relatability — Position your brand as that friend who always knows how to make you smile. Give them health tips, give them fashion tips, give them fitness tips and give them tips on managing relationships.

If you’re able to create content that inspires relatability, you’re one step closer to putting a smile on the faces of women across South Africa.

How important is it for marketing messages to be inclusive of women?

According to statista, there are more women than men in South Africa. If your brand does not adopt an inclusive marketing strategy, or is appealing to women, you’ve already lost the interest of more than half of our country’s population, which is never a good thing for business.

Using an inclusive marketing strategy also empowers brands to challenge, refute and dismantle age-old sexist stereotypes and perceptions of women, making space for a world where the narrative of women can be controlled and written by women.

An inclusive marketing strategy also strengthens your connection with customers, and even has the ability to influence positive, social change — and who doesn’t want a brand that has the potential to alter the very fabrications of society?
What would you describe as a positive message specifically catered towards women? Can you give an example?

This would be a message that has the potential to alter her day-to-day life, inspiring her to adopt healthier choices and habits. You can do this, for example, by creating messages that are uniquely tailored towards women, motivating them to keep a ‘positive mind, body and soul’.

You can also communicate methods, habits and information that empowers them to attain a healthier body through wellness messaging — one that promotes a healthier mind through messages of unity, collaboration and support — and finally, a healthier soul by inspiring messaging of self-worth, meditation and overall holistic health.

Monie Freeme and Roxie van der Venter, co-owners and sisters of Positive Pants.

How else can brands market to women in South Africa? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

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Want to stand out in your marketing efforts in SA? Then be sure to read Five things to keep in mind when marketing to women in South Africa.
*Image courtesy of Positive Pants Boutique