As International Women’s Day (IWD) rolls around again, brands are preparing their campaigns and activities.
It’s an event that many brands want to get involved in, but it’s important to get involved in the right way.
How brands are marking International Women’s Day 2023
Here are some great examples of what brands are doing for International Women’s Day 2023:
- Dolce Vita – in the US, the shoe brand is donating $1 per purchase made on IWD to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Shoppers will also be able to donate to the organisation until the end of March when they shop online or in store.
- Zadig & Voltaire – customers will get 20% off from 8th – 9th March and the shop will donate 10% of all qualifying purchases to Girls Inc (which works with girls on developing leadership skills and self-confidence)
- John Lewis – any John Lewis brand dress purchase made between 1st and 8th March will see the retailer donate £5 to The Prince’s Trust #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign.
- Aston Martin – the brand is hosting a career event for women and girls at its Newport Pagnell location in the UK. The car manufacturer is aiming to have 25% of its leadership roles filled by women in the next five years (and, of course, to reach that milestone it needs to ensure that plenty of women are entering the business to begin with).
- Häagen-Dazs – the ice cream brand is shifting focus to its female cofounder, Rose Mattus, who was the business and marketing genius behind the brand, but tended to be overshadowed by her husband (who developed the flavours). To put the spotlight back on Rose, Häagen-Dazs has launched ‘The Rose Project”, which is providing $100,000 in bursaries to “support remarkable women around the world”. Women can nominate themselves or others to get the reward. They’ll draw up a shortlist of 50 “women who don’t hold back” and they’ll each have an opportunity to win one of five grants for $20,000 each.
International Women’s Day works best when it serves as a chance to recognize the contribution of women, and assess areas where equality is still lagging.
Here’s things to consider when getting involved in the conversation for International Women’s Day
- Many brands say that they’re doing something practical to help women during International Women’s Day. What practical impact has your brand had in previous years? Can you share some results alongside your campaigns this year? (“Such as “we helped to raise X Pounds for Y charity”)
- Consumers are much more savvy these days and will look at the brand as a whole. What areas are you working on? If you can be open about the areas where you’re still striving to succeed, it can go a long way to helping build trust. (For example, if you say you’re working towards having more women on the board, what are you doing to achieve this and how much progress have you made?)
- Prepare for a possible influx of negative posts. Even if you do the right thing, your brand could face a backlash – prepare your team on how to handle one if you know your campaign will be targeted (you can see this happening right now to Hersheys in Canada).
Ideally, organisations will be working on projects that increase equality year-round, and using IWD as a way to boost awareness of the work that’s left to do.
