How to be a challenger brand in the female-driven economy | Kristin Cardwell, Refinery29 | OnBrand '18

[Music] thank you so much to on-brand for having me I'm absolutely delighted to be here so I thought I would start today by asking a question and I'd like to start with the women in the audience so ladies how many times have you found yourself in a crowded place think a sporting event think a busy department store on the weekends maybe a conference like this and you found yourself fidgeting in a long long long line for the women's restroom well you jealously watch the men zip in and out anyone yeah not just me and men how many times have you been with a partner or a friends you know a woman and you just you've been perplexed as to why it takes so long for them to get in and out anyone so this is a classic it's got example of a design oversight from the female perspective and it happens all the time in design and business and technology in our society you know the truth is I mean women just there's a lot more going on in the bathroom than men right women are doing five times more thing in the restroom than men are you know I actually feel like I have to explain it a little bit I was using this example with a guy friend and he was like oh you know you're just doing your makeup in the bathroom that's why right well no actually it's a little bit more than that it's it's biological its social its cultural it's a lot of things you know we sit down to start with I lead once a month and often women are taking children into the bathroom which just it slows the whole thing down so you know it's a different perspective that is quietly just sort of overlooked but why why what does this happen so often or historically why is it happening so often in our society women are the single largest economic force they control about 85% of spending globally I think that's a stat that I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with and in fact millennial women are spending like crazy they're spending 150 billion globally and they're set to overtake female baby boomers eyes the largest spending demographic but the truth is the majority of products services and experiences have largely been designed by companies largely controlled by decision makers who are men and you know BC money is largely gone two teams with founders that are completely made up of men without a single female founder on board Daniele Cayenne Bay who is a contributor to refinery29 as well as an activist and an entrepreneur coined this phrase as a silent female driven economy it's this discrepancy between having purchasing power and having a seat at the table having a say and how the market is shaped now I'm not here to be negative I'm actually here to say that this is changing women are no longer silent we're going through a cultural revolution in so many ways women are demanding more they expect more they expect more from brands they expect more from businesses they expect more from peers and from each other they expect their perspective to be noticed and it's a massive massive untapped market opportunity and women are doing it women are dreaming we're creating we're getting out there we're no longer silent you know more and more women are running businesses and millennial women in particular are much more likely to run side businesses or what they call side hustles on top of their existing careers and when women are invested in and they get funding they over deliver an instep new investment is flowing in we're seeing more VCS more banks more private individuals putting money into companies with female centered innovation at the core so the female driven economy is emerging and with it an influx of all of these new challenger brands really challenging the status quo challenging traditional corporations and designing products and services and businesses that are really trying to meet these untapped needs these previously overlooks needs at refinery29 where a challenger brand ourselves and we're really lucky that we've had some fantastic investors and corporations who invested alongside us and we've been working to drive this change for several years we're the defining lifestyle media brand for young women around the world and our entire business is based on producing content and telling stories with a female focus lens and over the last 10 years more than 10 years actually and we've really grown from an indie publisher to a full-fledged diversified media company and we're proud to be among a small set of digital first digital native publishers who have achieved such scale and we've done it all by focusing on women now before I go on I think it's just helpful for you to know a little bit more about who we are and what we stand for so go ahead and take a look I'm 16 years old and I'm a professional motorcycle racer I am a cosmic Sparkle kid who wants to live inside a rainbow we will be heard and we will be seen not just trendy is not just a movement it's literally life now is the time [Music] and do it because you love it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so we're a challenger brand what does this mean in practice I thought it would be helpful if I talk to you through a few examples of how we're challenging the status quo and as a challenger brand you know what refinery29 and others are doing and I wanted to share three key takeaways the first is to stand for something bigger and Amy referenced this earlier at refinery we live and breathe our mission to inspire represent progress and entertain women we're here to help women see feel and claim their power millennial women see brands is an expression of who they are I'm sure you've seen a lot of these stats before most of our users are more likely to purchase from a brand that they feel aligns with their values and more so many women are more likely to switch brands to one associated with the cause so it refinery this is our mission and we see it manifest in so many ways this is an interesting experiment and I invite you all to try it now on your phones you can do it live if you Google search for images of women this is what typically comes up you'll see a lot of white women you see a lot of women looking the same you see a lot of women putting on smiles kind of fake smiles they're all happy if you scroll down far enough you'll see white women laughing and salad bowls and you kind of also see women who are over sexualized and infantilized it's a pretty one-dimensional view it's what we've traditionally traditionally seen in the media now if you google search women Plus refinery refinery29 you'll see an amazing array of women who were active participants in their own lives you'll see women who are diverse who are strong and who are proud at refinery we mandate diversity we mandate radical inclusivity in all of our work in our editorial work and in our brand work and it also is manifest in our hiring practices we often use our own employees in our work and we celebrate underrepresented voices and traditions such as the art of African hair threading here we also aim to drive change in the real world outside of our own media platforms outside of our own world earlier this year we became the official media partner for Gina Martin she's a woman in the UK who is a contributor to refinery29 and she launched a campaign in the UK to make upskirting a sexual offense now what's upskirting it's pretty much what it sounds like it's basically when someone takes a photo of a woman's skirt or anyone's skirt without their consent and the photos often get shared around the internet this happened to Gina and she tried to report it but she was told nothing could really be done because it wasn't it wasn't acknowledged as a crime so she came to us to help change that and we developed a campaign with her called stop skirting the issue and with Gina's passion in our support we were able to put a government-backed bill into the UK into Parliament here's another brand we're loving right now they're called Lola they're US based they produce organic sanitary and reproductive products for women they can be purchased one-off or on a subscription basis Lola's mission is to act as a lifelong brand for all women women throughout every stage of womanhood it and they do this in two distinct ways first they've created a deeply personal thoughtful experience that considers every stage of a woman's life from first time period kits for preteens to providing sexual health advice over the phone for young women to simply just making the purchase a little bit easier by offering this regular monthly service they've built a business based on understanding how every aspect of some of the most challenging moments of the female experience could be made just a little bit easier secondly of course they have a broader social mission they donate a significant amount of their profits to charity who do work to alleviate poverty in the US and they also lead to open conversations on women's health they engage diverse communities to drive education engagement and advocacy another example of a brand that we love heist heist has sharp purpose a mission to create tights for women that cater to how women actually move they've collaborated with scientists and designers inventors to produce high quality affordable garments that support women in their daily activities now their mission is humble practical really um but it's also ideological there's high it's really genuinely common I'd to fight diverse range of sizes and colors skin tones it's a first for that industry and they're really catering to a generation of women who are tired of caring about the male gaze tired of being targeted with sexual ads and they simply want products that make them feel totally comfortable they've employed radical empathy in their product development they've gone to great lengths to create products for all women of all sizes and shapes and tones and it's a huge departure from traditional business practice I've worked in big corporations before I worked for one of the largest Beauty companies in the world you know I've seen the rationalization that has to happen in order to drive cost-cutting only producing limited sizes and colors leaving consumers leaving women with options that really don't work for them yet sometimes that rationalization works challenger brands embrace the notion also that less is more their laser focused they reject excess they focus on doing one thing really well they have a tight brand identity and tone of voice they reject padding in their cost structure filling in their ingredients and middlemen in their supply chains at refinery our audience lives in a world where she's bombarded by media constant emails text chat snaps stories three billion images are shared every day on snapchat facebook Messenger Instagram and whatsapp that's a lot in such a cluttered ecosystem we can't overwhelm her and we also want her to quickly identify our brand in her feed and in the real world so we're laser focused on having a tight visual identity and tone of voice that creates immediate breakthrough recognition in fact seventy seven percent of our audience say that they can pick a refinery image out of a lineup this also means we're not churning out content in an age of content farms and chasing cheap clicks for scale engagement with our audiences our core metric rather than scale and mass production of content so we're constantly testing we're constantly optimizing and we're constantly listening to her always trying to understand what works for her and we found that investing more in original interviews and finding a different angle and getting original stories and reducing our production in news actually increased our average user sessions on average curation engagement content with intent it's not just something that applies to editorial strategy a number of brands are successfully executing the same ideals that we are take ritual vitamins for example they're designed to make her life easier in an overwhelming world of choice they have a subscription service that delivers vitamin capsules to women that are simple and pure delivering nine key ingredients nothing else they also conduct obsessive research with their product development it informs their ability to do more with less their vitamins are designed without fillers they then reflect this clarity with clean bright communication simple product design and an easy subscription service brand list another example we like takes less is more it's the next level they just completely reject overwhelming choice and fluff altogether they're an EECOM for grocery personal care and household goods and they essentially sell one products per category their mission is to provide the highest quality products at simple fair prices so consumers don't have to pay extra for branding and they don't have to pay extra for all of the middlemen in between a producer and a store shelf and all of their products are carefully curated really focusing on reducing that complexity they cost three dollars across-the-board and they're put together and simple beautiful sustainable clear packaging and of course I understand there's a bit of irony and creating such a distinct brand and having a name that actively rejects the word brand itself but what they understand is that consumers current understanding of the word brand lends itself to ideas of companies who are slowly profit driven and that needs to change finally challenger brands or digital natives beyond being founded in the digital age and beyond being EECOM first it really goes further than that it's about speaking to this consumer in her language these companies should reject traditional one-way communications of course but they really really focus on building a vibrant community through a digital first social first and content first approach coupled with high impact moments in the real world some more interesting stats for you they probably won't be surprising but the typical consumer spends nearly 70% of their media time today on smartphones and four and ten Millennials interact with their smartphones more than their significant others you know having a deeper relationship with their smartphones potentially than their significant others this reliance on mobile means that not only is our audience reading watching and engaging with digital media instead of traditional media but it also means that she expects a certain level of instant interaction the ability to be part of conversations not just with her friends not just with her acquaintances but also with brands brands like away really understand this they've built entire businesses on the power of content and community and Instagram experiences they understand the importance that Millennials place on travel and exploration and making connections and sharing that they produce multifunctional suitcases which act as a home between homes and they celebrate this age of access where anyone can go anywhere from posting user-generated content and tips on their Instagram for travel to collaborating with artists and creators who draw on their new product ranges to powering an army of whay Instagram ambassadors they've succeeded in creating an engaged community on their social feeds which really feels more like a reciprocal platform for sharing travel and adventures they also recognize the power of content and engaging with consumers in a way that creates an ongoing connection so here is their travel magazine which curates an organic content experience that genuinely enriches people's lives in some way and then of course there's the hottest poster child of challenger brands at the moment which is glossier cosmetics now some dismiss this brand as a passing sad but increased VC investment this year and expansion has proven otherwise from its conception onwards glossier has been savvy to the power of meeting the consumer where she is and making every single brand touch point feel exciting and desirable they do this in a number of ways into the gloss with their digital beauty platform which they started with it's a free destination for beauty advice inspiration and expertise they have amazing incredible experience events their products are playful their merchandising is visually compelling and they're highly Instagram about their communications also put diversity in the spotlight and there are especially loyal fans have the option of becoming glossier reps so this is a brilliant no marketing marketing approach which is really fueling their increased expansion and of course at refinery29 we create content every day that's what we do that's our business so I won't belabor you with more content examples from us but well I think is interesting is that we also really see it as our job to build a community outside of our platforms and we really aim to connect the digital and real worlds take example a branded experience that we developed for NARS called power mouth we brought to life the work of emerging female artists to our audience and we created an immersive experience for her to trial new products we then created this virtual feedback loop between the digital and real worlds getting our audience to the events by developing digital content to drive her there and then we design the events of course to be shareable intrinsically Instagram Abul so that they'll share and extend that moment and probably the biggest example of this yet is our flagship event twenty nine rooms it actually started out as our company anniversary party in the States and it expanded and so much more but basically we divided up twenty nine distinct rooms in collaboration with artists and brands it's a play house full of art for Millennials [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so what does this mean for traditional brands what have we learned well we've learned the most successful challenger brands are able to clearly articulate and live their purpose they focus on doing fewer better things and they engage like a digital native but it's safe to say you know that's a lot easier if you've recently founded a brand it's much harder to operate around a purpose when you're a brand with an established legacy you have heavier cost structures and a massive organization it's difficult to change but traditional brands can't sit out while challengers develop new and meaningful relationships with their customers but they risk sounding inauthentic if they try and imitate in a tactical way it won't work for traditional brands to market themselves as mission driven if they really aren't living it it's clear they need to change but the change needs to be supported by genuine intent an investment and not just a short-term gesture the good news is transformation is possible legacy brands can start by learning from cultural leaders who already embody mission based approaches and alignment with partners who represent who you are and what you want to be is a great way of demonstrating that commitment this can be done by partnering with companies like refinery29 who can lend our Co branding and credibility as well as our intelligence to develop a digital first approach um but you know like any great relationship with a woman listening is always a start it goes a long way so I would suggest you start by listening to your customer thank you so much for having me [Applause] [Music]