GIRLAPPROVED: BRINGING FEMININITY TO A MASCULINE WORLD

NEW RULE: EVERYONE WINS

GIRLAPPROVED

The design revolution where boy and girl live happily everafter.

MARKETING IS AGAME AND SOMEONEMADE UP THE RULES

...AND THE BRANDTHAT GETS THE MOST CUSTOMERS WINS

In the beginning, even before there was marketing there was

man, and man invented commercial design and consumer

culture as we know it. The game of marketing, including all

its rules, how to play, and how to win, was manmade.

Marketing, design, the consumer and the creative industry at

large has been established on a foundation of masculinity.

This is true for all creative industries.

OR MORE FORMALLY...

STANDARDSBELIEFS

AESTHETICS TECHNIQUES

VALUESLANGUAGE

Man created many beautiful things and there was great

prosperity and abundance. He even designed money, the

prize of the game itself.

And where were the women while all this great history was

going down? In the beginning they didn’t even have

permission to play the game (Boo!). Their first mission was to

wrangle themselves a place on the game board. But finally,

with hard work, they got to play (Yay!).

But here is the totally ironic part: yes, these women were

females, but their creative and intellectual contributions

were not feminine. When it came to the game of marketing,

they thought like men. This remains true even today.

Why? Our educational and professional instutions, even our

award systems are still manmade. And in these institutions

women are trained, habituated, and disciplined to conform

to masculine beliefs and practices. After years of subtle

conditioning, even females themselves rarely realize they

still play by manmade rules.

But there is a time when rules are broken. Not for the fun of

it, but because they need to be broken. A new way must be

forged because the old no longer works. And in the game of

marketing, not working means not winning customers.

RIGHT NOWTHAT TIME IS

THE POST88 HAS ARRIVED AND

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE

A new female is here, and she was born after 1988. And this

little lady is different. She has been fortified in ways no other

generation of females have before. In her upbringing

something very new was nourishing and reinforcing her

inner sense of self, giving her permission to be herself.

Instead of being raised only on a strict diet of manmade,

she was also raised on a little thing called social media.

And as much as she loved man, she did not love all man made,

nor the way that he played his game.

Why? She was born female afterall, and feminine and

masculine are often not the same. As a female, her truths,

perceptions and sensibilities are different. Her values, her

drives, and her needs are different. She finds humor,

beauty, joy and inspiration in things man does not. Even

the way her mind perceives, organizes, and processes

information is often distinct from her manly counterpart.

Though some things are shared by both genders, many

things are not.

OR MORE FORMALLY...

As a result, what is sexy to him, is often not sexy to her. What

excites him, often causes no reaction whatsoever in her.

Some things that he thinks are practical, she has no use for.

And sometimes, what he believes represents progress, she

often fears will hold society back.

Y

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Now Post88’s are happy to let man have all his beliefs, but

the trouble starts when his masculine values are defining the

direction of the entire consumer culture and marketing

world as we know it.

What does this all say for the game of marketing? It’s losing

strength. Manmade alone is no longer enough to win every

consumer.

How can marketing get it’s strength back? The masculine

foundation of design and consumer culture must be

extended to account for feminine values, beliefs and

perceptions. Just like the founding fathers of marketing

who made up the rules in the first place, a feminine system

must be invented from the ground up.

STANDARDSBELIEFS

AESTHETICS TECHNIQUES

VALUESLANGUAGE

What are females perceptions of beauty, pleasure, utility,

meaning, and value? How must manmade research and

creative measurement processes adapt to account for the

differences in the feminine mind? What are feminine

educational and business practices, and how can they be

practically implemented?

The genders are equal, but they are not identical.

Understanding, respecting, and accounting for these

diffences in design and marketing will unleash game-

changing innovation. The balance of masculine and femi-

nine will bring renewed growth, strength, and economic

gains across every industry.

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The manmade game of marketing can no longer be a game of

man’s way only. Launching a battle of man versus woman is

equally unproductive. Everyone loses. The new game, a

game where masculine and feminine work in unison, is true

progress. We call that game Girlapproved.

Girlapproved is a way forward. It is a new set of rules, and a

new type of game, one where everyone finally wins. It is

time.

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OR MORE FORMALLY...

THE ENDACTUALLY... JUST THE BEGINNING

Girlapproved was founded by Heidi Dangelmaier and collaboratively developed with over 100 Post88 females. They have

been working daily for over four years to build GA on a bedrock of rigorous research in topics as vast as engineering, archi-

tecture, psychology, gender studies, graphic design and art history. GA is a practical system of invention and design, and

has been tested and validated with several of the world’s largest brands. We believe that understanding this story is a cru-

cial stepping stone for design and innovation to progress, please pass this story on help us create a future where everyone

wins: man, woman, and yes even the economy.

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