Why Meaning Matters

In this episode of Why Meaning Matters, Erin, Jason and Ujwal delve into the meaning of fashion by exploring size inclusivity, the second-hand market and sustainability.   Our homes and the way we dress are huge indicators of our values and our personalities. And, just like in the conversation around home - there’s a discernible shift in the conversations and the meaning of Luxury apparel presenting an opportunity for those in the retail space to capture more hearts and minds.   Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   The meaning of luxury apparel is changing as it’s becoming more accessible to the average middle-class consumer thanks to the second-hand market otherwise known as the circular economy.   UJWAL [00:04:17] “I mean, people traditionally, we've thought that if something is sold secondhand, that's depleting the brand. Today, it's actually enhancing the brand because it proves that your products last for decades. It proves that your products potentially retain value.”   It’s not just about the item either. It’s about the research, the reward of discovery and the story that goes with it.   JASON [00:07:24] “All those things come together in one artifact. So I don't even have to say anything. I just have to wear that thing. And someone who is in the know knows all those things about me just by seeing that article on my arm or on my back.”   A key driver of the sustainability conversation is the desire to reuse something that’s already on earth.   JASON [00:09:19] “And not just in the context of they wanted value for money but concerns around what does that mean for constantly buying and throwing away, buying and throwing away.”   Underlying the entire meaning of fashion conversation is a notion of privilege and inclusivity. Including at a body size and shape level.   UJWAL [00:11:08] “We're seeing it rear its head with vintage pieces, but it's also now a key driver for modern new pieces. So if you're a luxury apparel brand, you cannot get away from size inclusivity. And I have to clarify here, size inclusivity doesn't mean just making sizes 8, 10, 12.”   We’re starting to see an evolution of what mid-tier retail means leading to a desire to make quality pieces accessible.   JASON [00:13:07] “This is the thing that we need to take into consideration when it comes to fashion as well is that how am I able to manipulate my clothing in such a way where I can incorporate a high-end piece to work with less high-end pieces in a way that allows me to really kind of have a robust wardrobe.”   And it’s time for luxury brands to own the circular part of their own economy.   UJWAL [00:13:47] “It's time for these brands to own that because then they can shape the narrative better. They can do and solve the problem of access, of inclusivity, both in terms of price, in terms of size, in terms of what they stand for.”   Next week on Why Meaning Matters, the changing meaning and consumer understanding of infection and disease.   Why Meaning Matters is a podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

We start off season two with a challenge! Join our hosts as we go deeper into the world of Meaning and apply it to, as one listener put it, just about anything. The first topic: Home decor and design. Throughout the pandemic the meaning of ‘Home’ and the space we live (and work) in has shifted.   Erin, Jason and Ujwal explore the meaning of home design and decor via three themes - accessible living, calming retreat, and working & learning - and how retailers can jump on the opportunity of helping consumers to create multifunctional spaces.   Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Creating accessible homes is less of an afterthought and more forward thinking. It’s becoming about people incorporating their value systems into the design of their home and displaying their social capital.   UJWAL [00:04:38] “If my home is accessible, in the future, one day, for example, if I have somebody who comes to my home who is in a wheelchair they will realize that my home is just as welcoming to them as it is to anybody else who can walk on their two feet with privilege.”   Thanks to social media and virtual meetings, our home interiors are now exterior facing reflections of our choices.   JASON [00:08:04] “So as we start to think about these different choices about what they say and those choices showing the values of the type of person we are, those are clearly things that are going to be shared across the spectrum and garner feedback.” In addition to paying attention to how we want others to feel about our homes we’ve also spent a lot of time considering how we want to feel inside our homes. The notion of a calming retreat is seeping into the mainstream. UJWAL [00:09:52] “It's also feeling like that because I'm also looking at myself in the damn Zoom camera and I'm seeing my own space and my own background and that also kind of makes me feel good about what I've achieved.” So, where are the opportunities for companies and marketers in the home decor and design space? MotivBase says it’s not just about solving the accessibility, calming and work at home problems. UJWAL [00:13:10] “I think what the audience needs is the Lego pieces, because the audience can't figure all this out on their own. Right? So, if you have a retailer saying, ‘Hey, I'm going to give you all the Lego blocks and I'm going to give you the instructions. Just go put that together in your space.’ Huge opportunity.” JASON [00:13:26] “Whoever cracks ‘multifunctional creativity’ in the home will win because that cat is out of the bag now.” Next week on Why Meaning Matters, the developing Meaning of fashion and apparel. Why Meaning Matters is a podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about. If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Our hosts wrap up season one with the question, “Where to next?” With the world opening up to the deeply academic study of anthropology as a way for them to get outside of their own preconceived notions and ideas of how something should work or how something works, where does the conversation need to go next? The team at MotivBase calls it looking through the ‘industry lens’ versus the ‘consumer centric lens’.   UJWAL [00:02:33] “When we talk to companies, we always contrast the industry lens from the consumer centric lens, because they're fundamentally different sometimes so dramatically different that it makes all of us in the room kind of feel stupid for not having thought it, but that's why the anthropologists, that's what we need to keep in mind.”   It’s really a conversation that any corporation or business can start to have.   JASON [00:03:51] “And this idea that we can act without emotion, this idea that we can act purely based on logic with actually decoding the human condition and thinking about the role it plays in creating a stronger connection with people, whether that's through that is through kind of the thing you sell, whether that's through the messaging that you use right down to just what the actual company stands for.”   When Motivbase’s team steps back they realize how much perspective they have accumulated through the work they do across areas they didn’t understand previously.   UJWAL [00:09:04] “You know, the other day my wife was asking me something about a particular brand of tampon she was using and I gave her advice on something else that she could try only because we had done three massive projects on this because she wanted to consider the whole sustainability game and the whole gut microbiome game.”   MotivBase’s understanding of people runs as intricately and as deeply as Meaning does through our daily lives.   JASON [00:10:22] “I mean, even if we're talking about a movie that they went and saw the night before, it's a completely different understanding of why choices were made or what it's actually saying to people or how it's going to be received because they have their finger on the pulse of where culture is going and what is going to resonate with people… .”     Coming soon! In season two of Why Meaning Matters hosts Erin, Jason and Ujwal share some funny examples and also some very serious examples of issues that may not seem obvious or considered traditional insights but are extremely relevant and are driving a lot of innovation in various industries. Why Meaning Matters is a podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Our hosts explore how data collection facilitates measurement of Meaning and the trust and privacy issues that follow. Awareness that online activity is being tracked in some way has become part of the everyday consumer experience. We’re asked to accept cookies when we visit a website and terms like GDPR compliance have become symbols that data collection and use is being done properly.   When MotivBase was launched, the team went through a challenging ethical process to create a model that did not look at personally identifiable information like photos, names or IDs.   JASON [00:05:09] “And instead we follow the breadcrumbs that consumers leave us through language in order for us to get to a place where we can understand what is happening emotionally and culture, but we're not actually saving, storing or collecting anything that belongs to anybody.”   For example, someone makes a comment in a forum about Probiotics and cooking with fermented food. The full comment is not collected as it would have to be protected. Instead the topics are collected.   UJWAL [00:07:41] “We are extracting the topic ‘cooking’. We're extracting the topic ‘fermented foods’, and what we're storing actually is topics and the relationships between them. Literally the distance in multidimensional space between them, coming back to the solar system analogy. We're storing these topics, which are these planets and the distance between this planet and the planets next to it and the moons around it and all of that other stuff.” Within the next 24 months, the tools that the personalization industry currently uses will not be permitted. MotivBase’s model for collecting language and meaning rather than personally identifiable information (PII) withstands those changes and can still deliver a personal message or experience.   UJWAL [00:09:14] “If Erin engages with products that have meaning like ‘organic’, ‘sustainable’, ‘better for you’. Then I can identify other meanings that Erin will also engage with. Ie., maybe there's something about ‘handmade’, ‘crafted’, ‘local’. Right? I can identify that by simply identifying how one set of meanings connects to another set.”   Those companies and organizations who adopt these methods now will be ahead of the Commerce versus Culture curve.   JASON [00:12:33] “And I think that, you know, when you think about social capital, the people that are going to leverage this to basically force change and to suggest that we are more inherently open-minded to protecting people's privacy are going to get social capital. They are going to be quote unquote revolutionaries of the digital age.”     In the next episode, our hosts wrap up season one with a conversation about monetizing Meaning and where commerce and culture will be in two years. Stay tuned for episode twelve, season one finale of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   In this episode, our hosts put the nuanced conversations of previous episodes into context, discussing how studying meaning works beginning with the core tenant of structural anthropology- giving meaning to the world through analyzing natural language. Surveys and focus groups generate unnatural conversations so the team at MotivBase takes to the internet where millions are engaging in natural conversation every day.     UJWAL [00:03:57] “And these millions of people are talking about pretty much anything and everything imaginable. And especially in places like forums, where they get to hide behind pseudonyms, they are open to being vulnerable there.”   The methods and principles used to analyze and measure meaning now versus 100 years ago are not all that different. It’s simply on a larger scale. AKA Big Data. More importantly,  it's not about what is being said or who's saying it. It's about the words being used.   JASON [00:05:28] “Now, all of a sudden [it] takes on some of the mass from that other topic, the association starts to transform not only how we think about it, but how prevalent it is in culture. This is what Ujwal is describing. This is the theory that goes back to what these social scientists were leveraging back in the day.”   The data analysis now can help companies to know what meanings are still in the myth stage before they become innately known truths. Because, in the context of the businesses MotivBase works with, once something becomes a truth, it’s too late to change it.   UJWAL [00:11:16] “And so the whole purpose of us doing this type of analysis is so that we can identify things while they're still in myth stage, while the meanings are still developing, to use the mass analogy of Jason's earlier, while we can identify, while these triggers are developing so that we can run predictions, help our clients understand when something will in fact become truth.”   The ability to analyze and predict and understand applies to anything. Philosophically speaking, so long as there is language around a topic, a trend, an idea then meaning exists.   UJWAL [00:12:12] “And so really what we're trying to figure out is how much does something exist in culture, right? How much, as in, how much consensus have we built around it to the point where it exists and has just become complete truth…”     In the next episode, our hosts chat about the trust factor involved when it comes to collecting and analyzing Big Data in the current climate. Stay tuned for episode eleven of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.    Our hosts jump right into what phrases like “natural”, “non-chemical”, or “made from natural source material” mean to the consumer and why it matters to businesses selling products with these labels. For Ujwal and Jason, working with companies on sustainability and natural-related initiatives means explaining something called ‘cultural requirement’ when the results don’t meet expectations.   UJWAL [00:03:40] “And you are sitting there going, ‘But I made my product more sustainable. Why am I not selling more?’ Or, ‘Why am I getting not getting better margins off of it?’ And that's because in the consumer's mind there are cultural requirements and cultural requirements come based on the meanings we associate with things.”   Consciously or not, consumers are making balanced values-based decisions when they’re buying a product including those labeled with words like ‘all natural’ and ‘non-toxic’ based on their own complicated formula.    JASON [00:05:59] “...at the end of the day, there's this kind of, this yin and yang, this kind of back and forth, this kind of job that we have in order to think about what is the thing do for us and from a value standpoint, does it align with how I'm trying to kind of do the math in my head?”    Simply put, cultural requirements change as you change the context. Expectations for ‘natural’ in the context of food will be different from that of cleaning products or personal care products.   UJWAL [00:07:53] “And that's what's fascinating about this is that as you change the context and make it more and more nuanced and more and more specific, their cultural requirements become more specific because people have more agreement on the meanings behind these things. And, when we get to those specific meanings, we create for ourselves a blueprint where we know exactly what we need to do, what benefit we need to deliver, and what we can expect in return.”   As it turns out, there’s even a nuanced difference between saying a product doesn’t contain something versus saying it does. Ujwal shares an example of packaging for a dish soap product.   UJWAL [00:09:56] “So that could mean, on one hand, a new label that says, ‘Made without Virgin plastics’. And in that case, the without label is just as powerful as saying, ‘Hey made with Post-consumer recycled materials’ or ‘Made with recycled plastic’ and in that situation, the question we're actually asking is why should we pick one versus the other, and what benefit and what meanings will it imply in the marketplace? And they're different.”   If there are such subtle differences in word choice and meaning, whose responsibility is it to educate the consumer? The reality is, it’s an ongoing debate.   JASON [00:12:16] “I think that there is a question and around the choices that we're making as a collective, but there's a huge opportunity when it comes to these companies in being at the forefront of really understanding and driving change. The key to it, though, the key to it is really understanding where culture is going and where they should be making the right inroad that link back to what that corporation or that brand stands for because there's no sense in swimming against the tide.”   The other side is that we have very little control over how education and meaning spread in culture.   UJWAL [00:13:40] “You know, we started in the early episodes talking about how new ideas developed from myth and they slowly transpire into becoming actual stories, truths in culture. A lot of what we're trying to do is figuring out when something is in the mid-stage, how much impact can we really truly have on it? And that's when you can have some amount of impact, but ultimately it's sort of, it's a democracy in a way.”   In the next episode, our hosts pick back up on the topic of how Meaning is studied. Stay tuned for episode ten of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Our hosts dive into the meaning of Sustainability and how it remains undefined. It has such little consensus amongst consumers that it hasn’t reached mainstream status. This creates challenges for brands and marketers to generate and display more tangible benefits. MotivBase studies meaning to find solutions to those challenges.   UJWAL [00:03:31] “At the moment we're far from there because the meanings around sustainability are actually very diverse. They're not converging fast enough. Even though the word Sustainability is mentioned a lot and talked about a lot, there's not enough convergence happening on what it actually means. That's the part that's interesting for us.”   JASON [00:04:57] “I think the other problem is, that if I asked everybody to close their eyes right now and think about sustainability, everybody has a different idea in their mind.”   For the individual, impact on the consumer’s wallet, geography, and emotion are key to initiating action.   JASON [00:5:53] “It's really hard to convince a large group of people to do something entirely on logic. And they need to feel that it is important for themselves as the individual and for that larger group of people.”   It’s the job of the team at MotivBase to study meaning so that they can help organizations figure out what is the tangible benefit of sustainability that can apply to the context of the brand, product, or solution.   UJWAL [00:09:34] “I can't just say, ‘Hey, this is a sustainable product’. Not enough people agree on what it means. However, if I say, ‘Hey, by the way, if you buy my jeans, you will have saved 40% in water usage in the way this jean was manufactured’. Okay, that's tangible. And I can compare this jean to the other one and go, ‘This is 40% less water’.”   What does the consumer get out of purchasing sustainable products? Basically, two things: Tangible benefits and a social science concept called Symbolic Capitial.   UJWAL [00:12:34] “... there are two sort of value systems at play, especially when it comes to sustainability. One is that tangible benefit, health, wellbeing, saving money. The other is the symbolic benefit. Both are just as valuable. And obviously, ideally, the holy grail is you deliver both.” In the next episode, our hosts continue the conversation on the meaning of sustainability by taking a look at its deep relationship with the myth of “All Natural”. Stay tuned for episode nine of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.   Our hosts dive into culture and meaning for children framed by the myth of the Superhero. From the symbolism of the female superhero costume to the impact on consumer decision-making. How do we have conversations with our kids about the storylines and images they’re exposed to? And, how do we manage what meaning they take away from it?   As adults, we’re more aware than children of the meaning of how characters are presented and represented starting with the physical appearance of the superheroes and the impact it can have on young minds.   UJWAL [00:03:39] “A lot of these are, I think, subtle cues that our children take. And it could be potentially damaging. So it's a big question to ask in terms of not just what our children are exposed to, but also how do we manage and control what meaning they take away from all of that?”   Layer in how these worlds are expanding and the organizations like Disney that own the rights to these superheroes it’s no longer as simple as being Team Batman or Team Superman.   JASON [00:05:07] “Now it's really about having all these different types of characters with all these different types of layers with all these different types of approaches and philosophies that provide us to think a little bit deeper about what do these stories mean, but also what is right in regards to the kind of type of child that I'm trying to kind of instill with the values that are important to me.”   The team at MotivBase has been studying the narratives and meanings particularly around female superheroes and has made some interesting observations not only on how the characters are sexualized but also the unattainable self-image that is presented to young kids, particularly girls.   UJWAL [00:08:35] “And I think the reason why this is so powerful is we're saying it's not enough to just throw in a bunch of female superheroes. We also have to think about how they are represented, the implicit meanings that are communicated in what they say, how they present themselves, whether they have a ‘boob window’ or not, and what that symbolizes.”   JASON [00:09:41] “I think one of the questions really comes down to the interconnected meanings that are linked back to these types of things, because you know, that child or parent that looks at how somebody is being expressed, then ladders down to choices in fashion, it ladders to choices in food. Self-image is linked to so much of what we do every day, every week, every year that these things are all interconnected.”   The creation and proliferation of the superhero don’t stop on the pages of a comic book or on the big screen, it translates into packaging, marketing, apparel, and beyond.   UJWAL [00:12:19] “I think the point is that if we know that some of these things have an impact on the self-esteem of a child, of somebody who is taking in implicit clues from what they see around them, then it's important for us to have this conversation and it's important for brands to think about how they can play a positive role in what they bring to market.”   Speaking of playing a positive role in the marketplace, Erin sets up the next episode with a reference to Captain Planet as our hosts get into the meaning of Sustainability. Stay tuned for episode eight of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.  The pandemic has illuminated the notion of emotional energy and self-care, the rhythm of being human in the workforce, and its impact on marginalized populations. In episode six, we learn how the changing meanings of gender, masculinity, and femininity matter to the way you are running your business and marketing your brand.  UJWAL [00:04:23] “Even if you've locked yourself in a room, the ‘madness’  is unfolding around you. And, it becomes difficult and it's certainly harder for women to have the emotional wherewithal, to be present in the moment, to give their everything, to feel good about their work.” Since work is at home and home is at work now for so many, brands, businesses, and organizations are in the early stages of looking for solutions to facilitate recovery and rejuvenation of emotional energy and self-care for the consumer.  JASON [00:06:16] “They may be doing different things, but the reason for needing to find the solution is quite ubiquitous and quite kind of similar, if you can get to a high enough level, if you look at the meanings that are really kind of shaping the need for it.” With the concepts of emotional energy and self-care being applied in the context of work, it isn’t enough for employees to see it as being important, they need to know what is acceptable. UJWAL [00:07:47] “Their bosses and, and the powers that be at these [00:07:50] organizations also need to think about what is acceptable, what is the new norm, so to speak, in terms of how we work and how we encourage people to work so that they feel good about the time spent doing the thing.” And what is acceptable could look very different from one organization and individual to the next as we become more aware of the rhythm of being a human in the workplace. JASON [00:09:11] “So, whether or not it is kind of thinking about the four-day workweek or whether or not it's just thinking about how we shape and structure our time in order to better serve the responsibilities that we have within that household.” UJWAL [00:10:14] “An increased awareness of the rhythm of being a woman in the workplace, the rhythm of being a man, the differences that that has. And then, of course, the rhythm of being somebody who doesn't fall into one of these binary definitions as well, because that also feeds into the broader conversation we’re having because we have to be able to make space for people to feel comfortable, to establish that rhythm that works for them. I think that's really what we're getting to.” Our seemingly small choices for self-care and what we deserve then impact the bigger picture.  JASON [00:12:01] “I'm going to say to my wife, let's treat ourselves and order food in which has an impact on grocery, which has an impact on QSR, which has an impact across the food chain as people do this more and more and more, but it also has an impact on everything from, am I treating myself with personal care products? Am I finding ways to kind of shift what I'm thinking? Am I a server that's not going to go back and work at a restaurant because I deserve better? These are impacting small moments. These are impacting big shifts and these are all things that are tied together.” Erin sets up the next episode on pop culture, what it means to be a hero, and what does it all mean for the next generations. Stay tuned for episode seven of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about. If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!

Welcome to Why Meaning Matters. A Story Studio Network podcast hosted by Erin Trafford with MotivBase cultural anthropologist, Ujwal Arkalgud and MotivBase president, Jason Partridge.  In episode five, Erin continues with the mini episode arc around the topic of the changing meaning of gender and why it matters to organizations. Bringing feminity and masculinity into the conversation she asks how C-suite executives like CMOs can dig into how relevant it is to what they do. Take the ‘gender reveal party’ as an example. UJWAL [00:03:27] “Let's take retailers as an example, they all do a lot of promotions around pregnancy, right. And they're all these cultural events, like the gender reveal party that has been a huge part of how retailers go to market in order to, you know, obviously make more money in specific moments in time in people's lives. So how do they, how do they re-examine the role of the gender reveal party, starting with the traditional colors that are used to denote the gender to even the fact that you need some sort of a gender reveal party.” Events like gender reveal parties tie into our changing meaning around maternity and motherhood as well. Ujwal shares another example of a tangible translation of feminism into the world of business and marketing; a meaning that has trickled down into how healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies market and deliver products and services.  UJWAL [00:06:08] “If you take the meanings around pain and chronic pain, you will see a whole narrative, what we call a microculture, a whole microculture of meaning around how chronic pain is treated differently for women than it is for men. And, one of the reasons for this is that women are culturally expected to live with pain, literally because they're going through it every month, but also because generally, because they're going through it every month, there's an expectation that, uh, pain is part of the livelihood of a woman, which isn't in the same way for a man.” Jason says that a word like ‘feminism’ is not just a word. It can be a very loaded term and the word doesn’t always capture its evolving meaning. Equity, fairness, an even playing field, and more are being represented by this word. JASON [00:08:02] “What we're now starting to see is, is that that is the shift that is starting to take place. That is the expectation or the demand that is not just coming from women. It's coming from men as well. It really is coming from, again, dare I say, this enlightenment that we need to go beyond an individual word to really understand what it means and get to a place where we can find that connective tissue that's making things better for people, whether or not that's people that are buying our things or whether or not that's people in our organization.” Jason shares an example of how organizations are future-proofing their businesses by embarking on this learning experience to get to know what womanhood and the changing role of feminism mean, allowing communication and marketing to follow cultural changes. JASON [00:11:29] “When I started working in advertising, I remembered working on a CPG brand. And you know, one of the first things I learned is that if you worked in feminine care, if they were doing a product display, they would dip the tampon, but the liquid had to be blue. And it was blue for years and years and years because God forbid, we actually think about what this thing is supposed to do.” Erin sets up the next episode with the notion of women CEOs running their businesses on the feminine cycles and emotional energies. Stay tuned for episode six of Why Meaning Matters. A podcast produced by Story Studio Network and iContact Productions for MotivBase- Decoding implicit meaning behind what people talk about.   If you want to contribute to the conversation, make sure you drop us an email at hello [at] storystudionetwork [dot] com. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to SHARE it, RATE it, and SUBSCRIBE to the show!