Successful Business Leaders’ Focus on Gender and Poverty Alleviation: The Lojas Renner Case of Job and Income Generation for Brazilian Women

Abstract

Successful entrepreneurs of a large retail chain for clothing—the Lojas Renner, decided to address gender, as well as job and income generation issues, in a challenging experience that involved several stakeholders in the new markets where they established their business. In 2007 they launched the ‘Mais Eu’ (More me) social campaign aligned with the business, aiming to increase women’s professional qualifications, job and income generation. The key concern relied upon the content of the communication, in order to promote a deep adaptation to regional tastes and habits, respecting the different lifestyles. The institutional advertising campaign focused on the concept of woman and her relationship with important symbols such as family, considering different phases of her life-cycle (teenager, mother with children, and housewife in her home routine) and different women’s styles. This approach nationalized the concept and the importance of women from all Brazilian regions, enabling identification and awareness. The objectives of this paper are: (a) to present the campaign, as it could serve as a model to be replicated by other companies, in emergent or developing countries; and (b) to analyze the campaign using the theoretical framework of the Ethics of Care.