If customers can’t see themselves mirrored in a brand or company’s marketing, there’s a strong possibility they’ll feel the product or service isn’t meant for them. Marketing should reflect the United States’ diverse population, yet unfortunately it sometimes falls short
Social Media Breakfast of Houston co-founderJennifer Texada invitedShana Sumers, Senior Manager, DEIB at Hubspot, Alicia Brownell, founder and Brand Messaging Strategist at Seize Worthy, and Christian Gatlin, Digital Ad Ops Campaign Manager at Cox Media, to talk about what needs to be done.
Acknowledge the Progress Already Made, But Don’t Rest on Your Laurels
Brands and companies are finally recognizing that inclusion and diversity in marketing are important.
Christian points out that, “the ‘inclusion’ train is something trendy right now, everyone's kind of trying to get their bit in, but I think it also shows how people of color can be in existence. Like, we can see, ‘oh they see us.’”
“It’s kind of sad that it took this long, but we're here now,” she adds. “To see little black girls and little black boys be able to look at television, magazines, different things like that, and see afros and natural hairstyles and locks… in the media, I think that's super important.”
Make Diversity a Priority in Your Planning
People take note of what brands and companies are doing… and not doing.
Shana notes that, “people are noticing whether or not you are having diversity within your content, and it's not just noticing passively, it's noticing actively. They are holding companies accountable. They are making sure that customers… are making sure that they feel seen within a company's branding before they go and start to invest in companies and the work that they're doing.”
This includes “bringing in the diversity of our bodies, of our… backgrounds, of our abilities, of our languages, of where we are geographically…” She adds. “It’s almost like we're taking a journey with our customers to tell their stories and to represent them, and now companies have the responsibilities to do that in a positive and enlightening way.”
Have the Courage to Move the Needle
Christian shares the story of when, while working as a social media coordinator at a previous job, she was tasked with updating the brand’s Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook pages. She was determined to ensure the brand’s social media represented a diverse society, but didn’t find the process entirely comfortable.
“I had to choose those images, I had to make those captions, … I was 21, trying to find black people on Getty Images,” she explains. ”It was a hot mess, and I was in those rooms where I had to present to senior leadership like, ‘this is what we're going to post for the month,’ and it was uncomfortable.” She says, “nobody looked like me, so every time they saw my content calendar… you could tell they were uncomfortable by the amount of black people that I would forcibly search [for] and place.”
Still, she encourages others to take action, even if it’s just a seemingly small step. “I encourage anyone who's in that position to take advantage of it… [If] I can move the needle in any type of way, or make people think differently, or make people consider differently in any type of way, I'm going to do that.”
Diversity and Inclusion Start Internally Within a Brand
Even before externally championing diversity and inclusion in marketing, it’s important that companies’ and brands’ internal structure reflects society.
“You have to look internally first, and then work on that [external manifestation]. Like, you shouldn't even be trying to have that be your first step, you should go back and look at, ‘Why don't we have these people in the room? Why aren't these people here working with us?’ and go from there,” says Shana. “And that's where companies just need to recognize, ‘oh, this campaign can wait,’ because clearly there are bigger issues that have to be worked on.”
Don’t Pander
Brands and companies should also be careful to avoid what Christian calls the ‘pandering’ approach. She describes it as “forcing certain language, forcing an influx of people of color or black people within your branding where you once didn't include them at all. And it's just kind of like an inauthentic approach for me. I feel like when the inclusion suddenly begins and then suddenly ends, that's like, okay, you're clearly trying to talk to somebody real quick and then you're gonna leave us alone.”
She adds, “I think that's what a lot of these brands are doing in a quick haste to try to become trendy or try not to look like the bad guy.”
Listen Before Taking Action
The best way to ensure a brand’s actions come across as authentic is to “listen before you try to start engaging in the talking part of a conversation,” says Alicia. “You could start with, ‘what are we missing?’ [and move on to] ‘what we could be doing better.’
Resources that discuss inclusive language, such as Writer.com’s Inclusive language in the workplace and GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide, are a starting point.
“You can start to listen and find those places for reflecting the world as it is today, because that's really the point – you want people to come in and not feel like they don't belong in your brand,” she says.
Take Your Time to Get Things Right
Shana argues that “there are steps you can take to make sure that you don't fail miserably, but a lot of people want to jump to the end and say, ‘we have to get this out here quick!’ and the quickness is going to set you up for failure.”
Instead, she points out, “if you go and sit, and actually make this a part of your plan, strategize for it, build out what you need to, and then put it out to the world, there's a much less chance that you're going to fail, or it's just going to be like a little bit of a sting and then you make the adjustments and you don't do it again.”
Brands that Are Doing a Good Job Reflecting Diversity and Inclusion
Alicia points to Target as a company that’s doing a good job reflecting its diverse customer base. “It’s not just a one-off campaign, they've really integrated diversity and inclusion into their business model. And so it's felt, you feel it when you're at Target. You feel it when you're on Target’s online social properties. You feel it when you get products from Target, the displays, whether it's Black History Month or Lunar New Year… different things are being highlighted all the time.”
For brands that don’t know where to begin, she says “Target is a great place to start just consuming their content, to see how you can kind of naturally integrate [diversity into the marketing]. And obviously they have a huge team, but yeah that's a great place to start.”
Christian mentions Nike as another example of an inclusive company. “We all kind of know that they've always been super open, super inclusive, especially as it relates to what an athlete looks like,” she says. “And it's not [just] the typical idea of an athlete, they have paraplegic athletes featured in their ads [as well].”
“They're not all the way there yet, I don't think many companies are, but they are definitely one of the more outspoken about it, and I think that's great,” she adds.
Jennifer points to Fenty Beauty is a leader in diversity and inclusion because “I think they're one of the few that probably opened and started their organization leading with diversity.”
Christian explains that Fenty founder Rihanna, who founded the brand in 2017, “was quickly able to see the different [makeup] shades [on the market] were limited, especially for darker skinned women. So I think that's super important as it relates to intra-communal diversity, even outside of non-black people of color.”