A new year calls for new budgets, fresh ideas, and updated metrics to existing goals. Exciting, right?
Maybe you’re building out a team to support recent growth. Or your employer is hoping to be more inclusive in 2021, and you’ve been tasked with deploying the strategy for BIPOC-targeted marketing.
And although you agree that a change is long overdue, you’re a bit apprehensive. Not because altruism is lacking; you understand the value and virtue behind inclusion and community. You are determined to do the right thing and go about it the right way.
But you’re simply unsure where to start and want to know how to best approach BIPOC marketing, especially when companies are being called out to show receipts.
Industries across all trades are being held to a different, higher standard, especially in diverse marketing. To execute with excellence, it’s time marketers and company leaders begin to look at BIPOC marketing more holistically, with humility and have the expectation that to evoke real change and grow as both individuals and a brand, you’re going to have to get uncomfortable in the process.
What Is BIPOC Marketing?
BIPOC (pronounced buy-pock) is an acronym short for “Black, Indigenous, people of color.” It’s a widely-accepted update to “people of color”; its goal being to include all shades, backgrounds, and ethnicities. And as you may be able to connect, BIPOC marketing is how advertisers, marketers, and influencers connect to and engage with their BIPOC audiences.
As both consumers and individuals, we take cues from their surroundings, including advertisements and marketing materials. According to a published 2019 study for Adobe Digital Insights, 60% of American consumers’ brand loyalty is based on the diversity they witness in a company’s advertising, and “a further 40% have turned away from brands they felt weren’t inclusive in their advertising.”
To ignore BIPOC marketing or avoid the topic is to alienate consumers and leave money on the table.
Brown-Washing Isn’t The Answer.
Let’s imagine you’re leading the Marketing and Business Development team at a luxury apartment group. The company is set to build a new development in the heart of the city, specifically in a neighborhood that is primarily made-up of BIPOC residents. Your boss, understanding that the marketing campaign used for a neighboring town won’t prove as successful, asks you to develop and deploy a fresh, diverse marketing strategy that will be both authentic to the community and pivot toward a more inclusive marketing approach overall.
So, what is the first idea of “BIPOC-targeted marketing” that comes to mind when executing this assignment? (There’s no judgment!) If your first idea was to add more Black and Brown faces and call it a post-racial day, you’ve missed the mark, but you’re not alone. I believe this tactic is most often well-intentioned and meant to feel like a welcoming “hey, come on over” wave to a seat at the table.
But here’s the issue with adding in more BIPOC actors in your ads or leaning on the troupes of African-American Vernacular English slang, an overemphasis on sports, or playing R&B music in the background; they tell a one-dimension monolithic story. Consumers, no matter their background, connect and engage with stories where they see themselves. Not poor attempts that feel like pandering and only further perpetuate stereotypes.
Many major brands and companies make the mistake of being short-sided and only consider diverse marketing optics. They ponder the question, “How can we appear more inclusive,” versus answering the question, “How can we behave more inclusively?” When we start with the latter, a company can begin to approach BIPOC targeted marketing with equal parts altruism, strategy, and fitness.
Listen and Learn — From The Appropriate Channels
In the summer of 2020, countless vows were made in good faith to “pause, listen, and learn.” I think a fraction of my white peers dove into White Fragility while others consumed as much Black media and art as they could in between Zoom meetings. And while I saw — and commend — the millions that kept their pledge to listen and learn, I would love to see a greater focus on who and what we’re listening to as it relates to BIPOC business.
In addition to world leaders and renowned authors, we also have the opportunity to connect and engage with local leaders and organizations serving those in our backyard, the consumers who we most want to align ourselves with!
To use the example above, as the Marketing and Business Development lead for a luxury apartment complex, you can get in touch with your local BIPOC-centered chamber of commerce. Further, you can cultivate a meaningful relationship with local, BIPOC-owned small businesses and build a partnership that serves and gives back to the community. A beneficial step that allows everyone a win-win? Allowing local businesses to apply for a request for a proposal, usually known as an RFP, to win your business is another opportunity to connect and engage with untapped BIPOC communities authentically.
Look at your hiring practices
Companies miss the mark on BIPOC marketing because of their lack of diversity within their client relationships and employee workforce.
Is anyone thinking, “We must only hire men,” or “we can only hire white, single women” — no, at least, not always. But we do look at our circles and personal networks when filling a position. And just with any cycle, there is a loop and revolving door of the same groups, with the same background, with the same interests, telling similar stories because they live life through a similar lens. There inevitably lacks a diversity of thought and a lack of inclusion. This lack projects itself in the project we develop, the stories we choose to tell consumers, and the experience we foster for those around us.
According to Indeed, companies have a half-dozen options and available practices to foster diverse hiring. They encourage hiring managers and employers to educate teams, adopt diverse hiring practices, promote open communication, and invest in employee development.
To add to the list, I know the guiding principles for a diverse workplace include listening, empathy, and understanding. When you ask for feedback from an employee resource group (ERG), take notes and take action. When you promise a more inclusive and psychologically safe work environment, develop a plan and deploy the strategy. And when you receive feedback from your team, disarm your guard and believe that what they’re saying has as much validity as it would if they were patting you on the back.
Admit when you miss the mark
As more companies wake up to their part in complicity by staying silent and begin to piece together BIPOC targeted marketing strategies, I see a lack of humility and accountability. Many companies are pretending to have been “down for the cause” and avoiding the fact that they never really prioritized diversity and inclusion until June 2020.
Take it a step further and own up to past mistakes with your teams, employees, and consumers. Allow for there to be engaging dialogue to see where unconscious bias played a part in crucial business decisions or to be educated on the company’s areas of opportunity. Further, create more sophisticated and developed internal channels for inclusive communication. This will allow for more diversity of thought and a more robust checks-and-balances system for marketing materials or external communication before they go out.
Enter the conversation of targeted marketing and inclusion with humility and loss of ego. Normalize the humanity of BIPOC communities. Foster open dialogue so that you can better understand the importance of BIPOCrepresentation in the media. Take a moment to pause and hear the story that is being told to you by untapped audiences. The goal has always been to understand each other and celebrate our differences.
In 2021 and beyond, companies will have no choice but to adopt a thoughtful strategy and developed plan for BIPOC-targeted marketing. However, it doesn’t need to be whitewashed or brown-washed in the process. Leaders have incredible influence and a responsibility to humanize BIPOC lives. And it’s all in the approach.
Approach your community, approach your existing team, and approach those you wish to engage with as if they are people you care for and want to learn more about.
