10 Ways To Do Better Diversity Marketing
The last thing you or your clients want is for a campaign to backfire and create a social media shit storm because you didn’t get the tone right or you misrepresented sections of society. Believe me, it’s happening more and more, so be warned.
The list of blunders is getting longer. We all remember that Pepsi ad in which Kendall Jenner appeared to make light of the Black Lives Matter movement in America by making a peace offering of a Pepsi can to bridge the divide between police and protesters.
Taking the Pepsi example of how not to do diversity marketing, experts put the reputational damage at between $2million and $5 million, and suggest that the media buy would be in the region of $100 million for a campaign like this. Getting it wrong is expensive! You don’t want to be that marketer or create responsible for that, right?
Here at Versiti, we’ve looked back over our experience as diversity and inclusion insight and strategy experts to offer you 10 invaluable words of wisdom. These are based on our work with advertising, marketing and communications briefs across a range of audiences.
#1: Don’t confuse diversity with ‘niche’
Clients sometimes assume that diversity marketing is exclusively about targeting a single audience with a highly specific profile. In some cases, this may be correct. For example, our team worked on a campaign designed to encourage Muslims to give up smoking during Ramadan. The campaign materials and messages were obviously focussed on the identities, cultural norms, religious beliefs and smoking behaviours of Muslims, as well as on an understanding of the environments in which Muslims are likely to access the campaign.
More often than not, though, marketing for diverse audiences is about being inclusive and having a point of view that brings people together. That is where diversity marketing is at its most powerful. Take Malteser’s latest campaign, which focused on disability: it was the brand’s most successful campaign of the past decade. Having set a target of 4% sales growth, Maltesers achieved an 8.1% uplift while the campaign was on air. The number of youtube views for the launch ad, “New boyfriend”, broke the two million barrier within the first 24 hours, more than double Maltesers’ one million target. Brand affinity also increased to double the brand’s target. Examples are many. Diversity is no longer a niche business. It has widespread appeal.
#2: Invest in ‘small data’ to yield genuine insights
In an area as sensitive and controversial as diversity, you should not proceed without evidence and insights. Skimping on research is dancing with danger!
All the tools of market research can be useful, but ‘small data’ is likely to give you more bang for your buck. Digital qualitative research (i.e. online research communities and mobile ethnography) is ideally suited for researching diverse audiences, especially young people, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, people with mobility restrictions and LGBT people, who tend to be very active online and, in some cases, would be expensive to research face-to-face. This is one of the reasons why Versiti has online qualitative research at its heart.
Critically, ‘small data’ is all about getting into people’s lives, having access to their homes, getting under the skin of consumers to unearth deep motivations, experiences, aspirations and unmet needs. It is about building the rapport and trust that will generate more valid data and insightful evidence. It will give your brand and creative team the understanding and empathy needed to develop a campaign that truly resonates. But whatever method you choose, you should always test any creative before rolling it out.
#3: Don’t wait: There is never a perfect time
Not only is there never a perfect time to get started, but if you postpone, you might lose first-mover advantage and enter an already crowded marketplace. In the meantime, the sense of disenchantment with your brand can only grow.
It is almost a decade ago that our team worked with the Estée Lauder group to explore how some of its main brands (Estée Lauder, MAC and Clinique) might engage women from minority ethnic backgrounds to identify opportunities around beauty and skincare products. We identified numerous opportunities, including the need to broaden the range of foundation colours to reflect the diversity of skin tones and skin care needs of women around the world. Today, Estée Lauder’s Double Wear foundation is the best selling foundation in the UK. It achieved double-digit growth, attracting a whole new range of women from minority ethnic background. In 2016, Estée Lauder’s business in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) performed strongly, with sales rising 10 percent over the previous year. Worldwide, it outperformed the prestige beauty market by 2.5%.
#4: Authenticity is key: Look into the heart of your brand
Before you begin to think about diversity marketing, it is a good idea to take a close look at your brand. What is it about your brand’s purpose, personality, values and beliefs that might be made relevant to diversity? At which point, in your brand’s history, have you demonstrated a commitment to diversity? If you have not, why is this changing now and how will you give your target audiences reasons to believe in you?
This might require some in-depth look at your workforce, product range, stores, supply chain or even the impact your organisation has had on local communities historically. This preliminary work will help you identify where you have permission to go and what barriers you may need to address. It often proves to be a great — if unintended — way to identify wider opportunities for the business. Choosing the right agency partner to act as a ‘critical friend’ for this strategic process is essential.
#5: Select the right team
When hiring your next research or creative partner, make sure that they have the cultural competency and experience to tackle your specific brief successfully. At the most basic level, this should include a genuine willingness and curiosity to learn more about diverse audiences. But you should also look for deeper expertise across a range of similar or relevant briefs. Having members of the target audiences on the team will also help you spot gross negatives, avoid mistakes and is likely to generate valuable insights based on personal experience.
Click here to get the next five invaluable tips, including avoiding typecasting and tokenism, and going beyond stereotypes.
Thank you.
