The anti-DE&I crusade will lead to segregation in marketing
The disinvestment in DE&I initiatives is real, and so is the segregation that follows. Any marketer worth their salt shouldn’t stand for it, warns integrated marketing consultant Sabrina Lynch.
A Black C-Suite leader in marketing is a rarity on two fronts: your seniority and your identity. You have to be beyond proficient at your job, doubling down more than most to be a walking Wikipedia through self-education. You won’t get far if you don’t.
The very notion of a Black C-Suite leader in marketing (and beyond) appears to be under attack by anti-DE&I legislation that is growing across the US and the west, not to mention dwindling efforts in DE&I programs. Last year, DE&I roles declined by 44%, Google and Meta made cuts to DEI programs, and Eugenia Harvey at the WNET Group is leaving the organization. The University of Florida also announced that it is eliminating all positions related to DE&I. The message is clear, identities and audiences who are typically overlooked do not matter.
The rising hostility to initiatives that would increase representation and broaden the demographics of primary audiences is causing corporations to retreat into silence. This is compounded by threatened backlash or boycotts against “woke” businesses. Case in point, a letter written by a senator was sent to Target CEO Brian Cornell stating that the company’s DE&I program and “racial quota for hiring” was discriminatory.
This is a big problem.
We should know what makes an audience tick. All audiences
As a junior executive of color, you are expected to understand other cultures, communities, and behaviors from the get-go. On the other hand, I have never been asked to broaden my knowledge of white audiences because there was always an expectation that this was the default audience. Therein lies the double-edged sword. It is the job of marketers, planners and strategists to really know what makes an audience tick. We should be three steps ahead of what they want before they need to ask. So, it is increasingly frustrating to see our industry being forced to retreat from expanding its knowledge of multiple cultures. That we can only address white hetero audiences is an issue.
But don’t worry, there’s a quick-fix solution. Outsource this deficit of audience intelligence to a ‘specialist’ agency.
Many businesses employ these experts on diverse cultures, ethnicities, or age demographics without sufficient internal representation. It is a sound action to take, but not an infallible one. When this vital component is outsourced, there’s a danger that the problem is ‘solved,’ and it can be quickly forgotten and never actually remedied. Multicultural marketing is now in danger of being an instrument that ‘others’ communities. And to be othered is to be ostracized. To be viewed as a specialized subject is to be treated as a non-priority, a specimen, if you will. Whether you are an indigenous data scientist, a white chief strategy officer, or an Asian-American copywriter, it is our responsibility as marketers to step out and understand the culture of the other. It strengthens our efficiency when we get under the skin of our audience, be it consumer, cohort, shopper, customer, or noun of the month.
No one should feel regulated to be a separatist subject matter.
Outsourcing DE&I understanding is othering audiences
Fundamental inquisitiveness should be nurtured and not subcontracted. It’s unhealthy to endorse this notion among this new wave of strategists and creatives entering the field. If they do not disturb their comforts in understanding how others live, it instills a belief that it will always be someone else’s job. Aspects of identity should be explored by active learning initiatives for in-house and agency departments. This empowers marketers to comprehensively understand different audience segmentations, along with a solid foundation in cultural anthropology. It sends a message that every audience should be considered as a person of interest enough for a business to include in its overarching brand audience. It can change our businesses and our clients.
The current legal recourses being taken that would force agencies and in-house teams alike to backtrack in the US is a needless regression - ironically not the good kind of “regression” that benefits our world, which explores analysis of relationship variables.
It’s taken us far too long to break down the outdated, ill-conceived notion of consumers who should receive top billing. I’m not looking to go back, given all the hard work and blood that has been spilled, literally, to achieve some degree of social equilibrium. We need to see more diverse teams innovating together and less dismissal of expanding understanding of our fellow wo(man).