Diverse marketing - when campaigns backfire

Marketing driven by diversity is having an impact on ROI, but it comes with high risks. How can you go beyond superficial representation and get inclusive marketing right?

In my discussion with CMO of Eve Sleep Cheryl Calverley, that was published in the previous article of this series, one trend under the microscope was All Inclusive advertising. The danger of ignoring diversity has never been so great, but consumers also have a huge online platform to trash brands who get messaging wrong. Today I’m delving into who have done this well and who have failed to get it right.

Why you need to pay attention today

I constantly encounter brands that make big claims about inclusivity and yet the work they produce and the experiences of staff tell a different story. From a consumer perspective, we know that globally over two-fifths of consumers say advertising is not doing a good job of reflecting the diversity of their country. Brands that enter the conversation have a commitment to showing consumers that they really mean it. Let’s start with how not to do it.

The brands that failed

Marketing to diversity is a tough gig because it requires sticking your neck out and offending potential customers who take a different point of view. But a second, and even bigger danger is missing the mark completely and offending the very audience you were trying to appeal to in the first place. Nowhere has provided such fruitful examples of when it goes wrong as western brands trying to appeal to consumers in APAC. The APAC region is front of mind for many growing internationals, but some brands are not even learning from each others’ mistakes.

Just this April, Burger King in New Zealand posted an Instagram video of diners failing to eat a Vietnamese flavour inspired burger with huge chopsticks. The following outrage spread from New Zealand to China where the hashtag #BurgerKingApology allegedly gained over 50m views in a few days. This follows D&G’s chopsticks ad blunder just last Winter, where a woman from China was challenged to eat a number of Italian delicacies with chopsticks until she failed. Similarly, consumers quickly called out the brand on social media leading to a number of models and celebrities boycotting the brand’s upcoming show, forcing the whole thing to be called off. Some reports estimate D&G lost ￡22.5m as a direct result of the backlash. Can they rebuild their reputation? We are yet to find out.

Image credit: Carla Herreira HuffPost USA, burgerkingnz

The brands that won

So how do you avoid an egregious blunder larger than the not-so-funny comedy chopsticks in Burger King’s bad ad? We have a few examples of brands doing something interesting to help you evaluate the best strategy to deliver and measure the impact of diverse marketing:

The brand that updates its communications

P&G saw great success with its original Ariel Share the Load campaign in 2015. Then, the campaign highlighted how much household work was done by women - in 2018, Ariel updated the messaging and ad spot to question why this gender imbalance is so stark. Now Ariel says mothers should teach their sons the same things they teach their daughters. Gender balance starts with the skills mothers impart at home. By sticking with a campaign but updating the messaging to make it relevant to discussions happening today, Ariel has reinforced its brand identity and its voice in this discussion.

Image credit: Social Samosa, Ariel

The brand demanding diverse workforces

Diageo has committed to creating a diverse workforce, not just within their own four walls, but also within the third parties that they work with. CMO Syl Saller demanded that its creative partners share their diversity stats so Diageo could assess how committed to diversity its partners actually are. To make great campaigns that appeal to diverse audiences, it is imperative to have a diverse workforce. Many agencies have been accused of having trophy employees that are rolled out to play the diversity card. Commit to truly diverse hiring by ensuring people of differing age, race, gender and socioeconomic background are promoted to roles with creative and decision-making power.

The brand speaking to consumer stakeholders

Getting to know your consumers in their entirety stops tokenistic representation. Later in this series, I will show how trends can be used to speak to consumer needs that, on the face of it, do not immediately speak to one audience. Some brands are doing this by speaking to their consumers directly. Glossier has played the slow game by being born out of a beauty blog. It created its products and brand around what its readers want. It is known for playful comms featuring diverse models with minimal makeup. Instagram video ads show these diverse models applying products so everyone has an idea of how it would suit them too. Even when Glossier was critiqued by fans for plastic packaging, it took the time to respond to each customer and explain how they were acting on the feedback from their consumer stakeholders. Does this tactic work for Glossier? In 2019, the brand was named a tech unicorn as in March it was valued at $1.2b.

If you are struggling to find the right strategy to diversify or are struggling with the courage to start, know that consumers are ok with brands sometimes failing to hit the mark too. In fact, as we’ve seen from analysis on brands who joined the firearm protests in the US, sometimes the vocal opposition are not the core consumers who have the biggest impact on sales.

Let me know in the comments which brands you think are winning and losing in this debate. You can find more on inclusive brands in Foresight Factory’s 2019 report.