How to Ensure Your Board Mirrors Your Brand

I see it time and time again, and it never fails to astonish me. Most recently? Looking at retailers’ responses to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Nike, for example, has taken a lot of heat. It’s a company that was influenced by – and has consistently profited from – African American street culture. Yet there’s not a single African American face in its leadership team. This is despite the fact that around 13% of the US population identifies as black, while black people make up at least 18% of Nike’s consumers. It made the brand’s supportive statements ring rather hollow to many people, myself included. Which broke my heart, as it’s always been one of my favourite brands. Its product, its app, its plus size mannequins – I love Nike so much and really want it to do better.

At least Nike’s board is diverse, though, with 3 African Americans and 4 women among its 13 members. The board of Nike’s main rival, Adidas, tells a much more hypocritical story. Of its 16 members, 5 are women (sure, that’s pretty great) but zero are people of colour.

Apart from issues around diversity and inclusion, how can that sort of thinking and structure possibly make good business sense? Too many brands are reacting to diversity as a compliance issue. But diversity is a business issue; it’s about the bottom line.

Covid 19 has accelerated the shift from direct to consumer – to digital, quicker than perhaps some brands anticipated. Retailers have had to get much closer to their customers and are speaking directly to them, as they should have been all along. Those customers are demanding that authentic conversation more and more – on the phone, on live chat, in the store. And they are holding brands to a higher social standard than before.

There’s Nothing Like a Crisis to Show You Who You Really Are

There are some questions that need asking, immediately. Does your board really represent the customer you’re trying to target? Is it diverse? Is it digital? Are you really understanding what’s happening right now or are you actually becoming even more disconnected from your business and your customer?

We can’t think that just because something worked before, it will now. Every brand thinks it’s important. But if it’s out of touch with its customers – the very people it should be taking all its cues from – then it’s really not. Instead of shoving out rushed and reactive content, now is the time to step back and re-evaluate.

Because brands need to understand their own identity, too. Does your customer actually know you? Is your conversation authentic? Is your board a strategic group of people in place to ensure the ongoing health and wellbeing of business? Or is it just a governance activity? If you don’t know who you are as a brand and you aren’t relevant or connected to your consumer, it doesn’t matter if you have an amazing cash flow or M&A guy on your board – you can’t M&A something where the brand value has diminished significantly because people have made the wrong decisions.

Digital comms teams used to be siloed and weren’t part of the conversation at board level. But now, the level and speed of content and exposure means that brands need to ask themselves how decisions can be made quickly at board level – with relevant digital insights. You need that informed viewpoint feeding down right from the top.

Are You Walking What You Talk?

Values have to be set, and the board has to reflect those. It’s the only thing that will keep brands connected with customers and robust throughout whatever happens now. It’ll keep brands attracting the best talent, too.

Generation Z – the largest and most diverse generation in history – want more than a list of values on a website. They will look at who’s on your board and whether your money – and actions – are where your mouth is. 77% want an employer whose values align with their own and they’re very vocal when brands come off as insincere. Remember Rishi Sunak and his controversial Yorkshire Tea round?

So, who can we learn from? Ben & Jerry’s, for one. Its diverse board combines experience in non-profits, large businesses, human rights, impact investing and environmental activism, and its focus is on encouraging the inclusion and economic development of disadvantaged communities. Ben & Jerry’s has been loud and clear about its support for the Black Lives Matter movement since 2016 and has created various content to support reparations for Black Americans, break down systemic racism and fight for front end criminal justice reform. It even launched a Justice Remix’d flavour. The brand’s long history of staying true to its own and its customers’ values made its recent ‘Silence is NOT an option’ post and four-step plan towards anti-racism heartfelt and powerful.

How Are You Staying Relevant?

Others’ efforts to jump on the bandwagon have actually disenfranchised them from their customer base, too – they’ve either seen as inauthentic or just not aligned with customer thoughts. L’Oréal Paris said that, “Speaking out is worth it,” but British model and actress Munroe Bergdorf took to Twitter to remind the brand that it dropped her in 2017 after she spoke out against racism.

It’s time for deeper conversations now. It’s time to show where you stand during a crisis. Recent events have given us a big and powerful lens through which to see that brands being out of touch with consumers is a huge deal. In light of the Black Lives Matter protests: it’s okay to be empathetic, but how are you actually implementing – on board level – a direct and authentic connection with the people you want to have a long-term relationship with? Adidas said that, “Together is how we make change.” But it’s deeper than that. We make change by taking action within our organisations and showing others how it’s done – and it starts in the boardroom. 

Digital strategy is at the heart of that understanding and engagement. It’s driving and powering it, enabling a deeper level of insight and relationship management than ever before. Digital shows us where our weaknesses are and lets us speak to our customers in real time, 24/7. It offers the insights you need around exactly who’s buying from you, where their heart is, and how you’re connecting with them. It’s not a marketing ploy; it’s a business decision. That’s why that know-how – in terms of digital and diversity - has to be at board level.

Remember that revolutionary 2004 Dove ‘Real Women’ campaign? Look at Airbnb, too. Its diverse board of directors brings together different experiences and ways of looking at problems. It knows that its customers value creativity and learning about new ideas so is offering online lockdown experiences like learning a magician’s secrets, wine classes with a pro and a drawing class with an illustrator in Mexico. 

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Overhaul Your Board

But do it wisely. Don’t hire token changes; hire experience and knowledge. Dunelm’s diverse board, 2018 digital overhaul and evolution continues to add value to customers. It’s seen an almost 20% jump in profits and a 33%+ leap in online sales. Kickstarter, too. Recent board member, Casey Gerald, brings extensive experience across social impact, business operations, and non-profit work — all while staying true to himself and his story. Kickstarter’s board shows that it’s a brand committed to human flourishing rather than corporate profits.

Unilever also has some powerful diversity and digital goals in terms of challenging harmful social norms and stereotypes and unconscious bias with awareness campaigns, gender appointment ratios, flexibility and equal pay. The brand understands how crucial those are for growing the business, attracting and retaining the best talent and customers, too. CEO, Alan Jope, says: “I want Unilever to be… a beacon of diversity and inclusion that is also digitally-skilled and with the organisational flexibility needed to keep winning in an ever-changing, more dynamic world.”

The world is uniting against change that isn’t moving fast enough. Every brand needs to be proactively vaccinating itself against this consolidation and evisceration of retail that we’re seeing. Having that digital understanding of who your customer is and being able to craft that authentic conversation with them – at every single level of the organisation – is what will give brands the best chance of success. The alternative? Wasted opportunities and a shameful drift into irrelevancy.