African American Marketing

It's even more important today that corporations invite multicultural consumers into their brands by developing relevant communications based upon brilliant strategic thinking and powerful insights. Those clients who understand that, and who know that the marketing communications need to intersect with the consumer at all their touch points, will benefit greatly and grow their brands significantly. Those clients that don't, won't.

I was Black Before the Election

While on the Dave Letterman Show, Barack Obama was asked about Jimmy Carter's statement that "people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be President because he happens to be African American." Obama reminded Letterman and the audience that , "first of all, I was black before the election.' The overwhelming majority of people,' he went on to say, 'simply want 'common sense, honesty and integrity.' Obama considers it an extraordinary honor to have been elected President, of course. And he really feels that any time someone is proposing significant change in the status quo, people are more likely to strongly react than not. "FDR was called a socialist and communist," he said. People accused Ronald Regan of trying to team down the country.' What else would you expect Obama to say? We all know Jimmy Carter is indeed right. But Obama is much better served staying away from discussing race in any other way because it is otherwise a 'can't' win proposition.

Racism on Madison Avenue?

Sad to say that advertising agencies continue to be as segregated today as they were yesterday. Is that by design or circumstance? Given that there are as few African Americans in advertising today as when I first began in advertising thirty-four years ago I would tend to think the former is the case. Or perhaps we could call it benign neglect. Others, notably Sanford Moore, would call it Apartheid. And he would argue that just as economic boycotts were used to force the end of the rule of an oppressive South African regime and their racist, apartheid policies, the same pressure needs to be brought to bear today on Fortune 100 clients and their advertising agencies.

Is it Racism?

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the first African American President of the United States, political pundits and journalists alike talked on and on about the 'post-racial' society of America. Obama's election was proof positive, they said, that race could no longer be used as an excuse for underachieving. "America has completed its evolution into a racial meritocracy," said Phillip Morris of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And Laura Hollis of TownHall.com simply said "racism is dead."

As the summer progressed and the contentious debate over health care ensued we were appalled when town hall meetings took on a nasty anti-Obama tone. To be clear, people have strong genuine feelings about health care and other issues, and passionate, partisan discourse is healthy. Free speech is at the heart of democracy. But it was as if Obama's blackness was permissibility enough for people to defy him and be nasty and threatening in their behavior toward him, and it was ubiquitous. Even in the hallowed halls of Congress, a Republican Congressman dared to call the President a 'liar'. That had never, ever happened before. That's the kind of behavior that can incite violence. No, this was definitely something more than disagreements over health care.

Jimmy Carter felt strongly that this behavior was racism and said so in no uncertain terms at Emory University. "When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the President of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds. I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be President because he happens to be African American.” And the debate rages on.

David Brooks, writing for the NY Times, said, "No, it's not about race." He came to that conclusion while watching the social interaction between the 'Tea Party' protesters mingling with the mostly Black Family Reunion celebrants whose event just happened to coincide with the 'Tea Party' protest. Brooks had been jogging and stopped to observe the behavior of the different groups interacting. "These two groups were from opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum. The tea party people were buying lunch from the family reunion food stands. Yet I couldn't discern any tension between them." Could well have been smart entrepreneurship on behalf of vendors who were trying to do business. Maybe the tea party crowd was simply getting nourishment so they could continue their protest.

Appearances aren't always what they seem. During slavery, plantation owners insisted that their slaves were happy 'Negroes' because they were always singing in the fields. The plantation owners didn't realize that songs like 'let us break bread together on our knees' were actually messages to meet down at the river-bed to plot strategy for their escape.

Racism is deep-seeded and instilled in the fabric of our society. It is dangerous because it is often an unconscious, rote response to long years of legal and defacto segregation. It is a part of our culture and affects all of us - black, white, it doesn't matter. I would venture to say that much, if not most, of the venom coming from the protesters has to do with the fact that Obama is a Black man. The repressed anger coming from those who never wanted to see him become President in the first place has 'festered over like a sore, and run,' as Langston Hughes long ago wrote. We must find a way to get along with one another. And we should have as many 'teaching and learning moments' as we can, and move on. There is no room for hate. Bring on the Echo boomers.

Educating Clients on Multicultural Marketing

If we don't continuously educate our clients on the subtleties and nuances of the multicultural marketplace then we'll never have the opportunity to help grow their brands, nor ours. However frustrating it may be - and it is often very frustrating - we must take it upon ourselves to constantly inform our clients, passionately debate with them the issues of multicultural advertising, particularly as those issues relate to targeting the African American customers. We must help them understand what we do and why we do it. Then when they 'let' us do what we do, we have to get it right. Only then will they see for themselves how smart, nuanced, relevant and targeted communications connect emotionally with their customers and help grow their brand.

The New General Market

Today is a very different day than yesterday. The Echo boomers are the first generation to grow up in this new media world we live in where boundaries are endless and networking is in real time and interactive. People today are growing up and being influenced by cultures around the globe. They in turn influence others. It's as if a pebble dropped in a pond of water causing ripples to move out from the center only to ripple back again. It begins as one 'something' but comes back having been influenced by many things.

The Madison Avenue Initiative...

Here we go again. The general market agencies have been tasked to find AND HIRE African American talent to diversify their typically otherwise all-white group of employees. We've heard that before. Will the outcome this time be different? Will the fact that Cyrus Mehri and the NAACP are involved and are talking directly to the Fortune 100 clients make a difference? Will those clients mandate that their general market agencies finally do what they long ago should have done? How is it that a Fortune 100 client can otherwise entrust his or her global brand to an agency that is not in any way representative of its customer base. And I'm not talking about secretarial or administrative positions. While there is nothing wrong with being a secretary or working in the mail room - areas of employment that undoubtedly over index for people of color - the key is to hire those senior managers who interact with the most senior clients and who can affect strategy and marketing communications so both are more inclusive based upon cultural insights and nuances

Multicultural Marketing...

It's always important to develop a strong, ongoing business relationships with our clients. That's especially true in multicultural marketing because we're often educating and informing at the same time we're developing overarching strategies to help grow the clients' brands. When the client knows their brand is at the heart of everything we do, they're more likely to listen to us and consider our POV. A passionate debate about our clients' brands is a healthy thing.

Relationships

Without strong client relationships we're left to guess at and wonder what the client is thinking and feeling as opposed to knowing for sure. Certainty is otherwise replaced with concern and apprehension. Confusion becomes the order of the day. Gross inefficiencies follow. If we are to be stewards of our clients' brands we must have an ongoing dialogue with them. Silence in this regards is not golden, for sure.

We are Global

Someone referenced a great quote by Herman Melville in an article I saw today. I wanted to share it with everyone. 'America was settled by people of all nations...You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world. We are not a narrow tribe."