How can advertising and marketing teams create realistic promotional ad campaigns or product or service information that gives a proper voice and shares the accurate story of the BIPOC communities their company serves?
Updating the company’s digital presence, brand materials, or newsletter distributions with a range of diverse images that reflect their clients’ and customers’ life experience is one step in the right direction. However, it’s going to take more than a minor gesture like that, so you’ll have to dig deeper and go further to make a meaningful difference. Below, seven experts from Fast Company Executive Board offer their best practices to help advertising and marketing leaders to depict a better representation of their target audience members that is genuine and demonstrates true commitment to their base.
1. HIRE AND PROMOTE BIPOC STAFF.
Representation matters. If there is no BIPOC representation at the ground level, expect misrepresentations in the stories. It is important to get the stories right, and hiring a BIPOC-owned consulting company or freelancers to conduct the research and write the content can do the trick. Create an opportunity for someone from the BIPOC population to be elevated and celebrated by holding and creating the space. – Cynamon Scott, DuploCloud
2. APPOINT DIVERSE COMMITTEES TO STEER BUSINESS PLANS.
Appoint BIPOC members to be part of the committees that draw up these plans. It is hard to assume what someone has gone through just from media reports. A diverse workforce helps bring out really good business insights. – Zain Jaffer, Zain Ventures
3. DESIGN DIVERSE BRAND IMAGES AND MATERIALS.
There will be a lot of eyeballs on your marketing materials (hopefully), so the more diverse representations you can implement there, whether by language, visuals and videos, the more you will benefit the entire community. – Yoav Vilner, Walnut
4. BUILD A GLOBAL TEAM.
Consumers want authentic experiences with the brands they bring into their lives. That’s why our team employs creatives from all walks of life and from all over the globe. These creatives bring with them lived experiences that allow them to truly empathize with the community they are designing for because most often they are actually part of that community. – Beau Oyler, Enlisted Design
5. EMBRACE CURIOSITY, COLLABORATION, AND PERSISTENCY.
Embrace these three qualities: 1. Curiosity—capture qualitative and quantitative audience insights including sizing, specific challenges, hopes, and fears. 2. Collaboration—engage BIPOC stakeholders in the company and community to shape and hone your strategy. 3. Persistence—keep refining and improving messages, visuals, cultural cues, and channels. – Karen Starns, OJO
6. LAUNCH A FOCUS GROUP FOR COMMUNITY FEEDBACK.
Companies can better represent and reflect the stories and experiences of BIPOC communities by speaking with them directly. In order to make sure their products are actually what people want, companies need feedback from real consumers. The best way to do this is by speaking with them directly, through interviews or focus groups. Then you take this information to make informed decisions. – Rudy Mawer, Mawer Capital
7. APPLY THE DATA TO AUTHENTICALLY REPRESENT BIPOC VOICES.
Embrace diversity in your creative team and incorporate meaningful data and context (with inclusive language). Then weave it into the customers’ voices. – Britton Bloch, Navy Federal
See Original Article at Fast Company
