Culturally Conscious Marketing, a Trend or a Necessity?
Anujin Ganbat, Moize Ahmad, Naseeba Ahmed,
Morgan Wilke & Moe Zaharako-Weissman
Western Washington University
MGMT 311: Introduction to Management and Organizational Behavior
Dr. Warren
February 24, 2020
What is the real cost of culturally insensitive marketing? Imagine this, you’re sitting on your couch and watching the game when it goes to a commercial break, it’s the new Pepsi ad. Two minutes, which is long for a commercial, you see people protesting then the camera flips to Kendall Jenner, a weird combination, but you keep on watching. The people keep protesting and it looks kind of like a Black Lives Matter protest. You ignore that thought because it’s a soda commercial and that would be weird. The commercial continues, we follow supermodel Kendall Jenner who is making her way to the front of the protest, she pulls out a Pepsi and hands it to the officer and the protest is over. Kendall Jenner ended the protest by giving an officer a one-dollar soda. The commercial finishes and you’re left confused. A pretty model and a Pepsi can end a protest, a protest that is replicating a Black Lives Matter protest, in which people are fighting for basic human rights. The 2017 Kendall Jenner and Pepsi commercial cost Pepsi 20% brand approval, but it is not the only company or marketing campaign that has failed miserably. (Marzulli, 2018) Social and cultural consciousness can be a big miss in a lot of marketing campaigns, globally.
Starting at the turn of our 21st-century, people are becoming more culturally sensitive about how they express themselves. Diversity is not just about the shade of your skin tone, it’s about your pronouns, sexual orientation, culture, background, and so much more than who you are and what you identify as. It is not as though, suddenly diversity is a trend. Millennials today are one of the most ethnically diverse generations in the US, many come from multicultural backgrounds. They are also the generation who spend the most time on social media. This opens the door to a vast number of various ads. A theory outlined by Tajfel helps to understand the growing numbers of multiculturalism. Tajfel describes this as the social identity theory; “that part of the individual’s self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance of that membership” (Tajfel, 1981.) This theory helps explain the idea that membership of a social group can be a perceived idea, rather than something that is assigned. This leads to the increased diversity in various multicultural groups; or in other words, people are now identifying as more culturally and ethnically diverse than in the past. Thus, these ad campaigns if done wrong can harm a much greater number of people. Social awareness of diversity and inclusion has been a growing issue. Targeting an ad to an audience without inadvertently discriminating against any ethnic group is a challenge for many companies today.
So, how shall we achieve perfect marketing? We are surrounded by all sorts of advertisements, whether it is aimed towards us or not. We are sometimes forced to absorb that information. China, for example, released a very controversial advertisement a couple of years ago, and that commercial still affects them today. They produced a racist detergent commercial, and they did not consider the audience, who are not impacted by the product itself, but the message it portrayed. The commercial shows a woman putting a black man inside a washing machine with the detergent being advertised. The black man came out Asian after the wash. The company stated, “We meant nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism.” (Graham-Harrison, 2016) The advertisement drew huge controversy abroad and little at home. The company knew that foreign media might be sensitive, their goal was to only promote their product. Controversies like this affect not only companies but the employees who work for them. Studies have shown that employees are more attracted to companies that share their interests. The lack of social awareness in ad campaigns can lead to a severe decrease in the employee base the company currently has or is looking to employ in the future, as people tend to not want to work for companies who have such a disregard for racism. These ads are directed both at the potential employee and the mass consumers. An ad campaign that is socially unaware can lead to a decrease in the company’s workforce, and potential employees can feel repulsed by the company.
Though the current issues are facing socially unaware ad campaigns, many scientific articles highlight research for possible solutions. David A. Thomas did in-depth research on using diversity as a strategy. Published in 2006, it can’t be any more relevant in 2020. The research mentions how diversity is not an easy task that can be achieved overnight, but it’s a task that must be done for any big corporations and business sectors. Instead of trying to ignore the differences among their employees, to eliminate discrimination, they created 8 different task forces for each different group such as Hispanics, Asians, gays and lesbians (LGBTQ+), and women, etc. They found that, once they promoted the ideas at IBM, the company experienced 733% growth in the number of self-identified, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender employees and the number of executives with disabilities more than tripled.
Another possible solution was theorized by Schroeder in 2002. He has highlighted the fact that ethnic embedding in ads can go beyond the product realm and shape how viewers see themselves in society (Schroeder, 2002). Thus, these ad campaigns can have a real cultural impact on how a certain group views themselves, and how they are viewed. This speaks to the importance of socially and culturally aware ad campaigns as they can have an ever-increasing impact due to multiculturalism and effect groups outside of the consumer. Also, if these ads overlook or ignore how viewers feel their ethnicity is being portrayed, it can easily trigger feelings of exclusion or marginalization that can affect how the consumer views the brand that is running the ad. A key term in helping understanding multiculturalism and the effect ads can have is situational ethnicity. Stayman and Deshpande’s concept of situational ethnicity states that a person can have various ethnic identities they can relate to depending on the situation. They argue that ethnic cues embedded in ads increase ethnic self-awareness in individuals as they view the ad. This ethnic embedded marketing can make individuals more aware of and relate more to their ethnic background or associated ethnicity. This is a challenge for modern marketing ad campaigns as they are now needing to adapt to this sense of multiculturalism and how-to best market ads to consumers. Have a diverse group of people working on your marketing campaigns, this diverse group can more successfully connect with the diverse groups of people the marketing campaigns are trying to connect with (McCrory, 2018).
So, what are we trying to say here? We believe the main take away from these findings has been the fact that yes, diversity must be addressed and no longer can companies ignore it. But the question of how to effectively and consciously to do so is still not completely remedied. One thing stands true, if a company sees diversity as a trendy move to use for their marketing, it shows a lack of research and real tangible dedication to the topic. Usually, companies will jump on the ‘trend train’ and try to get more attention. However, they do not spend enough time, focus groups, and R&D to understand the trend and situation; before they use it to market their products for their benefit. Many failed commercials that became a social issue, meme, news or even companies that got ‘canceled’ [consumers will discontinue subscribing to a product or services] are deep examples of how it can all go wrong in a matter of seconds in a technologically advanced society. Now imagine this, a 30-second commercial, a Coke can with your name on it (however unique it is, from whatever background or culture), or your pronoun on a soda can. Coke has implemented these marketing strategies almost to perfection. Unlike Pepsi who has run various culturally insensitive ad campaigns, Coke has found a way to micro-localize their cans and make everyone feel like they are unique with their branding. Now, would you still want to buy a Pepsi?
Citations:
Schroeder, J. E. (2005). Ethical issues of global marketing: avoiding bad faith in visual representation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03090560210422399/full/html?journalCode=ejm
Thomas, D. A. (2006). Diversity as a Strategy. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.467.9069&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=780
Graham-Harrison, E. (2016, May 28). Black man is washed whiter in China’s racist detergent advert. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/28/china-racist-detergent-advert-outrage
McCrory, D. (2018). Senior Marketing Executives’ Strategies to Implement Multicultural Marketing Campaigns. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5751/
Marzilli, T. (2018, April 17). One year after Jenner ad crisis, Pepsi recovers but purchase consideration hasn’t. Retrieved from https://today.yougov.com/topics/food/articles-reports/2018/04/17/one-year-after-jenner-ad-crisis-pepsi-recovers