Original article featured on LinkedIN 

Recommended Reading: ★★½ of 5 Stars

The idea of total market frustrates me. And I am not alone in this  frustration.

There are many of us who’ve lived and built our careers in multicultural marketing, and yet, we are struggling to understand the “business” of Total Market – what Total Market (really) is and isn’t, and more importantly, how ethnic marketers and segments can win in this new era of Total Market.

Jeffrey L. Bowman (@jeffreylbowman) and contributor Jeremy Katz, in their recent book, Reframe The Marketplace – The Total Market Approach to Reaching the New Majority attempts to present a winning process that will help marketers seize opportunities with dynamically growing ethnic groups and LGBTs together with the current majority white population – in other words, The New America.

Yeah, we’ve heard this before but right away, Bowman goes all-in on marketers for not (ever) adequately supporting and investing in multicultural marketing. Instead of simply glossing over things, Bowman provides a blow-by-blow account of the numerous hits that multicultural marketing withstood since its inception. It is a frank picture of how marketers have failed to leverage multicultural marketing for their advantage.

This is a pleasant surprise.

I also like how he includes in this process, the steps towards correcting this. He lists out the elements/needs/requirements for connecting with The New America:

• an enterprise maturation model that tell marketers how New America they really are)
• senior management buy-in
• the importance of staffing with diverse talent
• having realistic budgets
• investing in relevant research, etc.

None of these, though, are new news to the industry. For years, multicultural marketers have been pushing and pushing out these requests to no avail. So, it’s important to see them reiterated in Bowman’s Total Market discussion. It provides insights and context around the current dismantling of multicultural marketing.

Bowman’s big Total Market idea for better connecting with and engaging The New America is more about “organizational change and education and less about marketing”.  So, he recommends that all marketers convert their businesses to a Total Market Enterprise, where each would adapt the above requirements over time.

This is where he loses me a bit.

I respect Bowman for putting in the hours and thought toward this idealistic approach, but rose-colored glasses have also blurred Bowman’s vision from a few potential hiccups. I get the ideal side to converting to TMEs but I struggle with understanding the upside of this process, especially for those of us in the multicultural space. Jeff, my friend, I don’t believe there will be an equal distribution of opportunities and power.

First, the big boys with the money and resources are the likely candidates for this transformation. They have the dollars to staff, train, plan, and ready themselves for the next big New America opportunity.

Second, how will smaller, newly converted, TME businesses, that are the experts and keepers of deep insights and long-term relationships with specific multicultural groups, by the way, compete with these new large TME businesses? What becomes of great businesses like BET, Essence, Ebony, Burrell, Lattimer Communications, Univsion, Red Brown Kle’, The IW Group, Walton-Isaacson and The Hunter-Miller Group? Bowman accepts the challenge and this question and said this during an interview with him for this review:

“I too do not believe there will be equal placement. What I do advocate is prioritization of assets, which in turn grow the pie for ethnic dollars for the workplace and the marketplace.”

I appreciate the optimistic tone of the book, yet, as an advocate of marketers recognizing and speaking to various segments with deep insights, REFRAME has not done enough to allay my concerns.

I do, however, recommend this book for all marketers, especially multicultural marketers. We can’t be in the dark about Total Market. REFRAME, at the very least, helps us understand where Total Market is today, its future and how each of us can have a voice in the process.

Let’s continue the conversation.

Original article featured on LinkedIN

5 Principles to Help Business Leaders Avoid Cultural Appropriation Fiascos

• Kim Kardashian wearing cornrowed braids is cool. Kim Kardashian wearing cornrowed braids, and getting credit for making them popular, and renaming them boxer braids is not so cool. (A point of clarification, Kim neither claimed to make them popular nor did she rename them).

• Although the late Chuck Berry was Rock and Roll’s innovator, Jerry Lee Lewis said of himself, “There was no pure rock and roll before Jerry Lee Lewis.” Also, fans declared Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll. Over the years, Berry’s innumerable and influential contributions to rock and roll often took a back seat to Jerry Lee and Elvis who have been credited with creating this music genre and putting it on the map.

• There are a growing number of White rappers who mirror Black Hip-Hop culture, and who are creating opportunities and spaces with predominantly white audiences. In fact, in 2014, White rappers Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won 4 Grammys including best rap album, beating out Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z. The win poured salt into the Black community’s wounds of misappropriated Black Hip Hop culture. This was evident by the social media feud between White rapper Iggy Azalea and Black rapper Azelia Banks that lasted for weeks.

Wearing a hairstyle, or the use of art, music, fashion, traditions, symbols and language that has been a part of one culture and their history, by members of another culture, who take credit for those cultural elements, and claim it as their own by denying or ignoring the people who created it… is cultural appropriation.

“So, what’s the big deal? Isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery?” you may ask.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Practicing a culture is cultural appreciation. So it’s important to understand what the boundaries of appreciation and appropriation are and the levels of sensitivities that are associated with different ethnic groups.

From a Black perspective, cultural appropriation has been about the lack of respect and the loss of financial opportunities. From a mainstream perspective, there’s a belief that Black people are just too sensitive.

Even though it’s been weeks following the Pepsi, Shea Moisture and Nivea marketing blunders, I’m still getting asked “the question” from a number of colleagues and friends: “Are Black people overly sensitive about mainstream messages that include them?” My answer is no! Sensitive: yes. Overly sensitive, absolutely not! Black people and ethnic consumers in general, tend to analyze communications and marketing messages that focus on people who look like them with a lot more scrutiny than mainstream consumers. They are watchful for stereotypes, and messages that (unintentional or not) tend to devalue and misappropriate their culture.

Given that within the next 10 years, the majority of business growth and opportunity will come from ethnic consumers, it’s unfathomable that in 2017 America, many business leaders still don’t value the importance of garnering insights from and being sensitive to ethnic consumers’ sensitivities. It’s no wonder then, that when unraveling communication fiascos, we see a backdrop of exclusion, arrogance, denial, naiveté and fear.

Getting a segment’s approval is not about asking a question that delivers a yes or no response. It’s the assurance of obtaining an authentic connection with that audience. Cultural appreciation is that golden nugget that can be adapted across all segments. Yet, without deeper insights, the adaptation can be tricky because ethnic culture is personal.

Here are five ways of getting permission and garnering cultural appreciation from ethnic consumers:

1. Hire the right talent. Employing the right talent means placing people on your team who live, celebrate and fully experience being a person of color in America.

2. Practice Real Collaboration. When diverse talent is invited in the room and to the table, the opportunity fosters collaboration. Genuine collaboration of diverse talent is where cultural ideas, opinions, and insights are shared and received across both aisles. The outcome also provides content for a great engaging backstory.

3. Come correct. Give credit where credit is due. This statement speaks for itself. Do it openly, authentically and proudly every chance you get. If there are financial opportunities, step up share the benefits. That’s integrity and leadership.

4. Invest in relevant research. Business leaders are realizing that “big data” aren’t delivering the “Why?” The challenge is to include more qualitative research in the mix, assemble proper representation of segments, meet these segments where they are, and have a research team who understands cultural nuances.

5. Engage the audience via a call to action. Tuwisha Rogers, VP Strategic Partnerships at Urban One Media (formerly Radio One), shared keen insights about getting permission and said this: “It is not enough to have pretty imagery and entertainment in campaigns today. Consumers are smart and informed more than ever before. Companies need to engage audiences with a tangible call to action, to empower them and make it their own. Likewise, advisers need to be sincerely invested to make good on the call.”

Fixing the problem of cultural appropriation requires practice and commitment. Being aware of the thin line that separates us from understanding and connection is key. When adapting cultural insights and nuances as part of your brand persona, affirm your respect for the segment and culture from which you are borrowing.

Black Love and Black Women Need Love Too

What do the following ads have in common?

• The journey of a black girl and a white boy who are friends since childhood, grow up to be husband and wife 
• An interracial family teaching their daughter the benefits of cereal. 
• A mixed race couple get engaged

They all are heartfelt, beautifully done ads that show people in relationships with mates outside their race.

Mixed race couples have become the new norm. It is a segment of the new America. According to Breitbaart.com, as of January 2015 up to 8.4 percent of new marriages were interracial, which is up from .4 percent in 1960.
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