Tomorrow marks the beginning of Black History Month in the U.S. As you work to continue to engage more deeply with your diverse customers and build campaigns that grow your business, it's a smart move to incorporate established celebrations of specific cultures, particularly those that highlight historically underserved communities.
Black History Month, International Day of the Woman, Women's History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Pride festivities are all opportunities for your brand to showcase that you brand includes, celebrates, and supports those who are parts of these communities.
Here are three things to keep in mind to plan effective campaigns that will help you win the attention, respect, and appreciation from these increasingly more powerful customer groups.
1. Celebrate them
Don't go silent. Show the communities who make up parts of your customer that you see them, and honor them and their cultures. When you do, you'll send the signal that they do belong with you.
In 2017, the NFL did this well with their "Feel the Orgullo" campaign during Hispanic Heritage month. They built an online platform dedicated to the month's celebrations. There they highlighted Hispanic players and coaches within the league with content, and encouraged followers on social media to show their pride in their culture. They also recognized Hispanic community leaders in each of their 32 team cities, by donating $2,000 to their charity of choice.
The way you celebrate these communities doesn't have to be as elaborate as what the NFL did. Start small if you need to, and as you learn more and develop a deeper degree of intimacy with the community, you'll get ideas for how to expand it moving forward.
2. Go beyond the surface level acknowledgments
Reject any urges to take a cliched or stereotypical approach to celebrate these communities. If you want to make a big impact, take the time to go deeper to find ways to show that you understand their plight at a deeper level, and want to be a true partner and supporter of the community.
A few years ago, Always did that with one of their campaigns. Instead of just highlighting women in history and their stories, they dove deeper to help challenge limitations that society places on girls that negatively impact the way they show up in the world.
Invest time in thinking about the issues that the customer group you want to connect with deals with on a daily basis. Then as you work to celebrate them, brainstorm ways to advance the community. Your efforts can be as simple as encouraging others to have important conversations or to consider how we interact with others.
3. Don't limit your interaction with these communities to only one month
To avoid coming off as opportunistic, don't just show up when the world is celebrating a particular group. It's kind of like only showing up to celebrate with your friend on their birthday, and then disappearing for the rest of the year.
If you want to make a lasting impact and build deeper more emotional relationships with these customer groups, you've got to show up consistently and be a part of the community. Celebrate the communities when everyone else is celebrating yes, but stick around and continue to support all year long.
That's what Spotify is doing with their "Black History is Happening Now" campaign. It is a yearlong celebration, in collaboration with creative collective Saturday Morning, that serves to celebrate and amplify the voices of black creators, artists, and organizations throughout the year.
With this initiative, Spotify partners with African-American celebrities such as Janelle Monae and Pharrell Williams to curate videos, podcasts, and music that tells stories, raise topics and advance conversations that are important to the black community.
As you work to become a more inclusive brand, there are simple on-ramps to help you get you started. Taking part in established celebrations of different groups of your customers is an easy way to get started. As you begin to take part in the culture, you'll get more ideas as to what role your brand can play to further establish your relationship with the communities.
Over time, as the customer groups see your brand consistently celebrating and being a relevant and value-added addition to the conversations and challenges that are present in their communities, they will start to trust you more, which will pave the way for you to earn their loyalty.
