Marketing is for People

I know when a company doesn’t care about people like me. 👀

Before all else, I’d consider myself an educated consumer. I know what goes on in marketing campaigns and product design. I’ve sat at those tables, and I know what those conversations sound like.

Because of this knowledge, I’d consider myself a fairly lenient consumer. I don’t skip ads on YouTube videos because I know how much time and effort goes into them. I follow clearly defined site mapping. I always fill out the survey at the end of my experience.

❄️ I’m cool like that. ❄️

But that also means that I’m hyperaware of brands that exclude, mislabel, and fail to deliver for people like me.

And I’m not alone.

Consumers are savvier every day and if you want our sweet, sweet dollarbucks, you’re going to actually have to put in the work.

And it’s the little things that make your brand and product stand out.

A simple example:

Have you ever noticed that certain #poc haircare 💇🏿‍♀️ brands always have more conditioner than shampoo in their shelf space? Or larger conditioner sizes than the shampoo. Or better yet, a pump option for the conditioner? Y’all, there is a *reason* for this choice. Other brands might slap a quick “sulfate free” on the front and think that’s enough for the natural hair crew, but it’s not.

For me, this is the point where #productdesign, #marketing, and #dataanalytics meet. It’s my favorite place. It doesn’t take much. A bit of buyer analysis or market #research could tell anyone sitting at that table that Black haircare routines use more conditioner than shampoo. Heck, there are long stretches of time where I don’t even look at my shampoo bottle unless I absolutely must.

And seeing evidence of that understanding of people like me sets the brands that are #diversityandinclusion positive apart from the others. You can’t just slap labels on products and think it’s enough. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬.

Let’s do better, y’all. 🍵