Tag: digital marketing

Multicultural Marketing Mistakes: How They Happen and How to Avoid Them

Kim Kardashian Teaches a Marketing Lesson – Are You Listening?

Yesterday, Kim Kardashian announced she would rename her lingerie line after previously announcing her line as “Kimono.” Today, CNN reports that Japan will send trade officials to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to discuss the situation. This all comes after the hashtag #KimOhNo began trending on Twitter with people around the world labelling the branding decision as cultural appropriation. Kardashian’s team should have seen this coming. Anyone with the worldwide reach of the Kardashian family would certainly want to be aware of multiculturalism in marketing. Maybe they did and decided to move forward anyway in the spirit of no press is bad press. While it’s highly unlikely that this incident will damage a brand like Kim Kardashian’s, most organizations can’t afford to take that risk.

"All marketing is multicultural marketing these days."
Whether you’re intentionally marketing to specific groups or your message reaches them organically, you’re responsible for any multicultural marketing mistakes.

What Is Multicultural Marketing?

Whether or not an organization is intentionally marketing to specific ethic or diverse groups, also known as multicultural marketing, the reach of digital media means that marketers need to be more culturally aware of the impact of marketing decisions from photos to product and company names to taglines, content and hashtags. All marketing is multicultural marketing these days. Unfortunately, examples of insensitive or poor marketing decisions abound. 

Social Media’s Response to Multicultural Marketing Mistakes

In April 2019, Ancestry.com, the world’s largest DNA testing company, received the equivalent of a social media slap fest for a commercial, titled “Inseparable.” In it, a black woman and a white man in period costume speak in a foggy alley with the sound of horses trotting in the background. He offers her a ring and tells her to escape to the North with him. This, my friends, is a warning case study of how not to handle multicultural marketing. Surely they meant the ad to be inspirational. And just as surely, they failed.

As far as I can tell, they timed the commercial to coincide with a promotion offering free access to more than 100 million records from a Civil War collection. Perhaps someone on the marketing team spotted the issue and spoke up or perhaps not. In any event, Ancestry had to deal with the fallout of articles like the Washington Post’s with the headline, “How Ancestry.com Has Failed African American Customers.”

In March 2018, Heineken faced similar backlash for its “Sometimes Lighter Is Better” commercial and its decision to use this tagline while featuring non-white actors in the ad. After over 20 years in the corporate marketing world, I can easily see how this went down. Some well-meaning marketer read in a strategic plan that minorities were a target market. Perhaps, the plan stated the need to use more diverse actors and models in commercials and ads. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the decision to expand into or target specific markets. And I applaud the employment of diverse people. However, the decision to use this questionable tagline at all is an epic fail.  And all of this happened just a year after Heineken had been applauded for its “Open Your World” commercial.

I’m being gracious. The Twitter universe was not. One celebrity, Grammy winner Chance the Rapper, tweeted that “some companies are purposely putting out noticeably racist ads so they can get more views.” I certainly hope this isn’t the case.

How They Happen

My graciousness comes from personal experience. I’ve faced issues like this that stand out for all the wrong reasons. I once received a proposed marketing package for a new promotion at work. I glanced down and immediately noted a problem. The image featured a minority male looking distraught. A yellow Post-It was stuck to his forehead. Written on the Post-It was one word. “Help.” I nearly choked. 

I knew that clients had been giving feedback that our marketing materials featured too much of the same…happy white caucasians. I knew a well-meaning peer had likely selected the image with that feedback in mind. I evaluated how best to proceed. In the spirit of managing up, I let my boss know I was going to step in. He didn’t get it. I looked into his ice-blue eyes as he smiled and told me he didn’t see anything wrong with the image. “I guess I’m just not as sensitive to that stuff as you are.” Clearly. Undeterred, I approached my peer and let her know how the image would likely be perceived by the same clients who had felt underrepresented in other marketing materials. To her credit, she changed the image. 

No one and no organization is immune from occasional slip-ups, marketing or otherwise. While I’d like to believe that no company or marketer would intentionally promote cultural appropriation, bias on insensitivity for attention, I know that unconscious bias exists. I also know that marketing is a fast-paced, demanding career, and any marketing misstep can be painfully public. And I know that without someone specifically watching out for multicultural elements and risks and foibles in marketing efforts, these things will continue to happen. And when they do, social media will be there to set things straight with a hard, less than gracious, clap back. 

Field of Dreams: Lessons SEO Taught Me about Writing for Business and Why They Matter to You

Search engine optimization (SEO) has taught me a thing or two about writing. And that’s saying a lot. Whether you’re marketing your products or business online, emailing customers, blogging, or posting on social media to demonstrate your expertise, there are SEO lessons you can apply to help people engage with your content. 

If you search engine optimize it, they will come. SEO is an organic way to help your web pages and content reach a higher position in the search results of Google or other search engines. Higher search engine rankings lead to more traffic to your online content.

In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character hears a mysterious voice say, “If you build it, he will come.” While the movie is about baseball and relationships and not about SEO or writing, here’s the connection. Many people assume that if they write something people will read it—whether it’s an email, a post on social media, or a piece of website content. 

In reality, people don’t read anymore. They skim. They’re super selective in what slows their scroll. That is even if they see your content at all. That’s where SEO comes in.

Don’t be fooled by the technical term. Essentially, SEO is the science behind getting people to engage with your content. And there are lessons to be learned whether you’re writing an email to a project team to get updates or web copy to sell a product or a service.

Write short sentences.

The first thing I’ve learned is that shorter sentences boost your SEO and readability scores. 

People no longer have the time to read long sentences—even great ones. Just because you know (or think you know) the rules of grammar doesn’t mean every sentence you write should be a compound sentence. I once wrote content for a sales audience. I passed the near-final draft along to the sales leader I’d written it for, expecting minimal feedback. He told me there was a run-on sentence that I needed to address. I scoured the text looking for it. I realized that he was simply referring to a long compound sentence. I broke the sentence into two shorter sentences, and suddenly he was happy.

SEO is not unlike that sales guy. Break any long sentences up into shorter sentences, and watch your readability scores go up. And if your readability scores go up, so will the time people spend reading your content. Shorter sentences lead to longer engagement with your content. This is a lesson that can apply to your emails, executive summaries, and text messages too. An added benefit is you’ll be far less likely to make a typo if you keep it concise.

Adjust Your Content to Your Audience.

The second thing I learned from writing SEO content is that the lingo you use within your business may not give you the best search engine rankings for external content. For instance, I worked for a law firm where we referred to our employers as attorneys. However, we had better SEO results when we referred to them as lawyers. Why? Because people outside the legal industry are more likely to search for a “Corporate lawyer” than a “Corporate attorney.” Consider your audience when writing. Answer questions they would ask. Use words they would use. 

Throw Your Pride of Authorship Out the Window.

It takes a humble person to write good SEO content. Whether you’re writing directly into an application like WordPress with Yoast for instant SEO feedback or writing in Word and transferring content over to the web, don’t get too attached to your original wording. You may need to reorder paragraphs to introduce keywords earlier. As mentioned previously, you may need to shorten sentences. You’ll need to write in the active voice. (That’s subject before verb for those of you looking to impress friends at dinner.) In short, be prepared to make changes to your precious final draft. 

And don’t forget to proofread again after you’ve made any changes! I’ve been using Grammarly lately, and it’s been incredibly useful in catching errors and helping me identify problem sentences before anyone else sees my work. It’s free and convenient, and, it’ll help you avoid embarrassing errors. I highly recommend it especially to anyone who is prone to errors or lacks confidence in his writing.

Don’t Rush SEO.

It’s hard to get noticed out there in the web world. That is unless you have a precocious child, cute dog or a cat with attitude. You may have written a great piece of content, but if you cut corners with SEO, it’ll take longer to get the attention you’re looking for with your post. Give SEO the time and attention it deserves. Or if you have people who handle SEO for you, give them the time they need to take a thoughtful approach to SEO.  They’ll need to research relevant keywords on search engines and social media. They made need to add headlines and subheadings to your content. They’ll add and test external links to additional content. This all takes time. But it’ll pay off in the end. 

SEO has taught me a lot about writing. The most important lesson is if no one reads your great content, you’re no further along in your efforts than you were before all that writing. Use every tool you can to get the engagement you need to propel yourself and your business forward. If you SEO it, they will read it.