From Facebook ad boycotts, alignment with #BlackLivesMatter, to ditching names like Aunt Jemima: social activism is the latest must-have for brands. But should you jump on the bandwagon? And how do you make the shift without getting labeled as inauthentic, especially if your brand has never talked about these issues before?
When I first started working in marketing a decade ago, I was quickly thrown into the standard cookie-cutter ways that had been laid out in most business school textbooks. What always bothered me about the traditional marketing process was that it looked good on paper, but the more you began to execute, the more this process drives a wedge between the company and the customer. The customer becomes a number without much consideration to who they actually are and how they feel in relation to the brand. This never sat well with me. After all, I'm a consumer as much as I am a marketer, and making purchases from companies where I feel like a whole and valued person is important to me.