The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started gaining momentum in 2020 following the racially motivated murder of George Floyd. While the Black community has been protesting for equal rights, opportunities, representation, and respect for years, decades, and centuries, the BLM movement specifically brought racial inequity, prejudice, and targeting to the forefront.
In 2023, companies are collectively aiming to launch campaigns that represent their audience equitably. However, improper ethnic research can spill milk over your efforts. In this blog, we’ll discuss three signs that you’re alienating your Black audience. We’ll also help you understand how to engage Black consumers without risking insensitivity. Keep reading.
1. Your Campaigns Exclusively Feature Privileged Black People
The Black demographic comprises people from all racial and ethnic subgroups with different economic standings, skin tones, genders, and so on. If you exclusively target light-skinned Black people or economically privileged Black consumers, you’ll end up alienating the group of people that isn’t visible in your ads, content, and so on.
Make sure you perform equitable research to ensure complete representation. You should ultimately target every ethnic subgroup possible and keep the complete set of identity markers in mind.
Recommended Read: A Market Researcher’s Guide to Conducting a Successful Focus Group
2. Your Campaigns Are Created by Non-Black People
White people or even other minority groups like Hispanic American and Chinese American consumers don’t understand the Black demographic. They can definitely develop a good understanding of the Black consumer base and minority research practices through education and experience. However, they’ll still fail to have the insight that a Black person possesses.
If you keep alienating your audience, there’s a big chance you handed over the Black market research, data collection, and data analysis process to non-native researchers. Fix this mistake and consult at least two Black market research specialists with a plethora of experiential knowledge. This will go a long way in helping you crafts a research campaign that puts a smile on people’s faces.
3. You’re Not Keeping Up with Black Trends, Topics & Interests
As a brand, you are responsible for keeping up with what your audience wants to see in 2023. Stay active on Twitter and explore Google Trends to maintain a good understanding of what your audience is actively disusing.
Get more specific based on your industry. We also recommend speaking with Black friends and family members to understand what they believe is lacking in the market. When you explore all the avenues available to you, you’ll hit the bull’s eye.
If you’re looking for a multicultural market research firm for your Black audience, Ethnotics should be your first stop. We perform qualitative and quantitative market research to understand ethnic audiences and help our clients fine-tune their marketing and advertising strategies.
Talk to our experts to get started. For more insight, explore our story. If you have further questions about the right way to engage Black consumers, feel free to comment below and start a discussion. Our experts will get back to you shortly.
