TASHANEE WILLIAMS
01
The Inspiration
In response to racial injustice in the past couple years, every brand has touted the power of the “Black consumer.” As Black brand strategists, we’ve both been largely uninspired and found ourselves biting our tongues as we’ve sat with ‘allies’ and ‘experts’ who are trying to understand the entirety of Black culture through clinical research methods. It’s well-intentioned but very often ill-informed.
ZACHARY STUBBLEFIELD
02
The Obstacle
Focus groups can be a breeding ground for satisficing and code-switching–watering down answers to either get it over with or to avoid rocking the boat. With the disenfranchised more likely to do both, it's easy to see why the fruit of these conversations often don't improve representation in ads. We can’t really blame them for it.
STRIKE ONE: They’re in a sterile room.
STRIKE TWO: …with a bunch of unfamiliar faces
STRIKE THREE: …being asked about some very personal experiences
We’d want to GTFO too!
“
There have been so many times in conversations where I really don't speak my mind because I know I'm gonna have to explain all my years of growing up to just get one point across. In that way, I'll dial it down.
Bad research environments
lead to bad answers
which result in bad learnings
and bad representation.
03
The approach
We sought a better way for brands to understand Black consumers, specifically Black men. Knowing that a focus group wouldn’t cut it, we looked for a place that was private enough so that people would open up and public enough so that we weren’t infringing on anyone’s privacy. We found it in Smashing the City Barbershop and its charismatic owner, Rich “Smash” Payne.
With Smash in his natural environment, we asked him to act as a moderator, and spent two days as flies on the wall, documenting his one-on-one and group client interviews. We developed a guide, paid for all participants’ haircuts, and followed his lead as he tailored the conversations in ways that got people to open up organically.
Smash the barber
“
A barbershop is a place where they take you as you are.
smash the barber
all views are welcome.
hot takes are encouraged.
opinions are challenged.
Note: This isn't intended to be a Marketing to Black Men 101 playbook. Rather, we’re making a case for taking an ‘Ethnographic Interview by Proxy’ approach to gaining real insight from marginalized communities.
04
The conversation
We started with a simple question:
What’s the dopest thing
about Black culture?
“Nothing really moves through the world without Black culture touching it. From sports to entertainment to fashion to housing. Those are big money industries and it doesn’t move without us.”
“I think Black culture in America hasn't been seen without a filter until very recently. But now Blacks have just said, this is who I am, unapologetically. The dopest thing about that culture for me now is that I'm able to see it in its fullness.”
“While people were taught to hate us, we still yearn for acceptance and didn’t hate the way that many people hated us...and I think that's pretty dope too.”
Yet Black people’s flyness
has been treated as a fad.
“I don't believe a lot of these people had a change of heart and now they just love all Black people. We all know that they look at it as an opportunity to make more money.”
“There wasn't just this a-ha moment, like, 'oh wow, we appreciate Blackness and we appreciate what the Black community's done.”
And for as much guilt / awkwardness / confusion white people have felt in the past 2-ish years, Black people have felt more.
“I'm seeing more white folks really try to articulate a sensitivity to what's going on. But it's an awkward sensitivity. They're still trying to figure out, 'Can I really talk about it?' 'Is it safe?' 'I don't want to say the wrong thing.'”
“We've all got some corny examples of the person trying to be extra cool or say words in a different way than they normally would. You don't have to translate it for me, just be you.”
“Don't try to relate to me. Just be yourself. I get to decide whether or not I want to be a part of it. I don't want you to come down or come up to my level to try to make me like you.”
“The mainstream takes terms that they're uncomfortable with — gay, Black, bisexual — and figures out an acronym to refer to so they don't have to use the term that's not palatable for them.”
Like going to sleep Black
and waking up BIPOC*
*Black, Indigenous, People of Color - None of our interviewees knew what this meant
There’s a disconnect
between corporate America
and Black America.
“It's interesting that they don't have a clue of what it means to be Black. How we continually try to grow and we can't.”
“I think Starbucks had to shut down to figure out how to deal with Black people. There's no such thing as 'dealing' with us. We're regular people. They believe they gotta be a certain way.”
“I think there's a perception by some that we want to be treated differently. Most of us just want to be treated fairly and the way others have been treated.”
Yes, none of this is revolutionary but a lot of people aren’t listening.
“They think they know our problems without even sitting down and giving you an opportunity to voice them.”
Our diversity doesn’t end with the word Black. It’s where it begins.
“
You look at the White race and you can tell the difference between a Britney, a cowboy, and a businessman. But it's crazy because Blacks don't get that separation. They put everyone into a bucket.
Even after years of diversity initiatives
the stereotypical portrayals
of Blackness still prevail.
“[Brands] seem to think all Black is urban. It's really not all urban.”
“When you market to me, don't just give me the hip hop shit.”
“
When they portray us, it’s usually in a watered down fashion. You don’t really capture the essence of the Black family when you see commercials.
And with that, we had one final question:
If a CEO was sitting in the shop right now, what advice would you give them to better support Black people?
“Start with your own. How are you going to worry about your consumer base but not the people that take care of your business? If you're going to treat them like sh*t, what does that say to your consumer?”
Get your house in order before trying to visit ours.
“Corporations have a responsibility to leave the communities they serve better than they found it.”
Don’t profit off communities. Add to communities.
“We can help you grow if we don’t try to be you. The ideas can’t come if I’m trying to act like you or please you.”
Give us space to evolve.
“Trust us to be ourselves. Don’t try to make us a white version of Black people.”
Don’t expect Black people to dial down their dopeness.
05
The Conclusion
The nuance and imperfect richness of Blackness tends to escape traditional market research. It can’t be summarized in a single slide and no one person, fictional or otherwise, can carry its weight alone. To truly understand what makes it so culturally appealing, people need to be exposed to it in their everyday lives.
For most of our colleagues that isn’t the case. Many of us and our companies are based in some of the most diverse cities in the world but you’d never know it based on their talent pool and the tone deaf portrayals of Blackness that see the light of day.
The start of the new decade saw brands tripping over themselves to finally acknowledge Black plight in mainstream arenas. For our colleagues that work with these brands, please remember that Blackness is a cultural anthology – a collection of works by countless authors each telling their version of the Black experience. It’s more than just the most talented or vulnerable among us and must be handled with the utmost care.
While Black people may disagree intraculturally about how brands can and should do better, one thing is clear – they want to see a wider range of their redeeming qualities and experiences portrayed wherever they show up.
Hopefully, this inspires you to resist the urge to TL;DR Blackness but instead see this as the sign you’ve been waiting for to create a safe space for real conversations to be had. Whether they be organic or organized, it’s in safe, authentic spaces, like Smashing the City, that you are able to see what honest points of view lie behind the camouflage of code-switching and satisficing.
Sincerely,
