{"id":403,"date":"2025-04-22T17:57:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/?p=403"},"modified":"2025-05-02T21:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T21:58:29","slug":"main-character-energy-what-black-panther-can-teach-you-about-inclusive-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/main-character-energy-what-black-panther-can-teach-you-about-inclusive-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Character Energy: What Black Panther Can Teach You About Inclusive Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cInclusive marketing is all about brands acknowledging the many ways that people are different,\u201d<\/span> says this marketing master.<\/p>\n

Her voice drops to a conspiratorial tone.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is the very important part: Choosing<\/em> which identities you\u2019re going to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also important (to this Marvel fan, anyway): What does inclusive marketing have to do with the \u2026 MCU?<\/p>\n

Meet the Master<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"sonia<\/p>\n

Name:<\/strong> Sonia Thompson, Founder, Inclusion & Marketing<\/a><\/p>\n

Job:<\/strong> Thompson consults with brands that want to use inclusive marketing to grow their business<\/p>\n

Lesson 1: Toss out your checklist.<\/h3>\n

I can barely make myself breakfast without a checklist, but Thompson\u2019s got me convinced to throw them out when it comes to inclusive marketing.<\/p>\n

As a marketer, you have to choose which identities your product or service is serving, \u201cand that\u2019s where a lot of people are nervous,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cSometimes people take a checkbox approach \u2014 like, \u2018let\u2019s get everybody in there.\u2019\u201d But inclusive marketing doesn\u2019t<\/em> mean \u201cmarketing to everybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u201csometimes<\/p>\n

She gives an example of a recent commercial with a woman in a wheelchair. \u201cYou can\u2019t see her face, and there\u2019s no speaking role \u2014 she\u2019s just there<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your reaction might be, \u201cThere\u2019s someone with disabilities in the commercial. It\u2019s inclusive!\u201d But Thompson says that wheelchair users weren\u2019t this brand\u2019s target audience, and she cautions: \u201cAll representation isn\u2019t created equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re checking identity boxes instead of thoughtfully choosing your audience(s) and thinking about their overall user experience, you\u2019re not being inclusive at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lesson 2: Be your own MCU.<\/h3>\n

And that, oddly enough, brings us to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about your marketing in the context of customer experience,\u201d Thompson says, \u201cand the ways in which people engage and interact with your brand.\u201d They\u2019re going to do it on a macro level \u2014 like the MCU\u2019s 17-year reign over pop culture \u2014 and a micro level \u2014 say, Black Panther<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had seen zero Marvel movies before Black Panther<\/em>,\u201d says Thompson. But \u201cI felt like it was designed for me and my community.\u201d So she moved on to Infinity War<\/em> (Note: I\u2019d\u2019ve recommended Thor: Ragnarok<\/em>, personally). \u201cBlack Panther has a role in it, but as part of a cast \u2014 a whole ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she audits her clients\u2019 overall user experiences, Thompson encounters a lot of promotional materials, and many times, brands have designed something for specific identities. But it\u2019s separate from their general marketing materials, and that\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

Your Black Panther<\/em> should fit comfortably within your multiverse \u2014 that is, the specific identities you serve should be an integral part of your marketing ensemble. And they should show up across your full marketing mix \u2014 your Instagram feed, your website, your commercials. Wakanda forever.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cinclusive<\/p>\n

Lesson 3: Bring the main character energy.<\/h3>\n

A few years ago, Thompson conducted a survey on representation in marketing. She asked people what types of representation were most important to them and how they wanted to see themselves represented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to feel like we\u2019re in the back,\u201d was the overwhelming sentiment, \u201cor just placed there to say that we\u2019ve been included.\u201d (There\u2019s that checklist again.) \u201cWe want a storyline. We want to be the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the only way that brands relegate identities to the supporting cast.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say, for instance, that you want to reach Spanish speakers,\u201d says Thompson. Say you\u2019ve translated your website, \u201cbut the [Spanish translation] is buried in the footer somewhere.\u201d Sure, you\u2019ve done the work, but you\u2019re also telling that segment of your audience that they\u2019re less important.<\/p>\n

Thompson suggests finding a way to get an external evaluation of your inclusive marketing strategies. \u201cIf you don’t have people on your team who have those identities or lived experience or areas of expertise,\u201d she says, \u201cCo-create or bring in partners to evaluate and to assess different areas for you.\u201d That way you can bring the main character energy.<\/p>\n

Lingering Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This Week\u2019s Question<\/h3>\n

What’s a piece of marketing advice you would have given earlier in your career, but you would no longer give, due to how marketing has changed? <\/strong>\u2014Heike Young<\/a>, Head of content, social, & integrated marketing, Microsoft<\/p>\n

This Week\u2019s Answer<\/h3>\n

Thompson:<\/strong> Early in my career, I would have advised marketers to spend time focusing on a unique brand and really investing in what you could do to deliver a remarkable customer experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2018s not that remarkable experiences and strong brands aren\u2019t needed, but I find spending too much time there \u2014 especially up front \u2014 prevents brands from showing up consistently. Today’s world and consumer move fast \u2014 and quite frankly, consumers will be the ones that guide you on what makes a remarkable experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, it’s more important now to show up and let your voice, point of view, and what you stand for be known. <\/span>Refine your experience over time, based on feedback from your customers and the community you build. That community and the trust they need to have with you is hard to build if you don\u2019t show up consistently. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking everything has to be perfect and super polished before it gets out into the world.<\/p>\n

This isn’t a case for delivering poor quality, but rather a case for brands and marketers to do a better job of being active shapers and participants of culture as it is happening. Be relevant and remarkable to consumers in a way that is most valued and relevant to them. Your marketing and impact will be much more effective as a result.<\/p>\n

Next Week\u2019s Question<\/h3>\n

Thompson asks: How have you seen inclusion shape the way marketing has been done over the last five years, and how do you feel it will shape (if at all) the next five years of marketing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cInclusive marketing is all about brands acknowledging the many ways that people are different,\u201d says this marketing master. Her voice drops to a conspiratorial tone. \u201cAnd this is the very important part: Choosing which identities you\u2019re going to serve.\u201d Also important (to this Marvel fan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web-stil.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}