1. Discuss your “ahhhh” moments as you read the book, and your first experiences with realizing “race” was a thing.

One of my ahhh moments as I read was when I read the section about Mountain Dew and the Tyler, the Creator commercial. The commercial clearly portrayed racial stereotypes of black men being violent while also making light of violence against women. I was surprised to read that the commercial came out only 12 years ago, and to me it is crazy that it even got approved. What did that topic have to do with Mountain Dew? Why did the creatives think this was a good idea? Did they think this commercial would put the brand in a positive light?

Another ahhh moment is when I read about the Shea Moisture scandal from their promotion of “Break Free From Hair Hate”. Again, I was very surprised that this commercial got approved. Shea Moisture is a haircare line made for women of color who have naturally curly and coily hair and the brand truly embraced taking care of their natural hair. When they featured white women with straight hair and who felt ‘pressured’ to dye it blonde, the commercial completely invalidated black women’s struggles with natural hair care. Reading that this promotion got approved just six years ago again proves that there is still a lot of work to be done on creating campaigns for a diverse audience.

My first experience with realizing “race” was a thing was when I was pretty young, probably around 7 or 8. One of my dad’s best friends is black and I remember when we were all at a basketball game, my dad and siblings and his friend’s kids too, and he was called some racial slurs by the people sitting behind us. I remember hearing those were bad words and never to use them, but when I heard them said in such a hurtful way towards him and his kids who were just enjoying a basketball game, it really made me realize race was a thing.

2. Review one of the rules in your own words.

Rule 7 is to market to your audience is a very subtle way. By being able to really understand your audience you can market to them to show that you see them for who they are. For example, Cheerios had a commerical with a biracial family enjoying Cheerios together and that showed that there are multiple different types of families that enjoy eating Cheerios together, not just a stereotypical white suburban family.

3. Discussion of your Harvard results and your thoughts about your results, why you thought you got those results and any action you plan on taking based on the results.

My Harvard results were that I had a slight automatic preference for European American compared to African American. I think I got those results because grew up in a pretty white and wealthy environment, there were maybe 30-40 people of color total in my graduating class of about 450. I would like to have no automatic preference between African American and European American but I know that will take time. I think coming to state college and surrounding myself with a more diverse group of friends has helped. Learning about their experiences growing up and how they’re completely different from mine has helped to expand my horizons and see other people’s worldviews. Also learning about different traditions, such as how NPHC sororities, specifically Delta Sigma Theta, are so different from panhelenic soroities on campus and are truly rooted in sisterhood. I’ve gone to their showcases and it is so cool to watch and be able to experience and support my friends who are partaking in all of these traditions that I never even knew about before. I want to continue having a diverse friend group and keep learning about others experiences since I think that will help to take away the automatic preference I had gained from where I grew up.

4. Discuss some key triggers/issues that lead to failed communications

One major key trigger that leads to failed communications is not knowing your audience. To be able to reach specific and diverse audiences, especially if you are not part of that community, research is KEY to have successful communications. It seems like a lot of brand examples from the book just showed that these brands didn’t do the proper research before creating a campaign to target specific audiences.

Another issue is that brands will not segment their individual audiences that they are targeting to, and will instead lump them together. By placing all of these audiences together, it can lead to stereotypes and not being able to properly communicate with the intended audience.

One other major trigger is brands do not create a sense of familiarity with their intended audience. In chapter 6 the example of having a focus group of Hispanic Immigrant mothers saying they preferred the Mexican retailer because it had a sense of familiarity that the American chains lacked. Creating a sense of familiarity for your intended audience is crucial for diverse audiences to feel welcomed by the brand, but when brands miss this mark, these audience can feel excluded and singled out by the brand when done poorly.

5. Tell us some successful campaigns/approaches you read about in the rules

One successful approach is that you have to develop a relationship with multicultural consumers, which takes time, money and effort. Brands have to realize that they need to earn the trust of different diverse audiences before they go out and buy their products.

One successful campaign was the McDonalds “First Customer”, showing a Hispanic teen’s first day on the job and his first customer being his parents, who are speaking both English and Spanish. It not only showed a universal experience that McDonald’s is a lot of teenagers first job, but it also serves an important role in the Latino community.

Another successful approach was Denny’s Diversity Training. Within 1 year, they completely revamped their board of only white male executives and brought in a diverse group of people to run the company. The company also tracked who was hired, fired and promoted to make sure no employees were being discriminated against.

6. Leave us with some tips to reach ONE Of the audiences discussed in the rules

Some tips to reach an African American audience are to not use stereotypes, such as portraying African American men as violent criminals, and instead create a realistic and sensitive portrayal of who they are. Do non use the total market strategy, it is virtually business as usual and will not help to properly target your audience. Another tip is to use African American advertising agencies and research firms to help create campaigns that will properly target your audience.

7. How prepared are you to do a campaign to a racial/ethnic diverse audience?

I think I am more prepared than I was before reading this book. I have learned helpful tools, read about campaigns that worked amazing and others that failed miserably. I can’t say I’m 100% prepared and I probably won’t ever be since I am not part of those diverse communities, but by following the tips and strategies I learned in this book I am fairly confident in my abilities to be able to create an accurate and successful campaign to a racial/ethnic diverse audience.