Sunday 30 December 2007

WHERE IS THE 'ETHNIC' IN MARKETING?

I'm extremely keen to explore not only the underrepresenattion of ethnic minorities in Public relations but also in Marketing. Upon extensive research I have a growing realisation that advertising and marketing agencies know very little about ethnic minorities in the UK, and their consumption habits as British consumers.

The OMD Group, owned by one of the world's largest media agency network, Omnicom, recently teamed up with media research company Starfish to address this concern dubbed MinorityReport™. The survey tracked minority media consumption, relationship with brands, the impact of advertising and their attitudes and opinions on life in 21st century Britain.

The MinorityReport™ is the largest study into this growing demographic, and will give clients real knowledge of how to communicate with an extremely important group of consumers based on a representative sample of 1,700 respondents in England. It will cover the key ethnic groups including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean Black African, Chinese and Mixed Race.

It’s amazing to think it took this long to conduct an extensive survey considering minorities make up 10% of the total population and they are no less (if not more) consumers than their white counterparts. There are currently nearly four and half million people in the UK that are part of ethnic minority communities - not all of them watch, read or listen to their particular ethnic media all the time. But the majority are tied in to their community and culture in some way or other. The question is, how many agencies understand that or want to understand?

http://www.starfishresearch.com/minority_report_sample.html

WHAT IS ‘BLACK PR, WHITE PR’?



It is reported from time to time that the PR industry’s image stinks. And it’s not news that there is considerable distrust of PR practitioners by their media cousins. Many journalists don’t try to hide their contempt for PR people – which can be attributed to a mixture of irritation and genuine concern about the dubious tactics that are sometimes employed.

Some of the tactics criticised by journalists present issues more perceptual than real, but others pose serious problems that need to be excised from PR root and branch.

The perceptual problems may be referred to as ‘grey PR’. While not necessarily unethical, these tactics need to be scrutinised before being employed. They include offering free trips to journalists, stunts presented as serious activities (‘Headache Awareness Week’), research designed for marketing purposes or what is termed as ‘white spin’ – arguments based on legitimately-held beliefs but that emphasise such views to the exclusion or diminution of others.

Grey PR is selective without being untruthful. It requires close ethical scrutiny before use.

Then there’s ‘black PR’, which is unambiguously unethical because it deliberately denies people the honest information they require to make reasonable decisions. In effect, black PR is a coercive force in society. And in denying proper information it can do harm.

It can take any of these forms:

a. Astroturfing. Phony grassroots campaigns initiated to provide the appearance of mass community action. The funding source of the astroturf campaign is hidden, as are its true motives, and therein lies its dishonesty.
b. Disinformation. Deliberately spreading information known to be false.

WHO ARE THE ETHNIC ROLE MODELS IN THE INDUSTRY?



Lenny Henry has once voiced his discontempt with the lack of ethnic persons in top media jobs. He was quoted "Until there are more people of colour involved in the decision-making processes both on mainstream commercial TV and on the BBC, black and brown people in this country will never feel they are represented fairly on television."

This is a valid statement that can be applied to today's youngsters. Many times our young PR students overlook agency and corporate PR because they don't see anyone there that looks like them. They may be unaware that many companies are seeking diverse talent if they'd only apply!

There is a dire need for PR professional of ethnic origin. The only solution to remedy the problem is to continue educating and introducing others to the field through mentoring relationships, internships and professional organizations.

Jonathan Mildenhall, former managing director of ad agency TBWA/London, and one of the few senior black faces in the mainstream advertising industry, is an advocate for opening up his & the PR industry: "What we're trying to do as an industry is to have a much more credible use of black and Asian characters in advertising and public relations where we break down some of the stereotypes."

THE REASONS FOR MISREPESENTATION OF ETHICS IN THE PR INDUSTRY

There are several reasons, I believe, that account for the underrepresentation of blacks and asians in PR. In no particular order of impact:

1) A lack of awareness of the PR industry as a career and its importance in the corporate arena.

2) The failure of the industry, as a whole, to actively promote itself to blacks and asians touting the opportunities for success (i.e. money) resulting in too few taking the classes or seeking the experience to pursue PR careers

3) The fact there are proportionately fewer minority businesses that would employ a PR firm and many of them feel in necessary to use a white company to receive "the best" service.

4) PR is not as "visible" as, say, TV news reporting. As more blacks and asians appeared on tv, it became more of an option for others to say "That's what I want to be when I grow up." The cultural/racial schism is perpetuated by the lack of visibility of "people like me" in the industry.

5)The unfortunate history of PR firms who have hired minorities and gave them menial duties or... little or no "learning curve" before firing them and saying that the "minority experiment" didn't work

6) But, it seems like there must be a problem in HR and account teams at major and boutique agencies. I do believe young and seasoned multicultural PR practitioners approach and interview at these agencies but for some reason or another they are looked over. Thus, causing them to question their career path in PR.

ARE JOURNALISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NEGATIVE CLOUD HANGING OVER ETHNIC YOUTHS?



On the 7th of December 2007, the Mayor of London hit back at Andrew Gilligan's article in the Evening Standard published on the 12th March 2007. The article 'Racism at the Met never gets the sack'. The article mixes together a number of points about the promotion of black police officers to claim spuriously that the Commissioner says the right things on race issues but that his actions don't match is words.

The Mayor of London tried his best to rebut these charges and to speak in defence of black organisations in London against sustained attack in the Evening Standard led by Andrew Gilligan.

In his statement Ken Livingstone said:

“London is a tolerant liberal city, and one of the greatest multi-ethnic cities in the world. It has not seen a press campaign of attacks on black people of the scale that were carried in the Evening Standard last week for over 20 years.

“The Evening Standard alleged, among other things, that the London Development Agency may have been intimidated by threats of gang violence by black people into giving out grants to organisations in which black people were the majority.

I must confess after reading this article, I was slightly uncomfortable because it is not just a Metroploitan Police issue it applies to but all sectors of the corporate world including Public realations sadly. What I failed to digest is the fact that the Met is recruiting substantially more police officers from black or minority ethnic backgrounds than ever before - this is purely based on a range of programmes designed to support the progression of under represented groups within the Service. The Met Police authority quite properly promotes senior officers on ability, not quotas of any kind, and shares the aspiration that officers in all ranks should better reflect London's diverse communities.

The PR and subsequently media industry needs to take a leaf out of Sir Ian Blair's book.

The MPS has come a long way in recent years in how it deals with race issues and their progress will continue to be hindered by ill-informed and inaccurate commentary of this kind

Lord Herman Ouseley said,

“Politicians and the media have an important responsibility not to whip up prejudice and hatred or to play the race card. We have seen a real abdication of that responsibility in recent days, with the attacks on black community organisations and a failure to condemn offensive language which belongs in the 19th, not the 21st century.

Can we afford to play the race card if we desperate for equality and how does this reflect on the British press if they are voluntarily willing to carry stories of these nature.

On the same day, I attend a unique ‘roundtable' discussion between young people, practitioners, policy makers and leading thinkers to explore practical solutions to tackling the criminalisation of young black people.

The roundtable, organised by King's College London School of Law and supported by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Stone Ashdown Trust, with the aim to conjure effective solutions to tackling the problem of the over representation of young black people in the criminal justice system and how they should be implemented.

I just found it incredibly ironic that as one group is working to build a sustainable community the most influential, the press is trying to destroy the foundations.

THE RISE OF MINORITIES FIGHTING FOR PRESS COVERAGE

The emerging ethnic music industry in the UK is encouraging and a significant number of this trend are independently-owned record labels and self-promoting artists.

The rise of ethnic social networking sites, independent pirate television and radio channels like Channel U, BlackChat, Choice FM are testimony to this.

This can be described as the ethnic community taking matters into their hands. This is a result of an industry of rejection. The objects of these mediums like Black Chat (the social networking site) is to create a following which the industry will have to take eventual notice of as they constitute as key parts of future target demographics.

Someone needs to speak for this generation in board rooms across the world. We need it fast.

IS THE BRITISH PRESS ONLY INTERESTED IN PUBLISHING NEGATIVE 'ETHNIC' NEWS?


When we think of when black coverage takes centre stage it is usually associated with black on black crime or violence in general. I’m very aware that hard news make newsworthiness but it is slightly demoralising that good black news like a ‘community hall’ opening or under-17 black talent spotting will never make news.

Two stories have helped shaped ethnic news in 50 years were two brutal murders.

1) Stephen Lawrence

Twelve years after the Scarman report, the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, in 1993, and the subsequent investigation, or lack of one, again blew open the schism between non-whites and the police.

Lawrence's parents gained influential support from the media as they persisted in hounding the police for answers. Eventually a public inquiry was ordered, chaired by Sir William Macpherson. Macpherson blamed police racism and incompetence for scuppering any chance of justice. Crucially, he also identified the police as "institutionally racist", thereby challenging Scarman's "bad apple" theory.

2) Damilola Taylor

The tragic death of Damilola Taylor was of extreme importance as it has raised issues with regards to the tensions between Africans and Carribeans which is a very real and extremely worrying issue.

Saturday 29 December 2007

ALESHA DIXON WINS STRICTLY COME DANCING




Alesha Dixon is a highly regarded femal entertainer in ethnic communities across the UK. A former member of the R&B girl group, Mis-teeq. Alesha had been struggling since the split of her group to establish a bonafide music career. Since the release of her debut album 'Fired Up' in early 2007, singles Lipstick and Knock Down made little dent on the UK's official chart.

She made a breakthrough later in the year by starring on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing show of which she became the 2007 champion.

I was one of the many who voted and as you can imagine I was thrilled for her triumph and I was looking forward to some positive press coverage the next day.

This was clearly not going to happen, as I walked to my local newsagent the morning after, nothing could have prepared me for the bogus headlines of the Alesha on all premier newspapers. They all carried what I considered as unflattering headlines about an alleged affair with the show's runner up, Matt and her bitter seperation from her husband.

Infuriated, I started to think, if this had been Kelly Brook (another contestant) it would be words of praise despite her past as a page three model.

What I'd like to understand is why dont respected newspapers such as DAILY MAIL, THE INDEPENDENT, etc lead by example. They must realise the knock-on effect of articles like these do not just affect Alesha Dixon - it affects the many girls of ethnic origin who look up to her.

So disappointing!

Wednesday 26 December 2007

DO CELEBRITIES DOWNPLAY THEIR 'ETHNICITY' TO RECEIVE FAVOURABLE PRESS COVERAGE?





This debate stems deeper than the PR industry but in media industry as a whole. Although we have made huge strides, there still remains a shortage of people working behind the scenes at publishing houses, and television networks. The media spends to much time on the lives and trials of black entertainers and personalities whilst forgetting that these are by no means the true representation of the black populations.

Comedians Lenny Henry, Sanjeer Bhaskar, Meera Syal and sport personalities like John Barnes and Iain Wright are all familiar faces in the UK press with hundreds of press clippings, endorsement deals and television appearances underneath their belts. However, are these individuals truly respected within their community?

This leads me to ask the question, what does an ethnic celebrity have to do to gain media assistance? In order to be successful under the limelight, do black public figures tune down their ‘ethinicity’ to get some coverage in today’s press. Are the celebrated black figures truly respected in the black communities? Do they truly see these people as their role models or “puppets” of the media?

What is the price for international black success?

I'm really keen to hear from all of you.

Tuesday 25 December 2007

WHEN DID ETHNIC MINORITIES MAKE THE FIRST BREAKTHROUGH IN THE MEDIA?

For many decades, it was a struggle for the young ethnic population to find anyone they could identify with in the papers or on television. This all changed in 1973 when Trevor McDonald became Britain's first black newsreader, paving the way for many others including Moira Stewart, Zeinab Badawi and Krishnan Guru-Murthy. They're only journalists perched in front of a camera, but British television audiences have always invested their trust in their newsreaders.

In 1987 with the election of four non-white MPs: Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz another milsetone was achieved. All were elected on a Labour ticket and promised to further the cause of better race relations. But their paths have varied widely since.

Boateng and Vaz, both lawyers, made it to government roles: the former is now financial secretary to the Treasury, the latter stepped down as Europe minister soon after becoming implicated in the Hinduja passport scandal, although he was cleared by an official inquiry.

Over the years, McDonald has become a revered broadcaster and was even named as one of the top 1,000 icons of Britishness by members of the public in a 1999 poll.

Monday 24 December 2007

BADGE OF HONOUR: BLACK BOYS

As a huge music fan and a dedicated member of the UK Urban scene, every once in a while, an artist comes along and hits the nail on the head with its poignant message. I commend the PR team behind the artist Bashy. They have worked hard to get a relatively unknown artist into all premier publications with a positive message to ethnic communities that are torn apart by violence and societal oppression.

It is often frustrating when newspapers like THE TELEGRAPH make the following statement: "Young black men are apparently being increasingly lured into trouble by rap stars, celebrities and sportsmen who glamorise the wrong sort of lifestyle."
This could not be further from the truth, the message behind Bashy's song 'BLACK BOYS' is one of empowerment and strife. We need more of these key messages to motivate youths across the UK.

Sadly, what The Telegraph failed to take into account is the fact that musicians make youngsters aspire for greater things. The idea that music influences youngsters negatively is a defective argument and it fails to understand that music can be an empowering tool to motivate people to work harder and make something of themselves. Just because a teenager sees a rapper driving a BMW does not mean he will kill for it.

A message often lost in music is the notion of work hard and you shall reap the results. I'm so tired of defending this point.

WHAT DOES A MINORITY HAVE TO DO TO RECEIVE GOOD MEDIA COVERAGE?

Since the commencement of my postgraduate, I have started to read more and more newspapers as a result of my desire to write "golden" press releases. I spend the majority of my 'reading' time trying to spot articles which are a result of a press release, a features release or an advertorial.

The more I read British newspapers, the more I get this nagging feeling - Are black footballers the only people that receive good PR? Are 'ethnic' sporting athletes the only ones that receive good PR?

Like my last posting had demonstrated 'OVERVIEW: FACTS AND FIGURES' there are a large number of ethnic groups in this country. However, it seems that if we are not subject of a murder investigation or ASBO behaviour we dont make the news.

What rubs me up the wrong way is how come we are not celebrating the Teacher in South London who is working hard to ensure her pupils do not end up in the gangs or criminal activity? How come we are not celebrating the ordinary father who has raised upwardly standing citizens of society?

How come the only good press an 'ethnic' receives is a result of there athletic profession i.e. a footballer or a boxer?. Is being a footballer more credible than been a doctor. I THINK NOT!

Will I only be accepted as a full Briton if I contribute to the sporting achievements of this country?

Rather disturbing thoughts don't you think?

OVERVIEW - FACTS AND FIGURES

Since before slavery, black people have been living in Britain. But only in the last 50 years have blacks and Asians settled in these shores within any great number. Today they make up more than 5% of the British population. Currently, the UK population stands at about 59 million, according to the latest statistics published by the Office for National Statistics. Of these, 49 million (83.6%) live in England, 5 million (8.6%) in Scotland, 3 million (3.9%) live in Wales and 1.6 million (2.9%) live in Northern Ireland.

Figures for ethnic groups in the UK, published as part of Census 2001, shows a rapidly shifting demographic population of ethnic minority groups (around 5m of the total population of the UK)

The ethnic population is relatively young, it tends to cluster around urban metropolitan areas and is the fastest growing segment of the resident UK population.
The proportion of minority ethnic groups in England rose from 6% to 9% - partly as a result of the addition of mixed ethnic groups to the 2001 Census form. By the year 2010 over 30% of the population in metropolitan centres will be from ethnic communities.

Black African and Bangladeshi communities are the fastest growing of these populations. You would expect a higher proportion of black Africans are born outside the UK and an even higher proportion of Chinese whereas the majority of the white population has been born in the UK.

In the US, it was projected that non-whites would comprise 28% of the U.S. population by the year 2000. That number is expected to rise to 39% by 2030 and to 48% by 2050 (Andorfer, 1996)

As participants in policy development for organizations, public relations professionals have an obligation to keep their companies aware of emerging trends and the impact of those trends on the way in which business is conducted.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/GuideV9.pdf

THE MISRPRESENTATION OF ETHNICS MIGHT BE PART OF THE REASON WHY SOME AGENCIES HAVE FAILED TO TARGET CERTAIN AUDIENCES. WHY IS ETHIC RELEVANT?

At present, ethnic minorities play an extremely small role in the PR industry, which has a very white outset, and in order to sell itself successfully to the wider public, its make-up should epitomise the UK’s multicultural character. As a public-oriented industry, PR needs to understand the wider community, and in order to do this it needs to recruit more ethnic minorities.

It is important to correct that there is no outright discrimination in the industry. Rather, there is a lack of understanding and awareness about specific roles that ethnics could play in the PR industry.

A recent study of Blacks and Asians PR practitioners in the UK reveals significant dissatisfaction with the PR profession’s commitment to diversity, perceived pervasive discrimination, and widespread concern that multicultural practitioners are relegated to a slow professional track.

What is meant by 'ethnic'?

There's a lot of misunderstanding regarding what is meant by the term 'ethnic'. Perceptions of what's and what's not ethnic change over time. For instance, in the UK, the best selling snack food is the humble samosa which is probably as much a part of mainstream British cuisine as another British favourite - curry and rice! In fact, Marks and Spencer's sell more chicken tikka masala prepared meals (a British invention) then any other choice of convenience meal.

What does this mean for marketing and PR professionals?

Successful brand owners will now start (unless they haven't already done so) to segment target consumer groups more carefully by taking account of the increasing ethnic population of their audience.

For example, one ethnic group that has excelled is the Asian community in the UK. Of all ethnic groups they enjoy the greatest commercial and financial success with a combined disposable income of a whopping £10 billion. As a brand owner, if you're not interested in converting even 1% of this lucrative market, you will be losing out to your competitors who see the value of marketing to this group. For example, Mercedes sells a high percentage of its top range luxury cars to Asians. And yet there are limited images of Asians in the mainstream media - particularly on TV and TV commercials. Research by Media Reach Consulting shows that Asians, Arabs and Chinese are less than impressed with TV, on both language and cultural issues.

Mainstream media stands accused of portraying black people as sportspeople or musicians and Asians as shop keepers. The fact is that many audiences are turned off by stereotyping by broadcasters and brands. The key is market segmentation which can be a complex process.

Movies like 'East is East' and ‘Bend it like Beckham' are good example of messages working on a number of levels – marketing the movies to a diverse audience although positioning them as a British comedy in the same mould as Bridget Jones, a very different type of film. This works brilliantly and the movies become box office successes. Another example of the integration of ethnic humour into the mainstream is the hit BBC 2 show ‘Goodness Gracious Me'.

Increasingly, organisations and brand owners need to communicate with diverse audiences, which pose more challenges for communication professionals. Ethnic marketing and media is as important as mainstream marketing and media, and in some ways can be more important. It's got nothing to do with tokenism but everything to do with customer segmentation and understanding your audience.

It's a point that's not very well understood by many public relations and marketing professionals. Yet ethnic marketing is growing in importance for many mainstream brand owners.