EP 4: The H&M Case Study: When Marketing isn't Inclusive
Shownotes
In this episode, Joyann Boyce and Arima team member Serena Gainda discuss the H&M case study. What happened? How was it avoidable? And what we can take away from the event?
Useful links:
https://www.arimacompany.com/blog/when-marketing-isnt-inclusive-handm-case-study
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/07/237347/h-m-racist-hoodie-controversy-diversity-problem
You can find Joyann at: https://twitter.com/joyannboyce
Transcript
Joyann Boyce 0:02
Welcome to the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast. I am your host Joyann Boyce. On this podcast, we're going to discuss all things inclusive marketing, from persona creation, campaigns and even some of the mishaps we see in the media. Tune in and let me know your thoughts and how we can make inclusive marketing the industry standard.
Joyann Boyce 0:23
Welcome back. Welcome back. You're listening to the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast. I am your host Joyann Boyce. And today we are joined with the amazing Serena, say hey.
Serena Gainda 0:34
Hey.
Joyann Boyce 0:35
Serena is part of the Arima and Co team and we're going to talk all about H&M. Well, not everything about H&M. A particular scenario that I use a lot in my workshops and in everything we do, because, pretty clear cut one. So everyone, close your eyes and take your mind back to 2018. If you weren't around in 2018 or you weren't born then you're quite young to listen to this podcast, but anywho take your mind back to 2018 where there was a huge outrage when H&M published a campaign. It wasn't necessarily a campaign, but we'll call it a campaign for now. In which little children were wearing jungle themed clothing.
Joyann Boyce 1:18
What made this controversial was various children modelling the clothing had survivalists jungle expert and then one kid had coolest monkey in the jungle. In this campaign, most of the children are white and this one child wearing the coolest monkey in the jungle was a little Black boy, a dark skinned little Black boy. If you're not already alarmed at the context of this or you weren't aware, a quick synopsis is the reason the internet was outraged is because the word monkey has been used as a racial slur against Black people for years, for decades, for centuries. And for a big organisation like h&m, which is, if you don't know as well, a huge clothing brand. They do tend to do, I would say mid-range clothing. Would you say Serena? They're, they're not super pricey.
Serena Gainda 2:07
Yeah, mid-range.
Joyann Boyce 2:08
Yeah, you can get a decent shirt for like 20 pounds or something. But they're huge. They're International. They're all over the place, put this content out there. And everyone was like, w ell, how do you not know this? Some caveats I will give to the scenario is that it did go up from someone screenshotting it off their website, it wasn't a fully published campaign. And that person screenshoted it off the website with the comparison and framed it in that aspect. However, this was very controversial at the time, Serena, do you remember when this all happened and kicked off?
Serena Gainda 2:42
Yeah. The response was huge. I think you know, it was really shocking. And H&M were basically condemned for what they were doing by politicians by celebrities. I know that The Weeknd severed ties with the brand at the time, social media was flooded with, you know, H&M is racist and boycott H&M. Yeah, I would say the reaction was quite severe,
Joyann Boyce 3:08
Quite severe. It's so severe that even in, I believe it was South Africa, there were riots and damage to the stores. People were outraged because people supported this brand. And I think it was definitely a sign of the times that consumers have expectations of brands, and the shift is changing. So H&M was, I felt like that was a very solid stamping time of expectation that I feel it's not that high to expect a brand that serves a bunch of different ethnicities to not be racist, but anywho this narrative has been repeated and over and over again. But today we're focusing on H&M.
Joyann Boyce 3:10
Now, the reason I use this one in a lot of my workshops is because around that time boycott H&M was trending. It trended, I think even h&m was racist was trending, right?
Serena Gainda 3:58
Yes, it was.
Joyann Boyce 3:59
For like a whole month. So this impacted the stocks and shares. And this impacted the sales of clothes and damage their stores. And all of that resulted in them having a low quarter that quarter. And they were reported to have a 4.3 billion loss in relation to this incident. $4.3 billion. It's a lot of money in something that I strongly feel was so easily avoidable.
Serena Gainda 4:31
Definitely. And I think it's worth mentioning as well that, you know, while we assume that this wasn't intentional, but it really was just a lack of checks, a lack of understanding, a lack of consideration for the Black community that you know, led to this so they didn't actively do anything to lose all that money, but that's what can happen when you aren't inclusive and when you aren't thinking about your audience.
Joyann Boyce 4:59
Now, I'm going to apply an allegedly to that they didn't actively, because we have no...
Serena Gainda 5:05
We have, yeah, we don't know for sure. But yeah.
Joyann Boyce 5:08
We don't know for sure. Either way, I'm not accusing anyone on the H&M team have intentionally do anything. I don't know. All of what we're saying is speculation from our end on how this could have happened. So there's two avenues to when we looked at this as a case study, we're thinking, Okay, why did this happen? And why did it blow up? And how can it get missed? And then also, there's an aspect of what would we recommend as a company that specialises in inclusive marketing, so it doesn't happen again.
Joyann Boyce 5:36
Now let's go on to the how it happened. Just to outline the process of clothing and product production, super high level for anyone who doesn't know. First off, you have to have the idea. You have to have the thing of like, okay, we're going to be targeting parents. All right. Okay. Let's figure out the various types of parents in the world the age range of like kids that they want to engage with will probably like eight to nine, nine to ten. You know, that area. Okay, what are common, if we use slogans, what are common things that parents say about their kids? Oh, they say their kids are like little animals, they say their kids are excited. I've definitely heard the phrase of a parent saying all their cheeky monkey. I've heard the phrase rambunctious or like lion, or, you know, a little koala bear. Parents use a lot of animal related terms for their kids, in various ways. In positive and negative ways. I've heard people call their kids raccoons, and not in a good way.
Joyann Boyce 6:30
So I can see where the idea brainstorming was happening and they were pulling together all these ideas and coming together all these terms. So firstly, had idea. Then they would have gone into production and design, you know, illustrating these things. So somebody would have physically put these phrases as a list of things and talking about it. I, in an ideal circumstance, they would have tested it with their audiences. So maybe ask a couple parents, what do you think of these terms, this is the one point where I feel they may or may not have done because I have never, and Serena, let me know if you have I have never heard a parent call their kid, coolest monkey.
Serena Gainda 7:09
Never.
Joyann Boyce 7:10
It's not even a term, you don't even refer to monkeys being cool in the animal kingdom. It's no more islands or something, which has a whole bunch of other connotations. So that was the one website Oh, that's a flag. Outside of it being, monkey being offensive and racist term, the phrase in relation to parents doesn't sit right. So, they may or may not have done audience testing, but after design, they will then go on to production. So there will be somebody who would check for quality control when the things are being printed, and the jumpers are being printed. Cool. You know, it made it that far, we can see how you can get that far without someone being aware, you know, because they haven't applied the context of how this is going to be used thus far they think, yeah. Parents call their kids monkey, cool monkey, blah blah blah, cheeky monkey, blah blah blah.
Joyann Boyce 7:59
However, the biggest red flag is now that you're hiring models, and you're placing the clothing on models. I, I don't I have never been so, how, I, this is a bit that I'm, I don't see how it got past this point. Mine and Serena's expertise in the model photoshoot industry is as far as America's Next Top Model goes. But even in America's Next Top Model, this is an example it wasn't the best show. But I remember, they would have photographs of the clothing and photograph of the model and they would like put it together, swap it around. Do you remember them? They would, there would be moments of them, you know, matching clothing to different people, you know, thinking about the colouring and they'll, there'll be thought put into it right?
Serena Gainda 8:46
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 8:47
So at this point, I'm assuming there was a team of people in that photo studio, someone matching the clothing, someone getting the right size. Someone applying makeup, the parents of the children that were there. No one in that whole, considered the context of this.
Serena Gainda 9:05
It's, it's surprising. It really is.
Joyann Boyce 9:09
What your thoughts on that point? If you were in a room Serena, what do you think could have been your reaction?
Serena Gainda 9:13
Yeah, I would. I mean, it's just so obvious that it would be surprising and you'd wonder, you know, what is going on? Like just, oh gosh, I, it's a strange one, isn't it? I think perhaps some people might have had the thought that, oh, but you know, we do call kids monkey we do call and then therefore deciding to ignore the part of, you know, the context behind the word monkey because the intention isn't to highlight that or, you know, to bring people towards that, but to actually think about the cute little nicknames, the cute little terms that they use towards their children. But yeah, that's the only way I can I can possibly see why someone's pushed it aside. But that doesn't work. You know, you can't erase the context, you can't pretend that that doesn't exist, regardless of what your intention is in that moment and you definitely cannot put the words the coolest monkey on a little Black boy.
Joyann Boyce 10:19
And that's the bit that I'm just like, I don't feel they were fully unaware. I feel like it was possibly raised and somebody was just like, oh, that's just historical, no one's gonna know this. And this is for me, where I truly believe and want inclusive marketing to be practised by all marketers, everyone who's in the action of promoting a product or service. Because chances are, the person who highlighted it came from marginalised background, and was either ignored for being too sensitive, or, or, or even not, they were just told, you know, that's a small, a small part of our target audience. It doesn't matter that, whatever excuse they were told and this is where I feel like if everyone practiced inclusive marketing, if everyone was questioning context and you know response and impact within their work, this, this could have been picked out, but anywho.
Joyann Boyce 11:20
Even after the photo shoot, which is the biggest red flag of all, they then came to selecting different photos. So I'm assuming this kid, the kid in the photoshoot would have won various outfits.
Joyann Boyce 11:20
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 11:20
And had very, so then there was selecting the photos and selecting what would go up on the website, from selecting the photos and editing, that's a couple of people, from getting it approved to go on the website that's another couple of people from the website and just having it up there and selling the product, whole bunch of teams. No one? And then on the website itself, you don't have any language sensitivity guidelines or. And then we had it, we had to hit the mark, I feel like I've just told a very dramatic life story. But...
Serena Gainda 12:04
No, I know. I think it might be worth his while mentioning that, i someone had, you know, raised the issue, it's worth thinking about the culture of the marketing team. Did that pass and feel that they could really push or, or raise an issue. There was an exploration into the culture around H&M and they're obviously, they originate in Sweden. And there's a Swedish culture of, I know I'm gonna say this wrong, but I'm gonna give it a go lug gum, which basically, it sort of promotes an agreement culture. So the you know, there could have been a sort of reluctance to go against the grain, to perhaps voice your opinion. And I think it's really important as well for marketing teams to create that culture where, where it is okay for people to challenge where it is okay for them to share their thoughts and share their lived experiences, and to say, hey, this isn't okay, I think we need to step back and have another look at it.
Joyann Boyce 13:05
At any point in production, because I think going forward, H&M is going to listen, we'll talk about what they implemented, but 4.3 billion that cost them and if someone flagged it and they ignored them, if I was that person, I would be very smug, I'd probably go off and start another company and be like, well, I told. I told ya, they won't listen. So there's so many aspects. So yeah, before we get into what they could have done better the responses what H&M did post all of this. At first they had yet like Serena mentioned, celebrities, boycotting calling them out, violation to their stores. People questioning so many things. The first thing I remember seeing was H&M did a generic apology.
Serena Gainda 13:49
Yes. Yeah. They were sorry for offending rather than what happened. Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 13:56
What they did.
Joyann Boyce 13:56
And when it comes to apologising, I feel like the world needs a lesson of taking ownership and not leaning onit wasn't our intention, but apologising for the impact itself. But anywho I've seen so many apologies that was like it wasn't our intention. Yes, it wasn't, but take ownership and see the impact you and address the impact. Not just we did it with good hearts. A lot of things in history were done with good hearts. And what else before I go on a tangent? What else did H&M do, Serena?
Serena Gainda 14:31
To, okay to basically fix what they've done to make amendments, they had appointed Annie Wu, a Taiwanese immigrant raised in Queens to basically be the global leader for diversity and inclusiveness. So they created a role and yeah, they made you know, diversity and inclusiveness formal process. Basically, they created a seven step processing system for all new clothing before or on sale system making sure 12 people in the studio see photos once uploaded and hopefully say something about it if it's, you know, not very inclusive, a system to flag close and make notes about a cultural insensitivity and a five person process for final quality checks. So yeah, they've basically created a formal process, and they've committed themselves to checking for inclusivity. And making sure that, you know, they're not being offensive.
Joyann Boyce 15:33
I feel like that process could have been implemented before, it's not, like we when it comes to copywriting, there's processes to check that. Like all those people that they've put into those places where they're, the other question I have is, are they relying on those 12, now, 12 plus five, I cannot do quick math, 17 people to cover the full intersectionality of mankind? That's a lot of responsibility.
Serena Gainda 16:04
Yes. That wouldn't work, it really needs to be a widespread thing, it needs to, they need to embed inclusivity into the whole company itself.
Joyann Boyce 16:16
And then you have that whole aspect of if those people are responsible for the American brand, the Taiwanese brand, the British brand, like different words, like we saw with the word recent and backlash with Lizzo and Beyonce, words have different meanings in different places. 12, 17 people to a verify all of that is a lot. But I'm not, I'm not here to plug a future, asoftware we're developing. I'll talk about that some other time. Okay, so what were the things that you think we can learn from this? Because we've spoken about all the things that they've done, what went wrong, the consequences of it, but there must be some learnings that we can share with our listeners.
Serena Gainda 16:59
Yeah. So don't just think about, you know, one person, when you're thinking about your audience, you've really got to think about all the different communities that you're serving and talk to the different communities that you're serving as well. Get to know the context behind that and word get to understand the history and, and yeah, just kind of educate yourself around that. It's really important that you understand your audience, and you know, work to basically serve them.
Joyann Boyce 17:31
And just be aware of the history of words in itself. Just be aware of the history of the things you're using when you're promoting a product or service. The quick tips I always recommend is kind of like if you're trying to use slang or trying to use a certain word, and you're not too sure one, Google it. I'm not going to overcomplicate it, Google, Google it or Google will tell you, if not, you can get the current kind of usage of that word from either urban dictionary or Twitter, a lot of the times for our clients when they want to use something, and we're not aware, because it's not a lived experience, we check we see how people are using it, we see what the general audience is responding to it. And a lot of the time, 80% of time, we advise clients that's not appropriate for you to use as a brand. However, there are caveats to that, like if it's in your brand values that you represent that community, that's a different scenario. But as the brand is H&M, sometimes just not appropriate for you to use that word.
Joyann Boyce 18:26
The other thing I think we can learn from H&M case study is that, they did actually do something practical. Applying the checks and processes and having people responsible for it is a practical thing to do. It's a way to look at inclusive marketing in the sense of this is part of our processes. This is part of what we do. I would say they went they made it too much of an extra step where I can see those individuals who are solely responsible for that becoming viewed a little negatively like oh no, that the tone police or owner that a PC police. Whereas if they made it checks as part of everyone's process, so that long stream of people we talked about, that were uploading and talking about creating the content, if every single person had their own internal procedure checks to do, then that would help, then you can just have those people at the end who are just doing the high level stuff and surfacing. But the checks a illustrator graphic designer, copywriter needs to do on the content is not the same as a production assistant, is not the same as a photographer, is not the same as the person who's uploading content to the website. Each one of those individuals, each one of those teams has a different process and would need specialised ways of checking for inclusivity within what they're producing.
Joyann Boyce 19:44
So, I think those is the various things we can learn from H&M case study. They've, I would say they've recovered. I haven't heard anything bad about them. And I guess that's good. But yeah, I also do think in terms of appointing one person to cover all your diversity and inclusion. You need someone specially for inclusive marketing with a marketing background. I think, I hope that the person they've appointed or you mentioned their name was Annie. Annie Wu. That's right. Yeah. I hope that Annie has a team and that they are supported. And they have individuals with lived experience, knowledge of diversity and inclusion, but also working and career experience in the areas that they're now trying to implement inclusivity into.
Joyann Boyce 20:35
On that note, this has been the H&M case study episode. Thanks for joining myself, Joyann Boyce, and Serena. We're the Arima and Co team and tune in soon for another episode of the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast.
