When I go in to talk with clients about connecting more authentically with black consumers, they jump right into the execution phase. They want to talk about the ads, the actors they use, the focus groups, but that’s too far down the line. It has to start with your intention.

The strategy piece is my favorite part of the process. You don’t need focus groups, you don’t need a fancy workshop session, it’s all about finding your inner compass. You have to have the thought power and honesty and the right people to sign off on it in order to set you up with a strategy that allows decision making and execution to happen much more seamlessly.

Black consumers are used to brands letting them down. They’re used to brands showing up with a lot of support, with a big shindig, then a year later all of that is gone. I believe that those brands acted with good intentions, but there wasn’t enough strategy in order to follow through in the long term.

When doing our intention work, we talk about 3 things:

1. Knowing your why - both a social and business reason, based on brand values
2. Establishing a baseline - knowing who you are, knowing what your history is, and knowing what the impact of your category has with your consumers
3. Creating a roadmap - how do you identify, measure success, what are the key questions, and what are the hypotheses moving forward?

Connect with Dawn and her team at Mahogany Insights: https://www.panderless.com/

Music credit: Mavericks by Harrison Amer

A Podcast Launch Bestie production