Clicks hair, is this a marketing strategy?

Click hair campaign

A friend of mine on WhatsApp asked me if the action by Clicks to label African hair as “frizzy and dull” and “dry and damaged” was a marketing strategy. Instead of giving her a straight answer, I threw a question back at her and I asked, what makes you think of that? Her response was “how can such a big company release such a piece of communication during the times of the Black Lives Matter movement. It just doesn’t make sense to me”. It happens, I responded. “They will never see my moola again”, she concluded.

How did Clicks find itself in trouble?

Well, it turns out that the campaign was by TRESemmé South Africa. TRESemmé is an American brand of hair care products first manufactured in 1947 by the Godefroy Manufacturing Company in Manhattan, New York City, New York. This is a brand that was quick to post about their support for Blacks Live Matter movement on social media a couple of months ago. This, however, does not mean that Clicks is off the hook. How could they publish such content on the website? I mean, September is a heritage month in South Africa. We should be celebrating our diversity.

TRESemme instagram post
TRESemmé South Africa BLM post on social media

All too familiar

Here’s the thing, it has become a too-familiar sight where brands come up with campaigns that shock the consumer. Dischem did it, as well as Dove and H&M. Like many, my friend was shocked and she just couldn’t help but ask if what Clicks did was intentional. If it was really a PR stunt.

Dischem black mannequin
Dischem marketing campaign aimed at celebrating African beauty

Careless and irresponsible

Global African brand authority, Thebe Ikalafeng, describes the campaign on Clicks’ website simply as “careless and irresponsible”. Indeed they were careless, but I am of the belief that brands always reflect the ideals of the people working on them. In an organisation as large as Clicks and TRESemmé, before a piece of communication goes out to the public there are a couple of people involved, the agency with its army of creatives, copywriters, art directors, and creative directors, and of the client service team. On the brand side, there’s always a team that has to sign off on the work done by the agency. Do you honestly think that no one saw anything wrong with the artwork?

I don’t blame my friend for thinking that it could have been a ‘marketing strategy’ because it looks too deliberate. I mean, how can a brand as big as Clicks publish such a campaign?

The Apology

Too often when a brand comes up with a racist campaign and they caught out. They’d issue statements on social media about how they do not tolerate any form of racism and discrimination blah blah, but when you look at their board directors, there is a lack of diversity. We saw this on #BlackoutTuesday, when brands including TRESmmé took to social media to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. This level of hypocrisy does not help the cause says, Professor Mark Ritson.

Clicks refused to do media interviews on the issue. TRESmmé issued an apology on its website. This is concerning. If they are serious about apologising they should come forward and explain what exactly happened and how they are going to ensure that a ‘mistake’ of this nature does not occur again. An apology online is simply not enough.

So, where to from here?

More often than not when incidents of this nature do occur, we forget and move on too quickly to the next trending topic. The brands never get to account. Consumers must hold Clicks and TRESmmé accountable. Cutting the Clicks Club card is the first step. To get the desired reaction, consumers must hit the brands where it matters the most, the pocket. If a brand does not represent you in a dignified manner do not spend your hard-earned money on it.

I would like to echo Thebe Ikalafeng’s words when he said “young African entrepreneurs must start their own brands and open their own retailers so that they can represent their own people in a correct manner”. South Africa needs more black-owned businesses and I have faith in my generation who are already starting brands that are representative of their people.

To the brands, wake up and smell the coffee. The African consumer is woke. They understand their power, they will not tolerate being disparaged.

Both Clicks and TRESmmé get Slaps!

Brands and racism: A Pat On Brands perspective

Racism is one of the most sensitive topics in the world, and more often than not, many people would prefer not to talk about it. According to Sipho Hlongwane, blogs editor at Huffington Post South Africa, racist acts occur daily in South Africa. When a racial incident involving a high-profile individual or a brand takes place; people are quick to take it to social media while brands, on the other hand, keep the distance.

For many years, brands have been accused of racism; whether through statements (online or offline) that were made by executives and/or producing “racist adverts”. For example in 2006, the MD of Cristal champagne Frederic Rouzaud  made a statement that Hip Hop artists (mostly black) used the champagne in a way that could be detrimental to the brand. This statement saw Jay-Z calling for the brand to be boycotted.  In South Africa, earlier this year (2016) Standard Bank’s economist Chris Hart was suspended by the bank  after he tweeted that “25 years after apartheid ended, the victims are increasing, along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities ”.  The tweet offended many people and some political parties marched to bank’s head offices. Standard Bank distanced itself from the statement by tweeting that they do not endorse such.

chrisharttweet

A classic example of a racist advert would be the TV commercial produced for a Chinese laundry detergent brand, Qioabi. The commercial shows a black man and a young Chinese woman are flirting, as he leans in for a kiss she thrusts a detergent capsule in his mouth and bundles him into a laundry machine.  She sits atop the machine as the man spins and screams inside until, to her apparent delight, out pops a handsome Chinese man dressed in a clean, white t-shirt. The advert caused an outrage all over the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X27dvuBSyXE%20

Source: YouTube

Brands are driven by people and how a brand “behaves” is a result of the people who run it. If a brand is perceived to be racist, it means the people behind it are sadly racists. In most cases, when a brand is associated with racism, the executives of the brand are quick to put blame on the individuals working in the brand. Let’s take The Bungalow , Cape Town restaurant racial profiling incident, where two black patrons were labelled “2 Blacks” on their receipt . The patrons took offense of being labelled according their race and accused the restaurant of being racist. When they asked the restaurant manager why they were labelled according to their race and they were not satisfied with the response. They then took to social media and that caused a huge uproar on social media and most major news  wrote articles about it. Some people who visited the restaurant vowed to never set their foot at the restaurant again. The owners of The Bungalow came out in their defence saying it was the waiter’s fault and they have a clear policy of non-discrimination on the basis of gender, race or religion or sexual orientation.

pat-on-brands_2blacks

Here is  the thing, as a brand owner you need to be aware of what your brand is associated with and what is  on everything that carries your brand name even receipts. It is  understandable that one cannot control who buys and uses your brand and in what way. However, brands need to make their stance on certain issues clear before they even occur. This can be done by having company core-values that every employee working for the brand will be familiar with and lives by. Some people would argue that a brand cannot be held accountable for how its employees behave. The main thing is that, the brand has influence over their employees and that matters.

According to Bruce Crutchfield, brands have a bigger role in fuelling democracy.  This means that, brands have a moral obligation to stand up for basic human rights and the protection of the environment in which they operate. It is therefore important for brands to take a proactive stance when it comes to issues of race than being reactive because the impact can be very detrimental. As the adage goes, people are more likely to forget the things you say to them but they will never forget how you make them feel. If your clients feel that there are elements of racism in your establishment, they are more likely to avoid visiting it regardless of what you say because 80% of purchase decisions are influenced by emotions.

Please let us know about your thoughts on brands and racism and share your experiences around the topic by leaving a comment below.

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