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Black Marketers who have pioneered the way!
During the month of February I’ve researched the following chief markeitng officers and how they’ve reached to where they are. Pioneers like Netflix Global Chief Marketing Officer, Bozoma Saint John, and even Madame C.J. Walker was one of our earliest CMO’s, have both paved the way for other black marketers to have a seat at the table.
It’s important to rediscover where we came from and celebrate how we’ve got this far. African-American history began with so much pain and darkness, now we’re able to overcome that struggle and black people have created a lifestyles that everyone wants to mimics. Looking at how our culture is the most celebrated, always entwined in media from African-American jargon or word usage, fashion style, and urbanism. Black Marketing History is important to learn and follow.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black marketers still aren’t in the room enough; our industry is roughly 85% white and 7% black. Mckinsey and company has also surveyed and found that 6.3% of Marketing Research Analyst and 5.7% Marketing Managers in the United States are Black.
This is in an important issue that alot of companies have realized could become harmful to their business brand and messagaing. We saw this occur during the year of 2020 to 2021 when social injustice issues were high and some companies stumbled when speaking to Black audiences because of lack of representataion.
I am a proud African-American marketer that fell in love with media, the way our lifestyles are affected by it and how my people are protrayed in movies, music, magazines. MArketing brands is important to me and I think when you learn your histroy you can create change for the future so we don’t repeat past mistakes but build upon them!
Here is a list of some pioneers I’ve discovered along with the source of the information:
1. The Godfather: Tom Burrell, founder, Burrell Communications Group
“Black people are not dark-skinned white people.” It seems obvious today, but advertising titan Tom Burrell’s maxim was revolutionary when he began working with this framework in the 1960s. And no case study demonstrates this more clearly than his best-known work: the Black Marlboro man.
After experimenting unsuccessfully with images of Black cowboys, Marlboro turned to Burrell. “The last thing I want to do is go back a hundred years with a bunch of rural, cowboy white guys—doesn’t sound too safe,” Burrell told NPR in 2015. He looked past the costuming of the Marlboro man and into his essence: independent, assured and utterly cool. That persona came to life in a Marlboro man who wasn’t just Black but also urban, surrounded by people instead of longhorns, his poise illuminated by his community instead of by his lack of one. Read more on Manifest, click here.
70% of black Millenials (the generation with the most considerable buying power today) say they are more likely to buy from a brand that takes a stand on race-related issues.
Think With Google
2. Shawn Turner
Although she has not yet reached the age of 40, Shawn Turner has already earned the coveted position of public relations manager for Disney Stores in North America. With over 220 stores on the continent, Disney relies on Turner to coordinate the communications and PR strategies for a wide variety of locations and market types. Turner does so with remarkable success, managing a product portfolio amassing over $9 billion in global assets. To stand out in a corporation as large and long lasting as Disney is certainly a feat any marketer should be proud of. Read more on Eminent SEO, click here.
3. Dara Treseder
Born and raised in Nigeria, Treseder is an experienced marketing executive who cut her teeth at Goldman Sachs, Apple and GE. She joined Peloton in August 2020 and quickly made a mark, launching a buzzy partnership with Beyoncé and an ad campaign that centered around customers’ stories. In recent months, Treseder has had to navigate choppier waters as Peloton has recalled more than 125,000 treadmills following the death of a child. She’s vowing that the company is focused on its “North Star” and putting customers first. For this past summer’s Olympics, Treseder and Peloton created a campaign focused on promoting community rather than products: “It’s You. That Makes Us.” Read more on Forbes, click here.
4. Ukonwa Kuzi-Orizu Ojo
In her first year at Amazon, Ukonwa Kuzi-Orizu Ojo has led marketing for the company’s streaming and production companies during a time of rapid growth amid the ongoing streaming wars.
Along with promoting titles such as Borat 2 and The Tomorrow War, Ojo promoted Coming 2 America—a remake of the 1988 Eddie Murphy classic—with an expansive campaign ranging from a creative infomercial series to gold Prime Air plane to partnering with Black-owned businesses to a branded collection of makeup created in collaboration with celebrity stylist Zerina Akers. In May, she helped oversee marketing around Amazon’s $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM that gave Amazon the rights to the James Bond brand. To promote this year’s debut of Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan—the first Black actor to play Tom Clancy’s famous John Clark character—she helped orchestrate more than 100 drone deliveries to more than 100 veterans and military families in nearly a dozen countries to promote the global nature of the story. And this summer, a campaign for Cinderella staring Camilla Cabello included a collaboration with Mercedes-Benz. Read more on Forbes, click here.
5. Rosalind Brewer
In March, Rosalind Brewer, who currently serves as Starbucks’ chief operating officer, will be starting a new position as CEO of drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance. When she steps into this new role, she will be the only Black woman currently leading a Fortune 500 firm, and just the third Black woman in history to serve as a Fortune 500 CEO. Ursula Burns, who served as CEO of Xerox between 2009 and 2016 was the first, and Mary Winston, who served as interim CEO at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2019, was the second.
Brewer, who joined Starbucks in 2017 as the company’s first Black and first woman COO, previously spent five years serving as the CEO of Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart. Prior to working for Walmart, she spent 22 years working for manufacturing company Kimberly-Clark, where she started her career as a scientist and eventually worked her way up to being president of the company’s Global Nonwovens Sector in 2004.
As a longtime executive in corporate America, Brewer has been transparent about the challenges she’s faced as one of very few Black women in the C-Suite.
“When you’re a Black woman, you get mistaken a lot,” she said during a 2018 speech at her alma mater, Spelman College. “You get mistaken as someone who could actually not have that top job. Sometimes you’re mistaken for kitchen help. Sometimes people assume you’re in the wrong place, and all I can think in the back of my head is, ‘No, you’re in the wrong place.’” Read more on CNBC, click here.
6. Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall
“I need to make sure I’m not the last,” Dallas Mavericks boss Cynt Marshall tells CNBC Make It about making history in 2018 as the first Black woman CEO in the NBA.
It’s exactly why Marshall launched the Mavs Take Action initiative in June 2020 after the nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd: to combat systemic inequities.
“We need an action plan,” says Marshall.
Marshall — a former AT&T executive who was hired by billionaire Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to clean up the workplace culture after an investigation revealed 20 years of sexual harassment and misconduct issues — says the Mavericks organization has pledged a minimum of 10,000 employee volunteer hours and $5 million to support local communities via education, scholarships, mentorship, and public policy.
“I have to make sure that I’m mentoring others and helping others to mentor people like me so that we’ll have a second, third, fourth and fifth” Black, female CEO in the NBA, she says. Read more from CNBC, click here.
I love that each of these CMOs believes in encouraging the African American community together and helping to bridge the divide that we commonly see in marketing or corporate America.
Share, Like, and Comment, and tell me about your favorite CMO!