Marketing in the News
I chose 'H&M apologizes for Monkey imagine featuring Black child'. I chose this article because its a problem that is still relevant in 2020 and it seems to never end. The article is short and sweet hitting all key points. It gave a run down of what H&M did in 2018, which is put a African American child in a sweater that stated "Coolest monkey in the jungle". Not only did the shirt state that there were no graphical images of a monkey on the sweater. They also cited tweets from celebrities, one being the weekend. He was in disgust and decided to publicly announce he will not be doing business with them any longer. The last portion of the article is dedicated to H&M apology about their actions and said they will immediately discard the sweater and not sell it globally. It doesn't end there though, the sweater was still available on the site but they had edited the young boy out to where you could only see the sweater.
H&M's value proposition is being sustainable, also being a creative and 'responsible' fashion company. This marketing fluke is relevant because being prejudice is still relevant. Their strategy to market and sell this sweater was not only a flop but it was insensitive. The team that worked on this project clearly had no culture diversity, which is something that always should be considered building teams so things like this do not happen.
The challenge H&M has is connecting to people. As a brand they are dominant, but that does not matter if you do not have a customer base that trusts you, now those customers either do not shop with you or they do not believe in your message anymore. The marketing approach definitely isn't new, demeaning black people in marketing and advertisement has been going on for years. For example, single black mothers on Huggies diaper boxes. Although what makes this even more painful is the sweater that this young child had on was a statement, it was not a picture of a monkey. The person who ordered to have that shirt put on him knew what they were doing.
What I would have done wouldn't matter because it would not happen in the first place, but what I would have done to apologize and make it sincere. I would let that team of people go that allowed that sweater to be put on that child, then go on to actually apologize in a video as a brand so our customers can see our faces. I also would have removed the sweater completely off the site not only half way.
I have learned that, in this situation, money trumps their values. They cared to continue to make money off selling the sweater instead of trying to win back peoples trust in their company.
Monkey sweater
H&M
H&M's value proposition is being sustainable, also being a creative and 'responsible' fashion company. This marketing fluke is relevant because being prejudice is still relevant. Their strategy to market and sell this sweater was not only a flop but it was insensitive. The team that worked on this project clearly had no culture diversity, which is something that always should be considered building teams so things like this do not happen.
The challenge H&M has is connecting to people. As a brand they are dominant, but that does not matter if you do not have a customer base that trusts you, now those customers either do not shop with you or they do not believe in your message anymore. The marketing approach definitely isn't new, demeaning black people in marketing and advertisement has been going on for years. For example, single black mothers on Huggies diaper boxes. Although what makes this even more painful is the sweater that this young child had on was a statement, it was not a picture of a monkey. The person who ordered to have that shirt put on him knew what they were doing.
What I would have done wouldn't matter because it would not happen in the first place, but what I would have done to apologize and make it sincere. I would let that team of people go that allowed that sweater to be put on that child, then go on to actually apologize in a video as a brand so our customers can see our faces. I also would have removed the sweater completely off the site not only half way.
I have learned that, in this situation, money trumps their values. They cared to continue to make money off selling the sweater instead of trying to win back peoples trust in their company.
Monkey sweater
H&M
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