PHOTO: Simon Launay | unsplash The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the resulting protests for racial justice caused organizations to examine the systemic and implicit bias in their strategies. The result is a renewed focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives related to race within […]
Marketing leaders report spending 8.9% more on DE&I initiatives over the last year, with larger companies spending more. Situating that spending increase against the backdrop of an overall drop in marketing spending by 3.9% indicates that marketing did in fact prioritize these initiatives.
In terms of how marketers addressed DE&I, we observe a stark difference between internal and external aspects of the firm’s strategy. Marketers invested in and improved communications and branding, with 65.3% and 60.6% of companies reporting changes, respectively. On the other hand, internal initiatives associated with human capital, such as training (53.4%) and recruiting employees (50.3%), showed weaker change levels. Lagging even further, strategic marketing activities related to marketing partnerships, segmentation and targeting, and product and service design showed less than a 35% improvement.
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