Of all the BlogHer sessions I attended, the Women of Color and Marketing panel undoubtedly was the feistiest. No doubt this was due in part to spirited panelists Kelly, Heather, Karen, and Stefania, but there’s also the hot button nature of race and ethnicity discussions, plus the fact that niche marketing can be tricky. In a previous life I might not have had the courage and inner peace to even walk into a panel of that title, but I’m glad I do now and did walk through that door (thanks Victoria, for finding me a seat despite standing room only). Not only did the spirited conversation make clear some existing issues and concrete ways for blogger and brand relations to move forward, but I’ll be damned, all of a sudden I felt very connected to a new niche – that as a women of color blogger. And I swear, I’m not saying that just because mommy bloggers got a really bad rap at BlogHer.
History is necessary. It’s long been challenging for me to comfortably identify as a woman of color. I was extremely self-conscious growing up Korean in an affluent white Boston suburb (in a family prone to drama and police intervention, no less). I was desperate to fit in, and cringed at the stereotypes I fit into (yet another Korean kid playing violin) and the roles I would never achieve, be they socioeconomic (attaining the 3 pairs of Guess jeans and 2 Benetton insignia sweaters that would allow me to sit with some of my friends at lunch was impossible) or racially driven (I would never get a real part in a school play because race/ethnicity lines for traditional roles weren’t crossed back then). These may seem like minor points, but during adolescence they were huge.
In college my frustration and confusion continued. I attended a very white New England college where I was bucketed as a multicultural student and thus was invited to an early orientation so I could learn to use the ATM. When the dining hall introduced a la carte cooking with woks, a food service employee told me I should know how to use those things (he actually got fired for that). I also felt like a campus token; yes, I was high achieving and relatively attractive, but I’m not sure that warranted being featured in several pieces of collateral, including front and center of the college catalog. Finally, there were cases where my racial status “backfired” on me – such as when I was denied transfer to another university (and heard whispers of the Asian quota already being filled…damn those overachieving Asians!) or when I wasn’t eligible to apply for certain scholarships because I was not an “underrepresented minority” (again, damn those overachieving Asians!).
I’ve evolved a lot since those years. I have embraced my Korean culture (even taking language lessons at the Korean embassy when I lived outside of Washington, DC), but clearly, I still have some issues. Did it tweak me when I would tote my brown haired, blue eyed baby daughter around and people would ask whether I was Laurel’s nanny? Yes. Do I still get a little annoyed when I get those wondering glances when I’m out with her alone (the blue eyes have turned brown but she still has brown hair and a Caucasian complexion)? Sometimes. Will I ever be able to order the Oriental salad on a restaurant menu? Probably not.
Now, let’s fast forward to BlogHer, where I twice heard from friends who witnessed a couple of other Asian bloggers get approached and asked whether they were Christine Koh from Boston Mamas. On one level, I’m flattered that people were looking for me; on the other, it’s insulting because of all the Asians I saw at the conference (and believe me, we notice one another) none of them looked remotely like me (or like one another). I even decided to wear my glasses for the entire conference to make it easier to liken me to my avatar.
I digress, but not far, really, from the women of color and marketing panel. And not just because some of the panelists complained similarly of being confused for one another despite looking nothing alike. (Following a joke by one of the panelists, Victoria later took a picture of me and Kristen Chase to document that we are in fact different people who look nothing alike…though I wouldn’t object to looking like that hottie).
There was an impressive mix of bloggers and marketers in the crowd, and the session made clear that pitching to bloggers of color is not cut and dry. Here were some take aways from the meeting:
1. Some bloggers just want to be pitched like any other blogger, irrespective of the color of their skin. As Kelly and I chatted about at a separate time, if you’re pitching toothpaste, race and ethnicity are irrelevant and it just seems bizarre if you put a racial/ethnic spin on it. However, pitching hair or skin products is another matter entirely.
2. Some bloggers clearly feel more comfortable being pitched by someone who reflects their culture.
3. Many bloggers of color feel marginalized in outreach; some traced this to the fact that some agencies have or are developing niche departments to specifically target women of color. However, these branch arms are underfunded and thus go untended. (Mel, A Dramatic Mommy suggested that cash-strapped agencies hire bloggers for hourly social media consultation instead of trying to build a separate, salaried division.)
4. Marketers need to cast a wider net. Dig deeper and go beyond the best known bloggers of color.
5. On the flip side of above, bloggers of color also need to step up and be their own advocates if they hear of something going on and have not been approached. (But please, I urge you to do so with taste and grace and an understanding that campaigns may be full. Acknowledge that fact up front, and that if the campaign is full, you’d appreciate being considered for a future campaign.)
6. Related to point #5, bloggers of color also should go to bat for one another. Spread the good karma and recommend fellow bloggers of colors for niche campaigns, or just other awesome bloggers in general for non-niche campaigns.
7. To appeal to consumers of color, brands must have images on their site that reflect diversity (seems like a no brainer but a lot of companies do not do this).
8. And possibly the most important lesson of all, do not try to adjust the dial of a writer’s voice to make it fit your campaign. Carol of NYCity Mama didn’t appreciate being asked to blog more Latina. Oh yes, she really was asked to do that.
It’s still a tad mysterious to me, but there was something remarkably energizing in that room, and very moving about meeting so many impassioned bloggers of color. It made me feel extremely proud, and sitting in that session also made me realize that I have never received a single Asian-related pitch, despite being very open and clear about my Korean heritage, here and at Boston Mamas. Maybe the demand isn’t there, the quota is full, or maybe I just don’t write Asian enough. But whatever the reason, it matters not if I never receive a woman of color pitch because it’s the relationships with these amazing women that I really care about.
And maybe, just maybe, one of these days that solidarity will help me evolve to order Oriental salad.
This is such a moving post. I really hate that I had to miss that session. I have so many feelings and emotions about race and bloggers. Since I have so many sites (some geared to the general population of moms and others that are geared to moms of color), you wouldn’t believe how the same product is pitched two different ways, certainly not by all, but by a noticeable number of firms.
For example, for my more popular sites, companies are really accommodating offering products for review, interviews with celebs, etc. And then for my other sites for moms of color, it’s like pulling teeth to get a sample sometimes. Very bizarre.
I will say, though, that outreach for moms of color has become exponentially better since 2003 when I started building sites.
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I attended this session as well, and want to thank you for writing this excellent summary of the discussion.
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Your post echoed my sentiments, although I’m biracial and was the only black person in my family, nevermind my neighborhood. I thoroughly enjoyed that discussion and was glad to see it move from discontent to problem solving.
I was confused once with another blogger and had another blogger confused with me (it may have been the same one, since we shared the same first name and have similar hair, skin tone and height). I’m going to have to blog about that and include the picture. =}
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Great summary, great post! Thank you Christine!
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Great summary! Though you left out my comment about white women advocating for more diversity at blogger retreats (Sure, dis the Caucasians. Or is it because I’m Jewish? I kid.) There was a great energy in the room and I hope that carries on to the Blogalicious Conference in October. I hope you’ll be there and would love to connect.
Interestingly, Hallmark had a “white blogger retreat” earlier this year (http://tinyurl.com/dhjgm6). It’s too bad on so many levels. But I can envision a Hallmark retreat of diverse bloggers (and Hallmark products!!) that would have gone a long way toward building cultural connections amongst group members and left them all with warm fuzzy feeling for their host/sponsor.
I live in a diverse community and, hello!, a diverse country. I’m continually surprised when the PR and marketing folks miss the boat.
As for NYCityMama; I can’t wait to see her on TV.
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Kim, thanks for sharing your excellent point and I’m sorry I forgot to include! I actually wasn’t taking notes so was reconstructing all of this off the top of my head. Dang, I thought I managed to capture everything!
Anyhow, thanks for being such a wonderful advocate for diversity. And I hope that we can connect sometime soon in person.
best, Christine
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[...] correctly). Think about how your message and call to action is different to men and women and even women of color. What kind of language and words should you use? And how should you use that language? What about [...]
There are several points in your post for which I have no words.
(Yet, that didn’t stop me from writing this)
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Thank you for giving us your perspective. I attended the session too. You captured it.
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This session is the main reason I wished I had gone to BlogHer, well and all the amazing folks I would have gotten to connect with. But back to this session.
I started blogging to focus on motherhood because it was so overwhelmingly amazing that I wanted to share and learn from the incredible online community of moms. I immediately found a ton of blogs written by moms with similar interests or just with really useful information.
As I continued blogging, I discovered blogging could help me connect with my culture, something that’s become very important to me as a mom. It hasn’t been easy to find other Latina mom bloggers but slowly and surely I have found them. They have unique and distinct voices with varied interests and topics.
It makes me mad when I see so many greedy blogs with poor content getting interesting and sometimes amazing opportunities while other blogs, like blogs by Latinas and other women of color, are doing great things for our culture and not being given opportunity.
I can understand how marketers might feel a bit hesitant and overwhelmed about approaching such a large market as “bloggers of color” and then having to break that down into cultural categories. But they’re missing the value in having such easy access to us. Like you mentioned, they need to reach out to them and pick their brains. Pitch us as bloggers and if the cultural piece fits then use it but first and foremost we’re all just women who love to write and share. They need to stop planning and just start a conversation.
I’m passionate about this because I know a few great Latina bloggers who should rank up their with the blogging superstars but somehow just get lumped in with mediocre sites.
Thank you for posting this…and sorry to go on for so long! Hopefully I’ll be able to attend next year in 2010 and meet some of the wonderful ladies who were in attendance!
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Hey Christine, I was flattered that someone mistook me for you because I certainly don’t rock bikinis like you do
. And I’ve always been an over-acheiving Asian and hate to perpetrate the stereotype. But beneath it all, I think we’ve made progress in protraying ourselves as women and moms just like the rest of America through blogging. And thankfully no one has approached me strictly for the “Asian” factor, or else I’d whip their a$$.
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[...] Experiencing a surprising sense of connection as a woman of color thanks to the women of color and marketing session. [...]
That was a session that deserved a bigger room, for sure. I was so impressed with the stories everyone told. I get Spanish-language pitches all the time but nothing with an Asian bent. I live in the middle of Kansas where people ask me if Shapiro is a Mexican name. I don’t look particularly Japanese or Jewish so I never know quite where to align myself in ethnic groupings. I would be thrilled to be mistaken for you or Kristen, any day. Wish I would have gotten the chance to meet you. Next year…
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This session was by far my favorite and I hope in New York it gets a bigger part in the track. I hope the PR and marketers in the room were taking notes (and names!). There are so many of us who would bend over backward to represent a company/brand we believe in and to be one who helps them achieve the status of a company who “gets it.”
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[...] But some important takeaways, if only so I can be useful (and not completely blathery), from the wonderfully attentive Christine Koh at Pop Discourse: [...]
[...] so I can be useful (and not completely blathery), from the wonderfully attentive Christine Koh at Pop Discourse: 1. Some bloggers just want to be pitched like any other blogger, irrespective of the color of [...]
Have I mentioned how much I just simply adore you? Or that I read this a while ago, told myself I’d come back to comment, and forgot? Or that this is the best possible title of a post I’ve seen in a looooong time?
You said my very sentiments – there was some serious PASSION in that room. The energy was buzzing and wow, I lived off of that energy for the rest of the conference.
I will not be ordering those salads anymore. If you have another way for me to say it, please tell me. Especially if it’s really sassy and snarky. Because that would be just super.
xoxo
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[...] more awesomeness, less absurdness, tasteful implementation of blogger and sponsor relations, and more opportunity to convene with my women of color blogger peeps (please hold the Oriental salad). This final BlogHer 2009 post (rather belatedly) follows [...]
[...] (not BlogHer’s fault), the event was remarkable in that it created the space for me to identify with a niche, think about this whole blogger and sponsorship business, reflect on future directions, and connect [...]
[...] attending 1-2 sessions beyond your reach or comfort zone. I did this last year by attending the marketing to women of color session and it ended up being one of the most energizing blog conference sessions I have ever [...]