BlogHer - public relations - Comments

It's bothersome how African

Msheridan98 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:53:05 -0600

It's bothersome how African American women are often portrayed. I agree with Kimberly that companies need to actively reach out to us. I too went to the Disney Mixer and was encouraged that a large company with such a prominent brand would take the time to speak with us directly. It will be interesting to see what direction other companies take.

Melanie @ MelADramatic Mommy

Marketing to African-American Moms: The Greening of the Black Co

WellnessGuru — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:25:57 -0600

This blog post is right on target.... and definitely has me thinking. As an African American Woman and Mom, it really hits home for me. Ihave always been involved with the green movement and I have converted my house to a green state...so to speak in a big way. However...it never occurred to me that Other African American Moms were not involved and as conscious as me.

Monica L. Rowland

Check Out My Blog! www.themoneymom.blogspot.com

The Money Mom~Creating Financial Wellness Through A Balanced Life!

Looking to work from home?

http://mytimeandfreedom.com/MonicaRowland

An intriguing post, Terri

Nordette — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:21:24 -0600

And that's why I quoted and linked to it in The Interview Obama Regrets, but We Love.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.

It's Great to be "Seen"

kdc521 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:35:33 -0600

It will be interesting to see if marketers perception and representation of African-American moms change based on the President-elect's family.

I've been ecnouraged to see that several companies already see the wisdom of getting Black mom's input (i.e. recently I attended a Disney Mom Blogger Mixer for African American moms/ earlier this year I was able to participate in the BlogHer Business panel "We Don't Know What To Do With You", etc.). I'm eager to see more of this happening in the future.

-Kimberly/Mom in the City

Greening the Black Community

pathtonature — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:13:29 -0500

Glad you brought this up. I am a single white mama and the two youngest children are African Canadian. I never noticed how many 'whites' there are involved in the green and natural lifestyle until giving birth to them (and have become a lot more conscious of other things too!) The fact that there are concerned mothers and families causes me to want to reach out to people of color. If you have any ideas to share for ways to do that or what some of the concerns are in the community I would love to hear! This would help know what to focus on.

Lisa

Living Green with Lisa

Path to Nature

Sustainability Issues Take On New Meaning

Gena Haskett — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:29:11 -0500

If the old manufacturing employment has long left the city and town you live in then the greening of some African American communities might me that there could be the establishment of green manufacturing/recycling (not necessarily trash) or other types of sustainable employment.

Food production, in light of the recent tomato scare could be modified to begin grown local food via hydroponics.

Housing issues, gee whiz we could turn some of those abandoned buildings and manufacturing plants into eco-friendly housing for low and middle income folks if we and the local governments had the will power.

This is the kind of green talk that will get attention, not Bamboo sheets. Not that there is anything wrong with Bamboo sheets. I just think a person ought to have a place to use them other than a cardboard box.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

For the most part

HeatherB — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:24:08 -0600

Bloggers are pretty straight forward about what they are reviewing and what is just something they enjoy. So from what I've seen, it seems to be that bloggers are honest about that kind of thing. But if anyone else has seen this not be the case, then feel free to chime in.

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

True...mea culpa!

HeatherB — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:20:22 -0600

I realize that and probably should have mentioned it but my overall point was that different offers are made to get bloggers involved and that - your contest for Martinique - was just another way. My bad!

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Well, From no side at all...

alyssaroyse — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:22:06 -0600

It's all just so confusing for us "plain folk." Don't get me wrong, I come from PR (before i got the insane idea to start my own company, duh!) so I am exceedingly well versed in this - FOaF referrals are far more powerful than advertising. And blogging is a whole new world, nirvana for advertisers and marketers, as most bloggers want to make a few bucks and most readers trust bloggers more than the "media." But the lines are getting blurred. And it's getting really hard to know who to trust. Personally, I stop reading the blogs that I can tell have been bought.

So I just generally advise people to tread carefully. I don't mind you making a buck, at all. And i'm all for advertising (my company will be dependent on it too) but there is something a little more honest about a straightforward ad.

In the magazine industry we have ASME regulations that require us to tell you if something is a "special advertising section." I would expect something similar to develop in the blogosphere as readers increasingly need help sorting through what is just an opinion, and what was a purchased opinion. And, as we all know, one you lose a users trust, it is impossible to get them back. And once you lose users, you lose th ability to earn revenue. So it's a slippery slope to be navigated carefully.

(But hey, while we're at it, I'd really appreciate some help spreading the word about Tinker Tank There are no ads, no sponsorships, no nothing. But I am shopping it to film companies, and even getting nibbles, so some good traffic would be excellent. I have nothing to offer you at all, except, that is, a 21st century helping of holiday cheer that is culturally accurate, slightly gender and race bending - tooth fairy is a guy, cupid is a cute black girl - and smart and cool.... It's just a labor of love, so I want other people to love it too.)
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

About that trip to Martinique

Pam — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:34:24 -0600

A little clarification. I wasn't offered the trip, I was recruited to participate in a limited entry contest for the trip - it should be clear from my post. And while I want you to vote to send me to Martinique because, pity me, boo hoo, I live in Seattle, you do have to hand over your email address and then, you'll be pitched a trip to Martinique too, probably. It's kind of a multilevel marketing approach, the triangle scheme of marketing, eh? See how I'm using it now to get you to send me to Martinique?

I suspect they pitched me because I'm a travel blogger, they figure my readers want to go places. If you look at the other story entries (and there are some good ones) you'll see that they all appear to be travel bloggers. See how I'm still sending you to the site? Sneaky, no?

Nerd's Eye View

Have Any PR People Changed?

Anali — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:19:44 -0500

I blogged about this issue a few weeks ago, because I couldn't NOT blog about it after reading some of these posts. I did get some nice discussion going and I wonder if any PR people have read the various discussions and made any changes based on the feedback.

I'm a single African-American 40- something non-mom . I've been approached by a few businesses to market their services, but not many. I write about food and books, music, and movies, and all sorts of current events. I see people getting free books and different foods to try on their blogs and do wonder sometimes why I don't. It could be that my numbers aren't high enough. I just don't know.

Link Text Anali

politically incorrect

Vera — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 22:06:17 -0500

It's great to see this being discussed, race, marital and parental status, ethnicity, all of it.

I was in a conversation recently where I referred to differences in background experiences: I'm female and the other party was male, my background is Slavic and his was Middle Eastern. He suddenly responded in a shocked and angry tone that I was being insulting to him and ended with. "We are all trying to be the same!"

That conversation didn't go much further, but it really made me stop and think about what political correctness has done to us. My parents were WWII immigrants and I didn't learn English until I was 3, when we moved into a neighborhood where the residents all spoke it. I was used to having girlfriends whose first language was different than mine, or whose skin tone was, and we were all fascinated by each others' cultural heritage in a purely innocent way. Being all different kinds was a glorious thing.

The politically correct attitude of trying to pretend our differences don't exist feels like a huge bombed out crater of loss to me.

It's about acculturation

ChelseaMcC — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:48:33 -0500

Rita, you are so right - this is great focus group stuff! I am a marketing professional that has tackled the issues of general versus ethnic marketing, so I thought I'd throw something in this really rich blog stream...

The diversity of thoughts shared here probably have less to do with Black vs Asian vs Latino and more to do with the level of identity that individuals share with their race/ethnicity. We marketing folk like to throw the term "acculturation" around, which is the psychological and social counter-part of cultural diffusion.

Smart marketers know that white America is a very small peice of the puzzle. I'll spare everyone the numbers, but for example, Texas, the state where I live/work/play/love is one of four minority-majority states - a number that will quickly grow. Reaching ethnic/racial minorities is a challenge as marketers like to buy media that reach each audience in nice, neat numbers. However, as writergal pointed out with the example of the Asian clothing store, it isn't always that easy.

With regard to products (I love the Swiffer example)... When marketers look to ethnic audiences, they are really speaking to the those that have a high level of identity with their race/ethnicity. To those with low racial/thnic ID, (writergirl probably fits into this category) it doesn't really matter if the advertisement is directed towards a specific segment. For those with a higher racial/ethnic ID, seeing a message that uses specific language/actors/images may have more meaning. That being said, not all marketers do it well.

Thanks - this is my first entry on BlogHer!

I've talked to a few PR people lately.

Rita Arens — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:23:32 -0500

I have had contact with several PR people who disagree with some of the statements made here. I've encouraged them to jump into the conversation, as their behavior has not made me think they take race into account when publicizing their wares, but they may or may not feel comfortable taking on such an issue publically.

Surrender, Dorothy - When I was your age, we just let them ride in the back window.

I don't want to detract from

Gracie Passette — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:21:56 -0500

I don't want to detract from 'today' but you might find my recent post on minority marketing and media interesting ~ it has a 1963 interview with Leonard Evans, a legend in marketing (and the founder of the Negro National Network and the 'Tuesday' supplement). It proves quite relevant to 2007 and this conversation...

Founder, Editor, of Sex-Kitten.Net