Corporations today are facing many challenges and changes in
the consumer landscape but those who have been keeping a strategic, inclusive
and global perspective are poised for great success. Unilever is one of those
prescient companies whose initiatives have not only raised the voices of under-represented
people but also sparked global recognition for change.
Jack
Myers sat down with Aline Santos, Global Executive Vice President, Chief
Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Unilever this week to talk about her company’s
ongoing successful efforts to address societal needs while also enriching the
company’s position in the marketplace by being in the forefront of cultural
change and evolution.
Be a Good Global Citizen
When it
comes to developing and implementing a plan to effect global change, companies
need to be activists. Santos, understands that she plays a bigger role in
Unilever, as she explained, “I'm not just making the Unilever brands. We are
trying to bring a new way of doing business that hopefully is going to be
inspiring.” To do that, new frames of references need to be introduced so that
we, “break down old stereotypes,” throughout the entire advertising and marketing
industry. “How much we can change the shape of culture, how much we can change
the way we represent people?” she noted. Activism and using your voice to push
for change, as Santos stated, “In places that matter, in places in the industry
that can really create a kind of a ripple effect,” is the ultimate goal.
Activism is
an important empowering component in society today, going beyond advocacy. “When
I think about the work that I am doing at Unilever, I am not just making the
Unilever brands grow but we are trying to reach a new way of doing business
that is hopefully going to be inspiring to many other people,” she said. “When
we think about advertising we are thinking about inspiring people with new
references that are breaking the old stereotypes.” Finding the activist voice
and taking action in movements such as Black Lives Matter to combating domestic
abuse and food insecurity requires a high degree of sincerity and authenticity
to, as Santos explained, “to change the shape of culture.”
Represent the Under Served and Under
Represented Both Internally and Externally
Santos has
been working on gender opportunities within the company for the last ten years,
and “it’s not been an easy journey,” even though the CEO has advocated for
inclusivity within the company. “Gender representation has been on the top of
the agenda. But even with that it is not easy. But we got there and now we have
50/50 (in the management level) in our company that has 155,000 employees.” Unilever
has also looking to recruit talent from across the employment spectrum. “Representation
has always been important to me, the right representation,” she noted. “It is
about all the dimensions. It is about, ethnicities. It is about nationalities.
It is about being disabled. It is a big passion for us. We wanted to be the
most desirable company to work with if you have a disability.”
From a
consumer perspective, she recognized early in her career that there were groups
that were terribly under served. As she noted, she started her marketing career
in Brazil with skincare products, “and I was noticing that although 54% of the
population of Brazil is a population of color, there weren't any range of
products that were specially developed for the black community.” To that end, “we
developed an amazing product people remember today because that was such an
iconic moment… made with love and care for the black community. And it was the
first time that we were doing advertising using black talent as well.”
Balancing Technological Rationality with
Emotional Connection
Today’s
troubled environment with the pandemic, protests, “the rise in food insecurity,
the burden on women, the financial insecurity that we are seeing now, depression,
it is really a spectacular combination of negative factors,” she explained. It
is all impacting human behavior, the way we interact, the way we work and the
way we live. “We have been focusing too much on transactional ways of doing
business. We have been too clever, too rational, too technological. Everything
is tech, tech, tech,” she admonished. It may be a good time, she posited, to
pause and reflect to see what more we can do to, “change the paradigm of the
business” to create more empathy, care and
kindness.
And yet
technology has also hearkened in positive changes in the way we work, from
being heard to networking. “The way we have been working using zoom technology
or Microsoft Teams … has helped us,” she noted. “Many women are saying that now
they feel more represented because the size of the boxes in the screen are the
same. When they want to say something they can press that button with the
little hand so nobody's talking on top of them.”
When it
comes to networking and building relationships, the playing field is suddenly
more equal. “You know, men normally are much better than women in terms of
networking,” she began, “Although women have been getting better in the last
couple of years, men are still better than women in terms of networking. But
with the lock down, everybody was locked down, so there was no ‘let's meet on
the golf course tomorrow morning or on Saturday’, no beer and watch the game. Women
are finding that it’s now much more equal than before.”
Purpose in Advertising
Unilever is the company behind the Dove Real Beauty campaign,
which was first launched in 2004, broke body type stereotypes and sparked a
body positive movement for women. Santos
is highly attuned to voicing the message so that it is authentic and affirming.
“Every time we choose a script, we are choosing how we want to shape culture
and it's very important that we have this consciousness,” she explained. “At
Unilever, 94% of the ads we tested were free from stereotypes and the 6% that
were not free from stereotypes, we didn't launch. We didn't put out there.”
What she
found was that handling the messaging this way is, “not only good for society, it's
also good for business. We have 37% more branded impact every time we have advertising
that is free from stereotypes. We have 20% more purchasing intention. All the
KPIs go through the roof.” Companies who don’t focus on the consumer this way
are, she added, “still in inertia from the past.”
The secret
of success is clear to Santos. “The brands that are winning today, almost
without exception, are brands that have their finger into the pulse of culture
and changing at the same pace as culture. This is something that is really
challenging and difficult - not simple to do. In the past, brands were
dictating culture. Then consumers started to dictate. The (brands) that are
winning are doing this with consumers at the same time.”
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
