The solution, more diversity on boards, isn’t just about social justice but also about marketing effectiveness, according to the beauty brand.
America’s corporate boardrooms have a problem as e.l.f. Beauty sees it: “So Many Dicks.”
That tagline is part of an attention-grabbing out-of-home campaign the beauty company is launching in an effort to point out inequities in representation on boards of publicly traded companies. The message, specifically, is that there are more guys named Dick on corporate boards than there are entire groups of diverse people, including Hispanic women and Native American women.
The solution, more diversity on boards, isn’t just about social justice but also about marketing effectiveness, according to the beauty brand. The company purposely waited until now to make the case so forcefully so it could buttress its argument with its own track record of marketplace success, said e.l.f. Chief Marketing Officer Kory Marchisotto in an interview.
Also read: How to get on a corporate board
E.l.f. Beauty, headed by Kenyan-born CEO Tarang Amin, is one of only four publicly traded U.S. companies out of 4,200 with a board of directors that has two-thirds women and one-third diverse representation, according to the company’s analysis of S&P 500 Global Marketing Intelligence Data. With its stock up more than 1500% in the past five years, e.l.f. is also the fastest-growing company listed on the New York Stock Exchange over that time.
Tying business outcomes to DE&I efforts has become increasingly important as critics, including the likes of Elon Musk and billionaire Bill Ackman, argue diversity doesn’t amount to better performance.
“It’s very difficult to agree on what is morally correct in this country,” said Sheryl Dajia, CEO and founder of the group Bridge, which works to advance DE&I efforts among marketers. “We are a very divided country right now. So we are moving the narrative away from philosophy, opinion and beliefs, because it’s not a business case when you do that. We’re moving our mission to be about helping companies operationalize inclusion as a business practice for growth, because we fundamentally believe inclusion is the next growth opportunity.”
A growing focus of Bridge’s work is on helping more than 40 companies identify gaps in their DE&I efforts within their own companies and among their own brands to improve their growth prospects, she said.
“You have marketers, CEOs and chief revenue officers from a bunch of companies all craving for a more practical way of driving inclusion as a business practice,” said Yin Woon Rani, CEO and CMO of MilkPEP and a Bridge board member. “We’re going to keep the faith, stay the course, do the work and manage the narrative, because what I know as a consumer marketer is that the appetite for diversity in the consumer population is much higher than what you see in the business headlines.”
DE&I continues to have other high-profile industry champions too. The Association of National Advertisers adds “belonging” to the DEIB acronym mix, and in a talk at the group’s Advertising Financial Management Conference in Orlando last Monday, ANA CEO Bob Liodice noted that it’s been “knocked on its behind a couple of times in the past decade, first with COVID, and second with a Supreme Court decision that effectively frowned on a lot of the work that we’re doing. But we have empirical evidence, in fact a lot of evidence, that DEIB drives growth.”
He cited Manoj Raghunandanan, global president of self-care at Kenvue, saying, “What’s good for business is diversity. What’s good for us is to advocate for it in the right way.”
“If you pulled back. If you’ve hesistated. If you’re watching your steps very carefully, think again,” Liodice said. “It’s critically important, because it results in growth.”
He also cited Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard saying, “multicultural marketing may be the single most important source of growth in our industry right now.”
Also read: Inside the multicultural marketing debate
“As a CMO, you have a choice,” e.l.f.’s Marchisotto said, adding that one choice is “you have to make shit up” if you don’t have the facts to back up the message. On corporate board diversity, as with marketing generally, it’s better to have the facts on your side, she said.
“Once we completed 20 consecutive quarters of growth, once we knew we were the number one stock on Wall Street the past five years, those were the proof points we needed to showcase this is not just about social good,” said Marchisotto.
“So Many Dicks” is the latest, and arguably most provocative, piece of a “Changing the Board Game” effort e.l.f. has undertaken. It recently enlisted Billie Jean King in a “Serving Facts” campaign showing facts about corporate board diversity, or lack thereof, on tennis balls she hits.
The message resonates, Marchisotto said, because she’s seen it herself on the speaking circuit when she’d get unprompted rounds of applause when talking about e.l.f.’s board and management makeup.
“It’s definitely touching a nerve with people to instigate massive change,” she said. But the makeup of the board and staff also has played a key role in e.l.f.’s growth and ability to resonate across a diverse consumer base.
“We believe our results are a direct result of our diversity,” Marchisotto said. “Diversity of individuals, of thought, of the way that we bring diverse opinions together in order to drive the best path forward.”
