For Pride Month 2023, many brands found themselves caught up in the culture wars and rethinking their role in social issues. While we once assumed that marketers would celebrate their commitment to inclusivity and the LGBTQ+ community every year, a wave of consumer backlash and anti-woke sentiment has upended that assumption. We’re seeing a new playbook emerge—one that recognizes Pride as a mindset and ongoing commitment, not just a single month every year. Here are four important strategies:

Align strategy with brand purpose 

It's become orthodoxy for brands to take a stand on cultural issues in the belief that consumers expect it. It’s worth re-examining that assumption considering how many inauthentic, cringey and harmful activations we've seen. 

It goes without saying that brand knowledge of its customer is fundamental in marketing. Yet we often see brands, under the guise of purpose, reach beyond their credibility into conversations where their products have little relevance. While brand purpose can be a powerful tool for aligning and scaling influence behind a higher-order ideal, it’s essential that the ideal is authentic to the brand—its founder, category, consumer and product. 

Prioritize issues where there’s product/market relevance and alignment with customer sentiment. Brands need not join conversations where they don’t have credibility. Not everyone needs to take a stand on every topic or throw their hat into every ring. 

Growing the tent means making room for everyone 

The marketers behind the recent Bud Light campaign featuring a trans influencer said they were tasked with reviving a declining brand by attracting new, young drinkers. But a strategy for reaching new audiences shouldn’t come at the expense of existing customers. To grow market share, legacy brands should search for commonalities across existing and growth customers and embrace common elements of humanity that are shared with the company’s values—such as a mindset or belief.

It’s essential for marketing to bring consumers together, stand up for brand values and uplift people and communities at risk. But care should be taken to avoid disenfranchising loyal customers or pitting customers against each other. 

If a brand’s support for the LGBTQ+ community fits into an existing narrative and amplifies brand love with its strongest consumers, it will realize greater success.  

Nurture values internally first

If a brand doesn’t demonstrate its internal commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, it can be dangerous to talk about it in marketing. 

Bud Light seemed to externalize the brand’s growth ambition without first transforming its internal systems and culture. Lapses in approvals up the chain of command have come to light—and misaligned priorities result in misaligned marketing. 

When it comes to social justice and DEI matters, brands should aim for a do-then-say approach—grappling first with bias and exclusion in systems, ways of working and organizational behaviors.

Explore year-round commitments

In addition to examining how they treat their employees, brands should also compare the impact of marketing to other company commitments and initiatives. Instead of running a single campaign or partnership around Pride, a brand might have a larger impact by supporting the LGBTQ+ community in other ways throughout the year.

This can include ensuring all campaigns they run are inclusive and representative, donating portions of sales to organizations supporting LGBTQ+ communities or including inclusivity messages on packaging year-round. But it also goes deeper and can include lobbying political organizations for pro-LGBTQ+ legislation (and equally, ensuring they aren’t donating to politicians who support anti-LGBTQ+ laws.) Brands should also look carefully at whether the events they support or sponsor are welcoming to LBTQ+ consumers. 

There are many brand lessons to take away from the recent Pride marketing controversy. But many are fundamentals: Know yourself, know your audience, appeal to common values and higher-order ideals, keep yourself accountable and don’t get out over your skis when it comes to marketing.

Brands can move people and the world forward. So, it’s important they continue to grapple with important topics and champion more inclusivity and Pride in the months and years ahead. That means going beyond a temporary rainbow-colored logo to year-round support and commitment.