What Does Modern Marketing Look Like in 2023?

By Michelle Serrano | Marketing Strategist, BGD Digital Marketing

October 17th, 2022

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Marketing is an ever-changing industry where the climate is competitive and changing at every second with social media at our fingertips. For instance, TikTok is the latest social media platform where businesses and content creators are taking to expand their audience reach. It is without a doubt that social media platforms have modernized the marketing industry, although there are different ways companies can take further initiative in their efforts of innovating their marketing practices.

Terms such as, “Modern Marketing” can mean different things to different people. For me, modern marketing is the increased representation of underrepresented groups in marketing positions and media representation. Although social media has been a pivotal step in modernizing practices, the more socially impactful shift which comes with larger obstacles is increasing diversity and representation.

Failed DEI initiatives

Needless to say, I see many marketing strategists failing to conduct DEI practices in an appropriate manner. I believe that businesses should take time to educate themselves over the cultures they choose to grab snippets of, to conduct their marketing strategies. Every day I am witness to businesses being racially tone-deaf and playing part in the appropriation of underrepresented groups' cultures for their economic benefit or to be “in” with the current trends.

How to increase DEI in Marketing

If it were up to me, I would make sure everyone got a seat at the table.
I would take my own advice and educate myself over different cultures.
I would increase representation of underrepresented groups in media and marketing positions.
In every new practice, I would make sure I am giving people respect.
My ultimate goal would be to show people like me that it is possible to be in a predominantly white space, that it is possible to be the face of a company, and that it is possible to make a difference in this industry.

My advice to the top marketing executives of big-name brands would be to increase DEI initiatives in every aspect of their brands. Although most importantly, I would advise companies to not only do so for their economic gain, but because they are truly passionate about increasing DEI. To everyone, be genuine in your own DEI journey and allow the members of the underrepresented groups you are promoting to be in the forefront of the change.

Great examples include:

- Marvel’s “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever”

- Nike’s “Dalia: Cambiando el Futuro”

- Dove’s “Under Pressure”

Inclusive marketing practices in these videos include the representation of Indigenous Mexicans in films, played by actor Tenoch Huerta who has championed for inclusivity in media. Nike did a fantastic job of giving Dalia a platform to share her story without taking her voice away throughout the entire commercial. While Dove portrays different types of motherhood by a diverse set of women sharing a fragment of their experiences with postpartum depression, a topic that is not widely spoken about.

The hope I see at the end of the tunnel are companies such as BGD that are truly passionate about DEI and increasing representation of underrepresented populations in all aspects of their marketing processes. I am thankful and blessed to be learning over marketing under a company that truly lives up to its values, in my perspective as a member of an underrepresented group. I am happy to be a small fragment of the change coming. I believe that modern marketing is generating and will continue to generate in the future, amazing shifts in the industry. I hope that other companies begin their DEI journey and begin it with an open mind.

As a Mexican American woman, I have not seen enough media representation of people who look like me nor heard of people like me holding marketing positions. Growing up, generally one group of people was always portrayed in the media and in professional marketing careers. Due to these factors, I grew up with the ideology that I did not belong in certain spaces and for a certain time up until now I still held onto those beliefs. Now, as I received the opportunity to be an intern for BGD Digital Marketing I see that there is space for people like me, and the funny thing is I can take up as much space as I need.