During his 30-year career, Jay-Z’s influence has transcended time, place, and medium. Not only is he recognized as one of the best rappers of all time, he has attained mogul status, with an empire and the foundations for generational wealth that rival most. Jay-Z’s relatable and insightful lyrics, his bold and often understated yet subversive actions, form a legacy that will influence not only Black culture but American culture for generations to come.

Jay-Z’s work touches on topics ranging from mental health to the many lessons he’s learned about personal finances and building generational wealth. So what can Jay-Z’s music and legacy tell us about the broader consumer market? How are marketing campaigns leaving money on the table and missing the mark when it comes to authentic engagement with Black people and other underrepresented groups?

What hedge funds, Warhol paintings, luggage, and Dumbo lofts have in common.

In 2018, I was in the market for a new luggage set that reflected my taste and budget. Though I could have looked at reviews online, I wanted a recommendation I could trust. I didn’t know where to turn. As a Black immigrant, and the only college graduate in my immediate family, like me, those closest to me didn’t necessarily have experience with the kinds of products I sought. And so, with no one close and with the sociocultural capital I could trust, I turned to Jay-Z’s investment portfolio for a reputable, high-quality luggage set.

For many underrepresented groups, the irony is that despite being the constant targets of marketing, it seems we’re only deemed deserving of lesser quality “bargains” like fast food, that have the added bonus of being harmful to our health if not deadly. This is where Jay-Z and other Black celebrities come in. With access to social capital, resources, and credibility among underrepresented groups, they open windows into what’s possible. But very few take it a step further to create lanes all our own. This is what makes Jay-Z more than a musician, a marketing genius, or even a mogul. Whether he admits it or not, he is indisputably an activist subverting the status quo.

The genius of Jay-Z

In 2006, Frederic Rouzaud, the then managing director of Louis Roderer Cristal, told The Economist that he treated rappers’ consistent mention of the champagne brand “with curiosity and serenity”. Rouzaud added “I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.” What did Jay-Z do? He called the comment out for being racist, boycotted the brand, and created a lane for Black artists and entrepreneurs to launch their own champagne, wine and liquor brands, from Diddy’s Ciroc to Dwyane Wade’s Wade Cellars, and including Jay-Z’s own Armand de Brignac and D’ussè. Not only did he impact Cristal’s market share, especially within the hip hop community, he created an opportunity for Black entrepreneurs and provided consumers another trusted high-end option. He’s done this over and over again, whether it’s makeup, through his Marcy Ventures investments in Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty makeup line for Black women of all shades, especially dark-skinned women to whom most brands do not cater with enough variety, to his work with Nipsey Hustle and Puma, continuing the late rapper’s quest for generational wealth and legacy.

Jay-Z’s genius lies in his ability to be subversive by speaking to his followers in subtle yet impactful ways. Throughout his career and particularly on the album 4:44, Jay-Z raps about Warhols on his walls, buying $2 million places in Dumbo, credit being more important than throwing away money on goods that depreciate over time, and the gift of generational wealth, giving his fans a taste of luxury followed by the keys to achieving it–an introduction to concepts like credit, investing, personal finance, and building generational wealth.

“I coulda bought a place in Dumbo before it was Dumbo for like 2 million

That same building today is worth 25 million

Guess how I’m feelin’? Dumbo”

In addition to using his music to teach financial lessons to his fans, Jay-Z has become an investor in products like non-dairy brand Oatly, inclusive Black-owned makeup lines, and Black-owned companies that have historically neglected his Black audience. His investments in brands like Away, Fenty Beauty, and D’ussè are both an act of resistance and boycott, refusing to be overlooked for quality, and a savvy financial strategy, tapping into neglected markets. And for people like me, he has provided a trusted source for information about what high quality products to invest in, creating access to previously untapped resources and heightening expectations for the quality of goods and services we deserve.

Where we’ve been overlooked, underestimated, and boxed out of industries, Jay-Z and a handful of others — think “Oprah’s Favorite Things” or President Obama’s Book List — have circumvented the lack of inclusive marketing to create a lane for us, thus providing visibility, access, equal opportunity, and generating wealth.

The financial case for inclusive marketing: Why are brands still leaving money on the table?

If the moral failing is not enough, still every year, companies leave $3 trillion on the table for failing to tap into a massively diverse market. Representing a $1 trillion market share each, Black people, LGBTQ people and Latinx people remain a negligible share of all ad revenue and only a fraction of the revenue seen by other underrepresented groups.

According to Forbes, “Ad revenue targeted at LGBTQ+ consumers remains a fraction of the totals seen by other [BIPOC] groups. Despite this market growth, according to a recent GLAAD study in collaboration with Procter & Gamble, a meager 1.8% of all advertising on mainstream media in 2020 represented LGBTQ+ people.”

To make matters worse, research shows that 30 percent of Black consumers fall into the category of trend-setters. This means they tend to discover new products and services and proactively share them with their peers, essentially doing free marketing for brands if they can reach them.

Yet, despite recent progress, social acceptance of historically underrepresented groups, and tons of data and research, exclusion is fueled by an array of complex, age-old dynamics that must be addressed. Unconscious bias remains a rampant problem, resulting in exclusion. In addition to bias, the overall lack of diversity, especially in decision-making spheres in the marketing world contributes to a self-fulfilling prophecy. But more than bias, there are three elements fueling this ongoing gap. When marketers lack proximity with the experiences of entire groups, this fuels uncertainty, and risk aversion, resulting in paralysis and a lack of engagement. Authentic representation of Black, Latinx, or LGBTQ+ identities is a complex challenge for marketers. “According to GLAAD’s Visibility Project, 78% of advertisers and 31% of agency executives agree that achieving adequate representation is a challenge due to “nuances’’ in the LGBTQ+ community.” It’s no wonder it’s easier just to look the other way.

Four steps you can take to address the market gaps

While it would be amazing to have Jay-Z at your strategy table and as a spokesperson for your brand, it’s unlikely. So, while you look for your very own marketing genius and carrier of culture, here are four initial steps you can take to ensure you’re addressing the moral and business case for inclusive marketing.

1. Meaningfully diversify your team. Including staff at all levels including decision-makers on your teams who are most proximate to the communities you hope to reach will give you language, creativity, credibility and resonance. Think Puma + June Ambrose.
2. Assess your strategy for reach and market share. Put an assessment strategy in place that allows you to review your plans for equity gaps and potential risks. For example, a few questions to consider: a) Is your team diverse and equipped to help you see what you’re missing? b) Is your language inclusive and accessible? c) Are your products available in diverse communities (think different geographies or neighborhoods)? d) Are your references tailored to multiple demographics? e) Is your imagery representative of diverse people? f) Are your products or services interesting to a wide variety of people?
3. Invest in true understanding of diverse groups. Simply using aspects of culture without meaning will be tagged opportunism at best and cultural appropriation at worst, and the fallout will likely hurt your brand and overall strategy. This means ensuring your team is not only diverse but has done their own learning and has a nuanced understanding of complex and heterogeneous groups of people and that there are bias checks in place at every step of the way. Think Zara + the country of Mexico.
4. Understand who your culture champions are. Think Gucci + Dapper Dan. In 2019 Gucci was forced to withdraw a sweater that looked like blackface from its shelves after social media backlash. Years prior, the brand had also been discovered to have copied Harlem designer Dapper Dan’s jacket, after putting him (with his Black clientele) out of business decades earlier, along with the other fashion houses. In a show of remorse and accountability for its racism, the house did the right thing and underwrote the revitalization of his atelier in 2017. So when it came to holding Gucci accountable for this latest misstep, who better than Dapper Dan. Yet where the house could have heeded sound advice and made meaningful changes like hiring a more diverse team to prevent such oversights in the future, or broadening its fashion and cultural perspectives to increase its appeal and representation for people of all backgrounds, it fell short. When your culture champions emerge, listen to them and make a prominent place for them where they are seen, heard and valued for what they add to your brand.