Diversity & Cross-Collaboration in Marketing

The Gist

DEI. Diversity, equity and inclusion are key to inclusive and appealing marketing strategies.
Team diversity. Crucial for effective and comprehensive marketing.
Emotional intelligence. Essential for enhancing digital experiences.

Nav Thethi is an experienced professional in digital marketing and customer experience, currently serving as the senior manager of web and digital experience at Hitachi Vantara. Over the past two years, he has contributed consistently to CMSWire, sharing his insights on various aspects of customer experience and digital marketing.

One of Nav’s recent columns focuses on the critical aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in marketing practices, offering practical guidance for implementing these principles in the industry. Nav calls for more cross-functional collaboration and team diversity, two keys for ensuring diverse strategies. Nav's efforts to meaningfully contribute to the industry make him a respected voice in his field.

We caught up with Nav on these topics recently.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Dom Nicastro: Hey everybody, Dom Nicastro, senior managing editor here at CMSWire. And again, I think I did this last time with you, Nav. I gave myself a promotion. I call myself a senior managing editor because I had your senior-ship on my mind. You are senior manager of web experience for Hitachi Vantara, and you’re Nav Thethi. How're you doing, Nav?

Nav Thethi: Doing great. It's nice sunny weather here in California, enjoying the weather? And yeah, getting busy. And, yes, starting my Monday morning.

Advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Marketing Practices

Nicastro: Sweet. Yeah, you've been a CMSWire contributor now for over the span of two years now starting in 2022. And now it's 2023. So you're ramping up again, we love your content. Thanks for being a great member of this contributor family.

Thethi: Thank you very much for the opportunity. CMSWire was the first publishing agency who actually accepted my article, and I started my presence in this world with CMSWire, really appreciate that, Dom.

Nicastro: Well, those other guys must have not been listening because, you know, you're talking right in the heart of what customer experience people, digital marketers care about. And that is so true with today's column, you know, that you write your latest column talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in marketing to how to pull that off beyond the — just kind of wanting to do it and saying you're gonna do it, actually doing it. So I thought we could start with an overview of kind of just what you see as the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and marketing and kind of what is it? What does it look like?

Thethi: Sure, Dom. So yeah, as we know, that DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — is nothing new anymore. The word has already been accepted that big time and, and greatly, a lot of organizations are focusing their marketing campaigns on this side. And it is not being ignored, which is a good sign. But still, there is always an improvement area, there is always some reminders that need to happen over time. What I'm trying to do through this article this time is to just remind people of those basics of the DEI and a little bit of my own two cents to give a little extra value. Like, OK, these are the basics. But again, here are a few factors that we should all be considering, in addition to maximize the outreach to all segments of the customer base. I'm trying to tap the global audience in this article.

Diversifying Marketing Teams for Effective DEI Strategies

Nicastro: Yeah, what I love about it, Nav, is you not only say it's important because I don't think anyone's going to debate that having some kind of diverse view in your campaigns — in your content — is a bad thing. No one's gonna say, yeah, don't be diverse, just be so narrow-minded. No one's gonna say that, right. Right. But what I love about the column is not only do you say how important it is, you actually show how to do it. So without giving away the whole article because, of course, we want people to read the article too. But give us one example of how a marketing team can actually pull this off, like one important way they can do it.

Thethi: If I start with the most important message I want to give from this article is I'll start from the bottom up on this article, the very last line I have mentioned is I emphasize to have your own team diversified — start in house, right. Once we have diversified from different genders, interests, and like preferences, and orientations, and like a diversified team can make better decisions together. And I'm not talking only about like demographic, or physical perspective, or locational perspective of the diversity. I'm also talking about cross-functional collaboration, even when decisions happen in the strategy side, and there are no tech people in the room. Even that case, also decisions are not efficient, because later stage, there are some holes that we need to fill in. So that's the key message I have — like start in house. OK. And have your own team diversified and included from different regions, different social segments and demographics.

Cross-Department Collaboration Crucial for DEI Initiatives

Nicastro: Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. It kind of ties into my next question, which is about the who. And you kind of answered this already, but expanding on it by department. Now, I'm imagining the marketing team not just going at this alone, and they're going to have to have cross-department collaboration in this because I know my team, my editorial team, if we're thinking of new ways to do things, we benefit so much from getting marketing to chime in, events? What have you sales even? Right? It's great to have those perspectives. So do you see this being an initiative? If it's serious, that goes beyond just the marketing team?

Thethi: It is, yeah, it is everywhere. Because like all businesses, what are the two pillars that business run on — money comes later — its employees and customers, right? So people who are delivering and people on the other side who are receiving, so that's where and that's people, right? It's human segment, right? Everything else is just like an extra parameter to those two pillars, right. So, in that case, diversification, like if employees’ experience is also diversified and focused on DEI perspective, they can understand the audience better, the customer better right. So, they can tap on those gaps, where that customer experience needs to be delivered on all those DEI covered segments, right.

So it is, so DEI is not really a segment in itself, it is a checkmark that you need to check that while we are we are defining our audience right. So that nobody is ignored. So accessibility and how to convey the message in a neutralized way. So it is received as personal on the receiver side.

These are all basics, right? But the bottom line here is, are the right people designing the campaigns? Right? Do they understand the feelings and emotional aspect of the audience? Unless it is personal, you cannot really give that message in a truthful way. Right. So that's where my emphasis is here in this article.

Nicastro: Yeah. And by the way, Nav, you know, great points. I'm hoping people get a lot out of this article. And I have to thank you personally, because you, for the first time I've ever seen, someone mentioned my generation with data, and that is Generation X. I just haven't seen any much like, no one seems to care about us. And I'm glad you put a little stat from Gen X in there, because I feel like everyone cares about Gen Z, Gen Y, millennials, they skip right over Gen X, and they go to baby boomers. So thank you for that. Thank you for actually including us, mid-40-somethings people, I felt special.

Thethi: Thank you. Yeah, I'm with you.

Integrating Emotional Intelligence Into Digital Experiences

Nicastro: Right, so it felt good. But more importantly, you know, great job. Important topic, we haven't covered it in a while. So I'm especially appreciative that you tackle this once again, we need to tackle it more. And I'm looking forward to more columns from you. Last question for you now. It's April, as we record this — April 2023. Anything you're watching down the road that our CMSWire readers can expect from you maybe in some future columns?

Thethi: Yes. Yeah. Thanks for asking this, Dom. And I am really researching to cover emotional elements in the digital experience because digital is too data driven. And it's too remote, right? And how to add on that emotional aspect into this customer experience on the digital side. That's where I'm researching and you will hear from me more on these topics coming your way for review. Yeah, how to blend emotional intelligence using AI and digital experience.

Nicastro: Perfect. That is a fascinating topic. We're looking forward to that one. And hey, we'll get on another Zoom for another video. How's that sound?

Thethi: Of course, we'll look forward to that.

Nicastro: All right, perfect. Nav, Nav Thethi, a CMSWire contributor. Thanks again for being a part of this family. We appreciate it very much and thanks for getting on the call again.

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