Lela Coffey On Multiculturalism, Diversity, and the Empowerment of Black Communities

Lela Coffey is the Vice President for P&G North America’s Multicultural Hair Care portfolio, which includes brands like My Black is Beautiful, Pantene Gold Series, Aussie, and NOU.

Coffey is a game-changing veteran in the field, with a 20+ year career in brand-building for some of the most notable in the beauty industry. She broadened the appeal of P&G Beauty brands among multicultural consumers, with equity and inclusion as the central focus.

She is no stranger to the effects of Black stereotypes in mainstream media. Adopted as a child by two white parents, she grew up on a farm in the northwest corner of Iowa, where Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota intersect. It was a part of the country where diversity was not widely celebrated. Consequently, she grew up watching frequent negative television content about people of color and was determined early on to pursue a career that served her multicultural community.

The married mother of two daughters resides in Cincinnati and is thankful for her upbringing, which fueled her determination to develop a positive self-image. Coffey has strived to break every barrier and has committed herself to improve young Black women’s lives through her mentorship and work with P&G.

  Coffey’s 4R Framework and Success with P&G 

In her role, Coffey was integral in championing P&G Beauty’s industry-leading branding approach known as the “4R- Framework,” which stands for Reach, Representation, Relevance, and Resonance. This framework is a tool that enables brand builders to impartially evaluate where they are in their inclusivity journey with the end goal of resonating more holistically and authentically with people of color.

Coffey explains that Reach, the first R, is where a brand can be found by its audience and how many people have seen its ads or content. It emphasizes that the message connects with the consumer the way it is intended. An example would be asking brands whether they use Black-owned and -operated media to increase interaction with their brand.

The second R, Representation, involves providing inspirational messages and images to consumers that reflect the type of consumer they seek to serve. Much of the media portrays diverse consumers negatively or in a stereotyped fashion. Coffey says that to “represent” those consumers, one must ensure that they are working with agencies with diverse staff and team members that understand what inclusivity and diversity look like to that segment.

The third R, Relevance, is about deeply understanding the target consumer’s unique wants, needs, and aspirations and sharing specific insights relevant to that community. The process includes the creation of pertinent messaging as well as the development of relevant products.

And finally, the fourth R, Resonance, is an essential aspect and the hardest to achieve. Coffey’s definition of resonance is doing things that support the community and taking action to improve lives rather than simply describing the issues. Brands must be intentional about taking action, which requires long-term commitment to make a meaningful difference in consumers’ lives, leading to trust earned over time.

Asserts Coffey: “It’s not really about saying, ‘You are not doing enough,’ or ‘You are not where you need to be.’ It’s really giving companies a very simple but very comprehensive way to look at, ‘Am I doing what I need to be doing for diverse consumers?’”

Coffey believes that self-awareness will motivate companies to intentionally change their messaging and portray Black consumers in ways that create stronger, positive, and more authentic connections with the Black community.

For instance, Coffey cites the My Black is Beautiful brand as a textbook example of how P&G applied self-awareness to produce a successful product line. P&G partnered with Sally Beauty Supply, one of the largest retailers of salon-quality beauty products, to launch the brand. The two companies collaborated in the lab, reviewing ingredient stories and other elements to ensure their products would be superior to everything else in the market. They also engaged the My Black is Beautiful community to learn what consumers wanted in Black haircare products that were missing from the mass market.

Coffey told BLACK ENTERPRISE: “It was a community effort of all Black women who support and follow My Black is Beautiful. They could get these resolute customers to fully communicate what was missing and needed in Black haircare. We used that information as we formulated the products.”

P&G’s Equity & Inclusion Focus

One great example of how Coffey’s framework made a difference is when P&G learned that Black women were concerned about dry, brittle hair. This important discovery led to the origination of the “Golden Milk” collection of haircare products, which were specifically designed to add extra moisture and hydration to Black hair, along with other enhancements.

Coffey views every aspect of corporate operations through an economic empowerment lens as an enthusiastic advocate for equity and inclusion. By doing so, she ensures the company is doing right by consumers in the Black communities. One example of this approach is how the P&G supplier diversity program closely monitors sourcing decisions at every level. The goal is to expand its diverse pool of vendors and economically empower Black small businesses.

The recent article, ”Doing the Right Thing with Our Supply Chain,” reveals that P&G has spent nearly $3 billion on women-owned and women-led suppliers in the fiscal year 2020 to 2021 alone. P&G strives to provide equitable access, using its story as an inclusive model for other brands.

Another P&G initiative near and dear to Coffey is the “Widen the Screen” campaign, a program designed to expand content creation by talented Black creators and enable them to “share the full richness of the Black experience.” By using print, video, broadcast television, radio, and social media platforms, the content unveils “the talk,” “the look,” and “the choice,” all of which were designed to open the minds, hearts, and eyes of the public to the frequent and shared experiences of Black people – and not the negative portrayals of the past.

And then there is the recently launched Gold Series line from Pantene, New Lengths, highlighting another cooperative effort between P&G and Black women. An initiative led to the introduction of top-quality haircare products for an underserved market. The line was initiated by genuinely understanding that Black women’s “Holy Grail” has constantly been growing longer hair. By hiring a multicultural team of scientists, product testers, and brand agents, P&G learned there are two ways to help Black women with this challenge:

1. Helping them develop healthier scalps
2. Ensuring long hair will not break off prematurely

Thanks to gaining such insights from this critical market segment, the Gold Series team created a collection of Black hair products that truly focus on the needs of Black hair.

Going Forward

Coffey’s framework has already had a significant impact on the Black community, especially through her work with P&G. She hopes to inspire other companies to improve their focus on diversity, specifically people of color, to ensure that people of various backgrounds are represented and receive the support they need. Coffey believes that companies must devote time and resources to their diversity and inclusion efforts to maintain their success.