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Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked a national human rights/social justice movement. The recent Black Lives Matter movement has forced companies to respond to its customers on where it stands. Local companies are all navigating how to show support to the Black community, while some others remain silent. Either way the brands risk alienating some customers in the middle of an economic downturn.

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked a national human rights/social justice movement. The recent Black Lives Matter movement has forced companies to respond to its customers on where it stands. Local companies are all navigating how to show support to the Black community, while some others remain silent. Either way the brands risk alienating some customers in the middle of an economic downturn.

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked

Looking to protect their brands, corporations largely embrace Black Lives Matter

In the hours after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, many businesses were faced with a decision about how to respond to what was quickly becoming a national reckoning.

With carefully crafted brands to protect, should they respond directly to its Black customers by acknowledging and condemning systemic racism? By doing so, would they risk alienating other customers in the midst of a major economic crisis?

Americans weary from weeks of government-mandated stay-at-home orders turned their attention to video of Floyds killing on their smartphones, laptops and TV screens. No amount of TikTok videos or Netflix shows could lessen the shock.

Early on, many executives recognized it would ignite social unrest and demands for change, in unpredictable ways that could affect their bottom line.

H-E-B, Whataburger and the San Antonio Spurs denounced racism on social media platforms, and pledged funds to fight racial injustice.

USAA CEO Wayne Peacock penned a letter to the insurance and financial services companys 12 million members saying that despite efforts to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, there is more work to do. Peacock, who took the reins at USAA in February, wrote that the killings of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor stand as stark reminders of the injustice still prevalent in our country.

El Paraiso Ice Cream, a paleta parlor on Fredericksburg Road, invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail in an Instagram post, quoting its most famous line, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Public relations firms said companies almost immediately reached out seeking advice.

For those that did take a strong position, it was, and is, important that it was for the right reasons and not seen as capitalizing on a sensitive issue, said Katie Harvey, CEO of KGB Texas, a San Antonio firm.

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Marcus Baskerville, co-owner of Weathered Souls Brewery, located near Bitters Road and U.S. 281, started an initiative in which he encouraged brewmasters to create their own Black is Beautiful beer. The concept caught on, and more than 1,000 breweries are producing batches of the beer in all 50 states and 20 countries.

Small retailers like Feliz Modern, which has a location in The Pearl, opted in the days following Floyds death to promote online a Black-owned San Antonio soapmaker called Organically Beauty Inc.

Anamaria Suescun-Fast, executive vice president at the DeBerry Group, said the firm told its clients that the most important thing, if they decided to put out a statement, was to be authentic.

Sometimes that means listening instead of having a knee-jerk reaction, she said. Determine if what you have to say brings value to the movement in an impactful way. Now is not the time to get your brand out there.

Nationally, some of the biggest brands YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Disney and Uber have pledged millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter.

One of the most generous donors was Adidas, which pledged $120 million, or less than half a percent of its gross revenue from 2019, according to data compiled by Latonas, a mergers and acquisitions broker specializing in web-based businesses.

Last summer, the German sports apparel giant faced criticism when Black employees complained about what they described as the companys discriminatory workplace practices at its North American headquarters in Portland, Ore.

Recently, theres been a shift in which brands consumers are willing to financially support, said Karla Broadus, a professor who will teach a class this fall on the Black Lives Matter movement at University of Texas at San Antonio.

I think consumers and the general public have the Im tired of all of this attitude, she said. People are angry at so many things right now.

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Broadus is director of the African American Studies program in UTSAs Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies a program that the university didnt recognize as a minor until last fall.

She first taught a course on the movement at UTSA in 2017.

She said Black Lives Matter and its social media hashtag first appeared in July 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.

This feels different for me this time, said Broadus, who lived in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots, which followed the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King in custody.

At 47.8 million strong, the countrys Black population wields $1.3 trillion in buying power, on par with many countries gross domestic product, according to a consumer report compiled by Nielsen.

But companies arent just eyeing Black customers. Several polls have shown that a majority of Americans support the BLM movement, which is centered on protests against racism and police brutality.

Corporations have responded to the turn in public opinion.

Quaker Oats Co., a subsidiary of PepsiCo Inc., dropped the Aunt Jemima image and name it used for 130 years on its pancake syrup bottles, saying in a June 17 statement its origins are based on a racial stereotype.

After decades of controversy over its team name, the Washington Redskins last month dropped it after corporate sponsors demanded a new moniker. Other professional sports teams depicting Native Americans are considering taking a similar action.

Christian Reed-Ogba and her husband, Uchennaya Ogba, founded Ech Public Relations in 2011, and its one of a handful of Black-owned marketing operations in the city.

Their storefront on Broadway features a hand-written poster that reads Support Black Businesses and another one in the shape of a heart painted with the phrase Si Se Puede SA!

Reed-Ogba, CEO of the firm, has shared her bad experiences working in professional circles in San Antonio. She said her firm has been primarily considered for projects on the East Side, was told to hire someone to speak for her and has been blacklisted for speaking up.

She hosts weekly Zoom sessions mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs who likely will face similar hurdles.

Reed-Ogba has watched recently as companies expressed solidarity with the Black community, but she hopes that it also spurs introspection and change within companies.

She tells her corporate clients that consumers are watching to see whether theyre working to recruit and support people of color. They want to know if a company is establishing retraining programs for its staff, and will be looking for signs that the firm is treating its employees with respect.

If not, their brands could suffer.

This is not a moment to lay low, she said. If businesses try to side-step the upheaval, I'm taking that as doing absolutely nothing.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura

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Looking to protect their brands, corporations largely embrace Black Lives Matter - mySA