Erin Condren Heritage and Awareness Artist Program

This four year initiative championed diversity and inclusion within the Erin Condren planner community while improving brand loyalty

Background

In the height of the pandemic and racial reckoning in our collective history, Erin Condren’s founder was involved in a personal matter that showed disregard for pandemic guidelines and the Black Lives Matter movement. This went viral and resulted in the founder taking a leave of absence and eventually leaving the business. This viral moment shook the Erin Condren planner community’s trust and brand loyalty was at an all time low.

Solution

In order to make a bigger difference in the country, repair our brand image and let our customers know we see and support all of them, I proposed, strategized and implemented a program focused on featuring and collaborating with artists of diverse backgrounds on our signature products. This initiative lasted four years.

We chose four identities (Black, Asian American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Queer and Latine) to highlight and launch right before their respective heritage months. In addition to paying and featuring these artists, we also donated a portion of profits during the heritage month to a non-profit that directly supported that community.

Results

This initiative was well received (and copied) within the planner community and was a key part in rebuilding trust with our diverse customer base.

$2.5M

Total Sales

$700k

Donated to Non-Profits

14

Non-Profits Supported

38

Paid Artist Collaborators

Artists we collaborated with are continuing to work with other big brands and projects (the US Open, the holiday USPS stamp), growing their own e-commerce platforms and continuing to be outspoken for their communities, which makes me extremely happy and proud.

As years went on, we continued to refine and iterate on the product offerings and strategy, as well as find and collaborate with different artists.

Customer Needs I Addressed

  • Putting the company’s promises to increase diversity, equity and inclusion into action in multiple ways
    • Hiring and paying artists with historically underrepresented identities
    • Donating money to non-profits that affect change in and with historically underrepresented communities
    • Making this initiative a priority several times a year over multiple years, rather than a one and done initiative
  • Showing our diverse customer base that we see, support and value them

Role

  • Identifying initial customer and company need
  • Presenting need, concept and product list to leadership for buy-in
  • Working with VP of Product and Director of Brand Partnerships on final assortment and partnership requirements
  • Researching and vetting aligned artists to reach out to
  • Researching and vetting aligned non-profit organizations to donate do
  • Being point person for cross-functional questions and requests
  • Iterating on and evolving program each year

Skills

  • Ideation and Concepting
  • Program strategy
  • Artist research, vetting and proposal
  • Non-profit research, vetting and proposal
  • Project management and cross-functional collaboration