Inclusive Marketing – Optimising Business and Life

Oct 13, 2019

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What is Inclusive Marketing?

Inclusive marketing means creating content that truly reflects the diverse communities that your company serves.

As digital marketers, our responsibility is to relay our brands’ messages in a way that resonates with people from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, religion, ability, sexual orientation, or otherwise.

Very often diversity is seen as boxes to check for your company whereas inclusion is more indicative of the experience and equity the brand creates. Inclusive brands recognize and think about the impact their advertisements could have more so than just the intent behind them. Advertisements can easily misrepresent people, exclude individuals, and offend that is why inclusive marketing aims to proceed with mindfulness.

With more and more people around the globe becoming increasingly less tolerant to sexist, racist and homophobic material (the list goes on) , if digital marketers are unwilling to learn or think inclusively it could easily result in your company needing to spend a lot of money on damage control rather than changing your lens to better represent your brand ideals, increase your sensitivity, and include your customers.

Why Inclusive Marketing is Good for Business

Changing demographics

Due to country borders disappearing consumers are no longer homogenous sectors.

Let me give you an example with the city I live in London.

55% of the London population are from ethnic communities
320 languages are spoken in London
1/3 of businesses in London are owned and run by ethnic
The food sector is dominated by ethnic food and restaurants

Just look around and you will see that people of ethnic background are aspirational and value education and status highly, they seek careers such as Doctor, Pharmacist, IT professionals, Banking and Management.

More than 50% of the population is under 25 years old (youthful audiences).

I am sure the stats are very similar for the other main European cities.

Avoiding the demographic population shifts that are taking place in the UK consumer market will prevent corporate marketers from capitalising on the rapidly growing multicultural market segments. That inaction is a missed opportunity to build market share in an increasingly difficult and competitive economic climate.

Old Navy multicultural advert — Old Navy multicultural ad

Consumers want to see themselves in your ads

They say “Connection is the new currency”.

When it comes to advertising, connection and believability make all the difference. By using real people in your marketing you can build an emotional connection with consumers and celebrate who they really are.

Diesel groundbreaking ad that placed model Winnie Harlow, who suffers vitiligo, in the spotlight. Harlow's recent ascent within the fashion industry - she is also the face of Desigual - has diversified cultural representations of beauty and challenged ideas of perfection commonly expected of models. — Diesel groundbreaking ad that placed model Winnie Harlow, who suffers vitiligo, in the spotlight. Harlow’s recent ascent within the fashion industry – she is also the face of Desigual – has diversified cultural representations of beauty and challenged ideas of perfection commonly expected of models.

Inclusive marketing is more than a trending topic among industry leaders today. It’s an emerging style that not only makes good business sense but also good moral sense.

Inclusive marketing can help us drive change, communicate more effectively, become culturally competent, and much, much more.

It’s not a way of the future, but a way of life and business that just makes sense. Plain and simple.

Comments

One response to “Inclusive Marketing – Optimising Business and Life”

Krystal Lewis

25th October 2019

Inclusive marketing is decent marketing. It is not just about business anymore. Inclusive marketing means being sensitive in terms of your audience’s race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, religion, ability, sexual orientation. It will not only boost your business, but it also speaks about your character. Therefore, it is important to be mindful in the marketing world at all times.

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