The Biggest Myth About Inclusive Marketing

Many marketers think that inclusive marketing means that your brand needs to serve everyone. They get overwhelmed with the thought of figuring out how to serve every dimension of diversity, and as a result they never get started.

But the idea that brands need to serve everyone to be inclusive is a myth.

Inclusive marketing is about acknowledging the many ways in which people are different, intentionally choosing who your brand will serve, and then authentically incorporating those diverse consumers throughout all areas of your marketing mix.

Inclusive marketing is about choosing.

Imagine your brand was hosting a dinner party. Thinking that you need to serve everyone would mean that you need to plan for and have capacity for absolutely anyone that decided they wanted to attend.

That’s a pretty tall order, and quite unrealistic for most brands.

A more likely and doable scenario is if your brand decided to host a dinner party, and you planned for and had capacity to serve 200 guests. In your planning, you curated a menu that incorporated a wide variety of dietary preferences and restrictions. And you were also very intentional about ensuring you invited people with different identities.

When you compare these two options, one feels overwhelming, and the other feels much more doable.

Choosing the identities you want to serve enables you to be more targeted with your efforts. It helps you be clearer about the visual imagery you use, the influencers you partner with, the inclusive language and cultural references you use, and even the choices you make with regard to the team you build and the partners you collaborate with.

It is important to note that just because you decide to serve specific communities, it does not mean that you are not serving other communities not on your list. Rather, it just mean you aren’t dedicating marketing focus on doing anything specific to attract and retain people with other identities.

For instance, if your brand makes a point to ensure that people are over the age of 45 feel seen, supported, and like they belong with your brand, that doesn’t mean that a 27-year-old wouldn’t be welcome.

Here are some criteria to help you determine which identities to focus on.

Values

When they are given the right amount of importance, brands are driven by their values, and use them to make decisions.

Even though being inclusive in your marketing has a clear tie to your business results, that doesn’t mean every decision you make regarding inclusion — particularly who you want to serve has to be based upon what the numbers on a spreadsheet say.

From a values standpoint, there may be some underrepresented and underserved communities that you absolutely want to ensure feel seen, supported, and like they belong with you. Leading with your values in this regard makes your selection process go much more smoothly.

Market

The makeup of the customers in the geographic area where your brand does business can also help you choose which identities you want to serve.

If you visit businesses in Miami, you’ll notice that a lot of them have signage available in both English and Spanish, and many will have bilingual staff. It is clear the business is catering to the local population they have, as Miami has a large percentage of Latinos and Spanish speakers.

If you were to go to San Francisco, where nearly 40% of the population is Asian, you’ll see a different make-up of the languages business and brands choose to operate in as they serve their local market.

Existing Customers

As you are evaluating you’re existing customers, you might uncover trends about who you are currently attracting and converting, and who you’re not. Years ago when brands in the craft beer market were looking at their existing customer base, they noticed they over-indexed on young white males.

They wanted to change that mix, so they started being intentional about marketing to women, Black people, the Latino and Native American communities.

Resources

The time, personnel and budget dollars you have can play a major role in helping you identify which consumer identities you’re able to serve. Being inclusive doesn’t automatically mean that your marketing spend will be higher.

However, changing the way you operate to include more people throughout your marketing mix will likely require a reallocation and or some fully devoted resources to ensure you get it right.

Thus if for instance you decide you want to serve people who speak different languages around the world, ensure your brand has the resources to support those different languages throughout all areas of your marketing mix on a consistent basis.

That’s why it is important to ensure you have the resources allocated that enable you to authentically and effectively serve the people from the underrepresented and underserved communities you’ve chosen.

Inclusive marketing isn’t an all or nothing proposition. Identify the identities you want to show belong with you, and then deliver experiences to them that prove they do. And if over time you want to add more identities to your areas of focus, you can do that too. Progress, not perfection.