“Inclusive marketing is about brands that recognize the many ways people are different,” says this marketing master.
Her voice falls to a conspiratorial tone.
“And this is the very important part: Voters what identities you want to earn. “
Also important (for this Marvel fan, anyway): What does inclusive marketing have to do with … MCU?
Meeting the master
Name: Sonia Thompson, Founder, Inclusion and Marketing
Job: Thompson consult with brands that want to use inclusive marketing to grow their business
Lesson 1: Throw out your checklist.
I can hardly make breakfast without a checklist, but Thompson has been convinced to throw them out when it comes to inclusive marketing.
As a marketing employee, you have to choose which identities your product or service serves, “and this is where many people are nervous,” says Thompson. “Sometimes people take a check -in method – like“ Let’s get everyone in there. ” But inclusive marketing Don’t do it means “marketing to everyone.”
She gives an example of a recent advertisement with a woman in a wheelchair. “You can’t see her face and there’s no talking role – she’s just there. “
Your reaction can be: “There is someone with disabilities in the advertisement. It’s inclusive!” But Thompson says wheelchair users were not this brand’s target audience, and she warns, “All representation is not created equal.”
If you check the identity boxes instead of carefully choosing your audience (s) and thinking about their overall user experience, you are not inclusive at all.
Lesson 2: Be your own MCU.
And that, strangely enough, brings us to Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“Think of your marketing in connection with customer experience,” says Thompson, “and the ways in which people engage and interact with your brand.” They will do it at macro-level-as MCU’s 17-year reign of reign over pop culture and a micro-level-siger, Black Panther.
“I had seen Zero Marvel film before Black Panther“Says Thompson. But” I felt it was designed for me and my community. “So she went on to Infinity War (Note: I have recommended Thor: Ragnarokpersonally). “Black Panther has a role in it, but as part of a role crew – a whole ensemble.”
When she revises her clients’ overall user experiences, Thompson meets a lot of promotional materials, and many times brands have designed something for specific identities. But it is separate from their general marketing material and it is a problem.
Your Black Panther Must fit comfortably within your multiver’s – that is, the specific identities you earn must be an integral part of your marketing ensemble. And they need to emerge across your full marketing mix – your Instagram -Feed, your site, your advertisements. Wakanda forever.
Lesson 3: Bring the protagonist energy.
A few years ago, Thompson conducted a study of representation in marketing. She asked people what types of representation were most important to them and how they would see themselves represented.
“We don’t want to feel like we’re in the back,” was the overwhelming mood, “or just placed there to say we’re included.” (There is that checklist again.) “We want a story. We will be the protagonist.”
It is not the only way in which brands refer to identities to the supportive crew.
“For example, let’s say you want to reach Spanish speakers,” says Thompson. Say that you have translated your site, ”but [Spanish translation] is buried in the footer somewhere. “Of course you have done the work, but you also tell the segment of your audience that they are less important.
Thompson suggests finding a way to get an external evaluation of your inclusive marketing strategies. “If you don’t have people on your team who have these identities or lived experience or areas of expertise,” she says, “co-cabinet or bring partners to evaluate and evaluate different areas for you.” That way you can bring the protagonist energy.
Lingering questions
This week’s question
What is a piece of Marketing Council you would have given earlier in your career, but you would no longer give, because of how marketing has changed? —Heike Young, Head of Content, Social and Integrated Marketing, Microsoft
This week’s answer
Thompson: Early in my career, I would have advised marketers to spend time focusing on a unique brand and really investing in what you could do to deliver a remarkable customer experience.
These are not so remarkable experiences and strong brands are not needed, but I find that spending too much time there – especially ahead – prevents brands from emerging consistently. Today’s world and consumer are moving rapidly – and frankly, consumers will be the ones who lead you to what makes a remarkable experience.
So it is more important now to emerge and let your voice, point of view and what you stand for being known. Refine your experience over time, based on feedback from your customers and the community you are building. The society and the confidence they need with you is hard to build if you do not show up consistently. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that everything must be perfect and super polished before it comes out into the world.
This is not a case for the delivery of poor quality, but rather a case for brands and marketers to do a better job of being active prophets and participants of culture as it happens. Be relevant and remarkable to consumers in a way that is most appreciated and relevant to them. Your marketing and influence will be much more effective as a result.
Next week’s question
Thompson asks: How have you seen inclusion shape the way marketing has been done in the last five years and how do you feel it will shape (if at all) for the next five years of marketing?
