Diversity in marketing is understanding others at a greater level, stepping into a diverse world to achieve insight, then communicating to your fellow man respectfully and culturally. Respecting one another and a person’s beliefs are one thing. However, getting to know one another to communicate, appreciate and convey a message of a company’s product or service is a delicate balance. So, to “claim” diversity in the marketing space you must first seek to understand.
To diversify in marketing is to go beyond your comfort zone and into the world of culture. Sure, your analytics team may inform you of your client base demographics. Everything from age, race, income, location, etc., but at the end of the day, what does it all mean? Culture and perspective are what your business should look for when trying to decide how to market and understand your customer or clients.
This may cause you to feel uncomfortable, or have a lack of understanding, which also may mean you need to diversify your staff at a higher level. All of which are feelings of growth. Customers/clients today need you to know what they like, want, and possibly feel. Feelings are more particular to Gen Z which is the most diverse generation ever in the United States. So, if you're not ready now, you still have some time to build and understand within your business. Just don't wait too long.
So, let's have a discussion about how you and your business can gain a better understanding of diversity and inclusion specific to marketing. It all starts with humility. Humility requires us to be introspective and understand how our own biases limit our company’s growth potential. There is much culture to be nurtured in business. The old days of let's play safe and just go with the flow is over. There are multiple levels of cultural barriers (e.g. language, understanding activism causes, community, demographic shifts, etc.) that could possibly lead your business into being overlooked if you are not aware of the community impacts that effect your customers, even if you have the right services for your client's needs. So, how do we avoid these missed opportunities to grow your business.
Tip:
Knowing that you need to understand diversity is half the battle. The rest is up to you to grow and enlighten your business and increase diversity and inclusion.
Growth steps towards better diversity in Marketing:
Research: Seek to Understand
Diversify: Staff and Business Culture
Campaign Audiences Matter
Determine Your Approach to Change
Seek to Understand:
Understanding your clientele is key. Your Google analytics and acquisitions from your website and blatant observations may help you get on the right track. However, start by understanding your base customer and then determine the gaps and opportunities that exist.
For example, if your current clientele base is built and your research states that you have a multi-cultural base with a minority demographic then start strategizing about how to better understand your potential customer and/or show them that you understand their needs through the product/services you provide. You can accomplish small wins by providing applicable graphics, offering multi-lingual options, being in the space (online) or place (community) your customers are more likely to see you and your business.
Diversify:
A lot of companies think diversification is just having one voice or race representative at the table to speak for all people that look and speak the way they do. This truly is a misnomer and should not be adopted. Diversity of race, religion, gender, sex, disability and age needs to not only be seen, but more importantly felt. What does this mean for your business? This means that from the time an employee or customer steps foot through your door (or visits your website), they should feel a cultural safety net from all levels of the organization.
There are many businesses that have the face of diversity, but the staff and/or their customers do not feel as though it is a safe place to express their authentic selves. Accordingly, these customers and employees may code switch, which goes far beyond language and into looks, tone, demeanor, etc. “Code switching” is a term that was coined by sociolinguist Einar Haugen in 1954 that referred to not only dialect and the mixing of multiple languages, but also actions and reactions assimilated to white culture. Understand more about code switching here.
Your Audience Matters:
While the social construct of code switching is important; your business must be aware and prepared if and when your customers state "hey ya'll", "Hola.", "what's up", or "sup" versus "Hello." This will be the difference that either takes your company to the next level or you start to level off.
Understand that the customer must still receive the same treatment given the product or service you provide but are also treated from a marketing perspective in a way in which they feel comfortable. Thus, during a marketing campaign the audience must be treated delicately, walking a fine line of your most attentive and methodical level of strategy, meanwhile speaking your clientele's language.
Determine Your Approach to Change:
When making changes to your business, make sure the changes are the right fit for you, your business, and your clientele. Do not halfway commit to turning over a new leaf as you will be left in the weeds or shamed for not understanding the culture in which you were trying to embrace. Nurturing culture will take time, resources, money and more importantly a backbone to deter anyone seeking to trample your efforts within your business.
So, a great start to determining your approach to increasing diversity and inclusion is knowing how to listen, strategize, conduct internal and external outreach, and determine how you will receive feedback from your campaigns. These are great steps in the right direction so keep moving forward, holding steady and all will come full circle of engaging with your customers with the right approach.
Don't have the resources to take the steps you would like in your business? Let Pinno Marketing help you understand you and your customer.
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