Leverage the Power of Color, Culture, and Inclusivity in 2023

In our increas­ing­ly inter­con­nect­ed soci­ety, we must stop mak­ing assump­tions about diver­si­ty and cul­ture. When we fail to under­stand our audi­ence, it cre­ates a dis­con­nect and ulti­mate­ly affects our sales. 

Think­ing about diver­si­ty, cul­ture, and inclu­sion can not be an after­thought. If you are ready to make a mean­ing­ful and more inclu­sive impact in the new year, you have come to the right place. Know­ing where to start might feel over­whelm­ing, but this blog post will share strate­gies you can imple­ment in 2023 to bet­ter con­nect with your diverse audience. 

Leverage the Power of Color, Culture, and Inclusivity in 2023

Create a Strategic Plan for Diversity & Cultural Inclusion 

The first step in cre­at­ing an inclu­sive brand is to devel­op a strate­gic plan that out­lines your goals and objec­tives regard­ing diver­si­ty and cul­tur­al inclu­sion. Many brands amp up their inclu­sion focus dur­ing her­itage months, but their efforts dis­si­pate the rest of the year. To be tru­ly inclu­sive, inclu­sion should be rel­e­vant through­out the year. 

As you think about your goals, con­sid­er some of these ques­tions to cre­ate a clear action plan that every­one in your orga­ni­za­tion can follow.

• What are the key areas you want to focus on? 
• How do you want to reach out to diverse audiences? 
• Do you need to con­sult with experts in the com­mu­ni­ty for cul­tur­al accuracy?
• Do your visu­al assets make these com­mu­ni­ties feel seen, heard, and understood?
• How do their cul­ture and her­itage influ­ence their experiences?
• Do your brand col­ors hold a cul­tur­al significance? 
• What is your imple­men­ta­tion time­line, and who is respon­si­ble for what?

Develop Culturally-Specific Content 

Once you have estab­lished an over­ar­ch­ing plan, it’s time to start cre­at­ing cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant con­tent for your diverse audi­ences. This could mean writ­ing arti­cles or blog posts about top­ics relat­ed to their cul­ture or expe­ri­ences or cre­at­ing visu­als that rep­re­sent dif­fer­ent cul­tures authen­ti­cal­ly (with­out stereo­types). The key is not to fake cul­ture for the sake of a sale.

You like­ly already know that col­or builds brand recog­ni­tion, helps gen­er­ate sales, and evokes cer­tain emo­tions. How­ev­er, only a few con­sid­er col­ors’ impact on cul­ture and her­itage. At NCD, we see this as a nec­es­sary step in brand­ing and a cru­cial step for human connections! 

Any­time we cre­ate a mar­ket­ing cam­paign, a social media post, print, videos, or illus­tra­tions, we have to form an under­stand­ing of how our audi­ence will con­nect with that con­tent. Ensure that any ele­ments used in your con­tent reflect under­stand­ing and open­ness towards oth­er cultures—this includes avoid­ing lan­guage that could be seen as exclu­sion­ary or insensitive. 

We dig deep­er into this top­ic in our LinkedIn Learn­ing course: Col­or and Cul­tur­al Connections. 

In this course, you will learn: 

• The impact and mean­ing of col­or across cultures 
• How col­or, emo­tion, and per­cep­tion interconnect 
• The con­nec­tion between col­or and cul­tur­al heritage 
• How to estab­lish cul­tur­al­ly con­scious mar­ket­ing and visuals
• Val­i­dat­ing cul­tur­al accuracy

Get Intentional About Your Visual Communication

The graph­ics you use to rep­re­sent your orga­ni­za­tion are just as impor­tant as the words you use when com­mu­ni­cat­ing your brand’s val­ues of diver­si­ty and inclu­sion. Incor­po­rat­ing peo­ple of all ages, races, gen­ders, abil­i­ties, and body types in your images increas­es the like­li­hood that your audi­ence will iden­ti­fy with and sup­port your brand.

The visu­als you use must reflect cul­tur­al under­stand­ing rather than appropriation—for exam­ple, using tra­di­tion­al cul­tur­al sym­bols with­out per­mis­sion from the orig­i­na­tors of those sym­bols may be seen as offen­sive by some peo­ple. Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties have suf­fered pla­gia­rism and appro­pri­a­tion of their pat­terns for mass con­sumers. One exam­ple is Venezue­lan fash­ion design­er Car­oli­na Her­rera, who the Mex­i­can gov­ern­ment is accus­ing of cul­tur­al appropriation. 

As you work with visu­al ele­ments in your brand­ing, con­sid­er the following:

• Does it reflect the diver­si­ty of your audience? 
• Is it inclu­sive and void of bias? 
• Are you ver­i­fy­ing that the graph­ics you use are cul­tur­al­ly correct?
• Does the body lan­guage set a pos­i­tive tone?
• Does your team have an approved asset library where they can pull content?

Ded­i­cat­ing time to estab­lish­ing and review­ing your images is cru­cial for any brand. We cov­er strate­gies to imple­ment this in our LinkedIn Learn­ing course, Work­ing With Inclu­sive Images.

In this course, you will learn: 

• The pow­er of visu­al language
• The impor­tance of know­ing your audience 
• Ways to rep­re­sent your inter­nal brand culture 
• How to show empa­thy in your visuals 
• Effec­tive ways to work­ing with stock pho­tos, brand pho­tog­ra­phers, and inclu­sion experts

Cre­at­ing an inclu­sive brand doesn’t hap­pen overnight. It takes time and effort to get it right. But by fol­low­ing these strate­gies, your brand will be well on its way toward becom­ing more cul­tur­al­ly inclu­sive in 2023—and beyond! 

Lever­ag­ing col­or and cul­tur­al con­nec­tions with inclu­sive images is a pow­er­ful and under­uti­lized strat­e­gy to cre­ate mean­ing­ful cus­tomer rela­tion­ships. If done cor­rect­ly, this strat­e­gy can build loy­al­ty and attract new customers!

So don’t hes­i­tate to start lever­ag­ing cul­tur­al con­nec­tions today! You’ll become part of the solu­tion, lead­ing us to an era where brands are gen­uine­ly reflec­tive of our increas­ing­ly diverse world!