Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Brand Communications

In today’s soci­ety, pro­mot­ing diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in all aspects of life is more impor­tant than ever. This includes the work­place cul­ture, schools, and even in the media. Brands that fail to do so are quick­ly becom­ing out­dat­ed, and their cus­tomers are tak­ing notice. As a result, busi­ness­es are begin­ning to see the val­ue in pro­mot­ing diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in their brand communications.

But what does it mean to pro­mote diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in your brand com­mu­ni­ca­tions? Essen­tial­ly, it means cre­at­ing a strat­e­gy that con­sid­ers your audi­ence’s dif­fer­ent back­grounds, expe­ri­ences, and per­spec­tives. It also means cre­at­ing inclu­sive con­tent. And final­ly, it means imple­ment­ing equi­table design prac­tices that ensure every­one has access to your brand’s message. 

There are many ways to pro­mote diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in your brand com­mu­ni­ca­tions. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

The best way to deter­mine what will work best for your busi­ness is to con­sid­er the fol­low­ing factors:

Your Audience 

In order to prac­tice empa­thy and pro­mote inclu­sion with diverse con­tent, it’s impor­tant to under­stand the lived expe­ri­ences of peo­ple who are dif­fer­ent from you. This can’t be accom­plished by a 15-minute Google search. Addi­tion­al­ly, try to seek out oppor­tu­ni­ties to have one-on-one con­ver­sa­tions with peo­ple from these groups so that you can bet­ter under­stand their per­spec­tives. Or bet­ter yet, estab­lish part­ner­ships with experts in this field. 

In this video from our course Work­ing with Inclu­sive Images, shares the impor­tance of know­ing our brand audi­ence through our com­mu­ni­ca­tion efforts. 

As you are work­ing to define your audi­ence and their needs, go beyond plain demo­graph­ics and con­sid­er these questions:

• Who are you try­ing to reach with your brand communications? 
• How are their expe­ri­ences influ­enced by their cul­ture and heritage?
• How can you pro­vide a bet­ter expe­ri­ence for your audi­ence with disabilities?
• Do they nav­i­gate lan­guage barriers? 
• Does your mes­sag­ing have biased connotations?

We must con­sid­er all of these fac­tors when devel­op­ing your strat­e­gy, as they should be reflect­ed in your com­mu­ni­ca­tion across the board, from your mes­sag­ing to your visu­als. Once you have a good under­stand­ing of the expe­ri­ences of oth­ers, you can begin cre­at­ing con­tent that is inclu­sive and respect­ful of all people.

Your Brand Message

When cre­at­ing con­tent and mes­sag­ing, brands don’t look to make biased assump­tions on pur­pose, but a lack of research, resources, and cul­tur­al under­stand­ing has gen­er­at­ed a lot of failed attempts for inclu­sion and diver­si­ty. Few rogue brands have clear­ly cut cor­ners to appear woke or to cross off a diver­si­ty check­list, and you now see a com­mu­ni­ty back­lash call­ing them out. 

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.

We need to have process­es in place to dig deep into under­stand­ing our audi­ence beyond sim­ple demo­graph­ics. Take the time to define and under­stand their aspi­ra­tions, wants, desires, cul­ture, her­itage, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion needs.

As you define your mes­sage, here are some things to consider:

• What sto­ries are you telling your audience?
• Is it inclu­sive and void of bias? 
• Does it con­sid­er your audi­ence’s dif­fer­ent back­grounds, her­itage, cul­ture, expe­ri­ences, and perspectives? 
• Have we con­firmed with trust­ed experts in the field about our message?

Check­ing for diver­si­ty and inclu­sion shouldn’t fall to one person—a diverse team should be in place so that var­i­ous voic­es are rep­re­sent­ed in your mes­sag­ing. By tak­ing these steps, you can ensure that your con­tent is tru­ly inclusive. 

Your Designs 

Incor­po­rat­ing diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in your brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion isn’t just about the words you use—it’s also about the visu­als you choose to relay your mes­sage. Peo­ple are more like­ly to engage with brands that use diverse imagery as this makes us feel seen, heard, and under­stood. To con­nect with a broad audi­ence it’s impor­tant to include peo­ple of all ages, races, gen­ders, abil­i­ties, and sizes in your visuals. 

It’s human nature to want to feel seen, heard, val­ued, and most impor­tant­ly, that we belong.

Using inclu­sive images isn’t a trend or fill­ing a check­list. It’s about the pro­found sig­nif­i­cance it has on human­i­ty. When we feel rep­re­sent­ed, we feel seen.

As you work with design and inclu­sive images, here are some things to consider:

• Does your design reflect the diver­si­ty of your audience?
• Do your col­ors align with their her­itage and culture?
• Are there any bar­ri­ers that could pre­vent some­one from access­ing your mes­sage (e.g., lan­guage barriers)?
• Do these visu­als rep­re­sent your inter­nal and exter­nal brand culture?
• Is there any bias behind the visuals?

We cov­er a deep­er dive on Work­ing with Inclu­sive Images in our LinkedIn Learn­ing course. 

By tak­ing the time to con­sid­er these fac­tors, you can devel­op a brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion strat­e­gy that pro­motes diver­si­ty and inclu­sion while also res­onat­ing with your tar­get audi­ence. What­ev­er you do, nev­er Pho­to­shop peo­ple for the sake of inclu­sion and diversity.

The impor­tance of pro­mot­ing diver­si­ty and inclu­sion in brand com­mu­ni­ca­tions can­not be over­stat­ed. Con­sumers are increas­ing­ly reject­ing brands that fail to do so in today’s soci­ety. As a result, busi­ness­es are begin­ning to see the val­ue in cre­at­ing strate­gies con­sid­er­ing their audi­ences’ dif­fer­ent back­grounds, expe­ri­ences, cul­tures, and per­spec­tives. By devel­op­ing an inclu­sive strat­e­gy, you can ensure your busi­ness is rel­e­vant to your com­mu­ni­ties and not exclu­sive to some.