The numbers never lie
The race to win future customers is always on. Any marketer worth their salt will tell you that you have to constantly be thinking about what’s next. Who is tomorrow’s buyer, what does their life look like and what brands will they gravitate towards?
We can’t answer all those questions here, but we can tell you one not-so-secret insight about today and tomorrow’s consumers – they respond to inclusive marketing. People understand that advertising and marketing have the power to shape social perceptions, and they’re demanding that brands do better.
Inclusive marketing means selling to your ideal customer without unnecessarily excluding anyone on the basis of age, appearance, race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, ability or socioeconomic background. Done correctly, inclusive marketing helps you reach more customers, build public faith in your brand and arrive early to the future of marketing.
But don’t just take our word for it, the statistics speak for themselves.
Age
In the UK, there are more people aged over 50 than ever before. They account for 47% of consumer spend and 80% of personal wealth. (RHC Advantage)
More than 90% of US Boomers and 85% of UK Boomers disagree that their lust for life has been affected by ageing. (Attest)
Race, culture and ethnicity
70% of Gen Z consumers trust brands with diversity in their ads. (Microsoft Advertising)
54% of consumers said they do not feel fully culturally represented in online advertising. (Facebook Advertising)
64% of consumers said they took some sort of action after seeing an ad they considered to be diverse or inclusive. (Think With Google)
69% of Black consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand whose advertising positively reflects their race/ethnicity. (Think With Google)
Gender and sexuality
82% of people believe LGBTQ+ representation shows that a brand values all forms of diversity. (GLAAD LGBTQ Inclusion in Advertising and Media study)
Men are 1.3x more likely than women to be shown working and 1.6x more likely to be shown in the office. (Facebook Advertising)
Ability
Only 1% of ads represent people with disabilities. (Heat Test Report)
Discretionary spending for people with disabilities of working age is about $21 billion. (American Institutes for Research)
Socioeconomics
90% of ads don’t include people of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. (Heat Test Report)
29.7% of South Africans are middle-class, while 38.2% come from lower-income households. (World Values Survey)
Convinced? Join the cause
There’s a world of good to be done with inclusive marketing and profits to be made. Getting ahead of the curve means winning first and winning more than laggards. But where to begin? We’ve put together a helpful starter guide for brands that are serious about making their digital marketing more inclusive. Download it here and take the first step towards a brand shift in the right direction.
