Ep 9: The process of changing to Inclusive Marketing
Shownotes
In a follow-up to last week's episode (Ep 8: The Importance of Visual Representation with jess Hellens), Joyann Boyce outlines her theory on the process of how brands shift to inclusive marketing.
Useful Links:
https://www.savagex.co.uk/
https://www.creativebloq.com/news/pride-2022-logos
https://www.channel4.com/press/news/channel-4-strengthens-guidance-portrayal-disability-tv
https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2021/12/06/why-disability-representation-matters-brands
Transcript
[00:00:00] Joyann Boyce: Welcome to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. I am your host, Joyann Boyce. On this podcast, we're gonna discuss all things inclusive marketing, from persona creation, campaigns, and even some of the mishaps we see in the media. Tune in and let me know your thoughts on how we can make inclusive marketing the industry.
[00:00:23] Welcome and welcome back to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. This is going to be a mini episode where I just share my thoughts on the amazing conversations I've had with people. If you've listened to the previous episode that I have with Jess Hellens, I mentioned to her this idea and I just wanted to explore a little bit.
[00:00:41] So follow me on a journey. Within the marketing sector, we tend to see a kind of repeat pattern of things where a company will do something that is kind of like, you know, outrageous at the time, or is very unique or different to what other companies are doing at the current time. Then it will become everyone's doing it.
[00:01:07] And then it'll become so normal that we don't even notice when a company does it. So putting this into context, what I mentioned in that episode was this idea that things happen in either a spotlight and then moves on to saturation and eventually normalization. So the perfect example of this is when brands were first changing their company logo to the pride flag, that was a spotlight.
[00:01:31] That was, oh my goodness, this organization is doing something that is rare, that is, you know, really putting themselves out there. Then it became saturation. It was everywhere. Everyone was changing their company logo to the pride flag, and for a brief moment. It was like, okay, there's some movement, there's some change.
[00:01:51] However, where we currently are is a sense of normalization, where companies are changing it, but it doesn't mean anything anymore. It doesn't have the same impact, the same meaning. As it did with the spotlight, and this is for various reasons, some companies just change it just to cash in on the pride pound or cash in on that LGBT expression and funds, rather than what it was originally for,
[00:02:19] to show solidarity and show allyship. Sometimes in certain situations, things don't move into that normalization stage. And one thing I wanna specify, especially with that example, is that normalization does not mean it's good for the, the thing that is being normalised. It just means that people are no longer surprised by seeing it.
[00:02:39] I see this with brands stepping into the inclusive marketing space where they seem to be stuck in that spotlight area. They seem to be stuck in only doing things for a period of time, and it's this weird situation where we have seen in the past, where things can become normalised, and then we need to move on to the next evolution of that.
[00:03:03] For example, for a very long time, the darkest or the most famous supermodels were Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, and then we got into a sense of saturation where they were everywhere and other models started to come out. Now, when I think of supermodels who are dark skinned, I don't feel like it's rare to see them on the catwalk.
[00:03:27] What I feel like is rare now is to know their names, so, we've got into a sense of normalisation, but normalisation doesn't always mean that things have improved in that area. In regards to market campaigns, we see brands that are creating, for example, like Channel 4, creating campaigns that are specifically to represent the disabled community.
[00:03:50] And they're putting a shine on the spotlight on this. And it's normally, those kind of spotlight campaigns are then associated with some form of doing it for good, or this disabled person is a amazing, you know, if they can do it, you can do it kind of aspect. And then we get into the saturation phase where, a bunch of organizations are putting disabled people in their campaigns and repeating the same kind of messaging, which is quite harmful actually, that, disabled individuals in these campaigns have to be superheroes or absolutely needed.
[00:04:21] The shift that kind of happened in Channel 4's marketing is they then made that somewhat of a normalization where they just had disabled people in that campaigns, and it was about anything. It was like they, have lives. Let's normalise this aspect and I think knowing where a brand is in that journey and knowing how they're presenting things, are you presenting it in a spotlight image?
[00:04:44] Are you presenting it in a way that people aren't gonna expect this to be part of your brand? They're just gonna be like, okay, you're doing it now because it's Black History Month. You're doing it now because it's Women's International History Month or so on and so on. Or is it a normalisation where brands book into
[00:05:02] just do it. To just it's expected of them, it's no longer shocking. An amazing brand and I always go back to them. That I think fits in that normalisation of anything they do quite well, especially when it comes to inclusive marketing, is Savage X Fenty. Anytime they put out a campaign is celebrated, but it's not shocking.
[00:05:21] A lot of the world are like, yes, we expect them to be pushing the boundaries. We expect them to include as many people as possible. We expect Savage X Fenty to be inclusive. Therefore, when they are, it's not shocking. It's not receiving backlash. It's not spotlight aspect. It's normal. This journey is gonna take a while for a lot of brands to get to that point of normalization with inclusive marketing.
[00:05:48] But I really think it's important to know where a brand is at. And I, I focus on that when I'm talking to clients because depending on where they're at will depend on how they view things, how they shift things. Cause if they're stuck in that spotlight stage, sometimes talking about normalising and including inclusive copy or normalising inclusive imagery is too.
[00:06:10] And this is obviously my own bias and my interpretation of what I've experienced when working with clients, but it'll be interesting to know in your organisations, in your brands, or any companies you see, can you see what stage they're at with a particular topic? Because that's the other aspect of it. A brand could be in a spotlight or saturation stage with representing darker skin tones, but could be in a normalisation stage.
[00:06:33] When it comes to representing women, different stages happen for different topics in different areas. So to summarise, essentially, brands when approach and inclusive marketing, I have noticed go through three stages. Some brands naturally start in one stage. So the first stage is spotlight. They're making a big fuss.
[00:06:56] They're shining a big spotlight on this one campaign, on this one thing that they're doing that is different to their various things saturation. They've overdone it, they've pushed it everywhere. They are pumping out this content about Black people in regards to their clothing and they're pumping it out in their campaigns, or they're really emphasising over and over again that we are inclusive in this area and then, the stage that a lot of brands should be in will end up is eventually normalisation, where it's just natural for them to do.
[00:07:30] It's just natural for them to create a campaign or create marketing content that is inclusive. On occasion, some brands stay between spotlight and saturation and keep bouncing back and forth, back and forth. For example, they spotlight during International Women's Day, all the women in their organisation, or have a women's specific campaign, and then for the rest of the year, they're really emphasising the women that enjoy their products or the women that are involved in their business.
[00:07:58] But a year or two goes by and we don't see that much. It goes back to what it was before. Another example of that, actually really perfect example is in 2020 when a lot of brands posted the Black Square and made a commitment to have more representation for Black and Brown individuals in their content, in their campaigns with their products.
[00:08:20] These were a lot of B2C brands making this commitment, and now time has passed. They had some form of saturation, but now it never got to normalisation, for a lot of brands. They went back to the way it was. So I would love to know your thoughts on my, I guess my theory, my theory of inclusive change within organizations.
[00:08:41] Have you seen it happen? Is there a brand or a company you follow or you're part of that you see go through those various stages? Tweet me, get involved. I love to hear from people who listen to the podcast. I am everywhere on the internet as Joyann Boyce. You can find me everywhere and made sure to utilise my use of my name.
[00:09:02] But yes, share the podcast with anyone you know that will be interested in discussing and being part of the movement to make inclusive marketing the industry standard. Because essentially we need to see a world where brands are part of making the world a better place, and marketing contributes to that.
[00:09:20] So thank you for listening to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. I am Joyann Boyce and I will see you on the internet.
