Why diversity marketing is a real success factor

A wild debate is currently raging in the USA on the question of how “woke” companies and their marketing may or should be. Conservatives in particular call for a culture war against advertising campaigns and their sender companies, which celebrate a particularly colorful diversity. The current bone of contention is the cooperation between the Bud Light beer brand from the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the trans actress Dylan Mulvaney.

The inglorious climax of conservative outrage is a social media video posted by Kid Rock, in which he shoots Bud kegs with an automatic rifle. The southern rocker babbles a few curses at the brewery.

The Kid Rock clip is just one social media statement among many. In countless postings, comments or Tiktok reactions, users complained because they sense a betrayal of supposedly American values.

From an economic perspective, the Conservatives couldn’t be more wrong. According to a US study by Marketing Charts, published back in 2019, found that companies that incorporate diversity into their marketing messages were rated more trustworthy by nearly 40 percent of respondents. Most interestingly, 34 percent said they won’t support a brand if they feel underrepresented by the marketing.

There have long been many examples of how positively diverse marketing can affect business development. Corporations like United Airlines, Disney and many more are doing very well with this approach, not only to enhance their marketing and advertising activities with more diversity, but also to try more and more to live a real diversity. It is crucial that companies develop a basic attitude of really appreciating diversity.

The technical term for the communicative and sales approach is diversity marketing. In short, the advantages are: It expands target groups, exploits the potential of employees and improves employer branding.

By definition, diversity marketing is about respecting the diversity of consumers, customers and the workforce. However, this respect should then be reflected in all measures taken by a company: whether on the social web, on the intranet or in advertising videos. It is important that people with different lifestyles, disabilities, cultures or sexual orientations are actively involved.

As if that were not enough, the content that a company produces and offers should of course also be barrier-free. This means that consumers who cannot see or hear can still access the marketing content as easily as possible. Procter & Gamble is just starting an exciting first attempt in this area. The consumer goods giant wants to work together in the coming weeks broadcast barrier-free TV advertising with ZDF.

The first driver for companies to focus on more diversity is a very practical one. The attitude of many consumers has changed so that diversity is now a must-have and no longer an optional attitude.

However, in order for this to be credible, the organization as a whole – and not just the marketing team – must change its attitude. If the individual teams within a group are not diverse, they often lack understanding for the diversity of other groups of people. Therefore, colleagues from the various diversity dimensions should also be involved in the creation of marketing measures.

Only if diversity is lived will consumers really accept advertising campaigns with minorities and other diverse groups from brands. Only then can it be represented authentically to the outside world. Otherwise, the communicative measures would not change anything about the structural discrimination.

In short: In order for diversity marketing to be successful, it is absolutely necessary to deal with different ways of life in the long term. A first important step towards this is for companies and their employees to find out more about it and deal with the topic. Then they should definitely deal with their customers and target groups much more than before. The aim is to understand the consumers individually. This is the only way they can give them the feeling of being heard.

However, breaking down the target groups into buyer personas, as has long been the norm in marketing, is not enough. This approach does not reflect the breadth of society, only the average, and excludes a variety of groups and individuals.

Another step towards more diversity in the marketing departments and throughout the company could be the installation of a diversity officer. As a “voice of reason” in an advisory capacity, he would always ensure that every campaign or corporate decision includes as many points of view and perspectives as possible.

This position does not yet exist in all corporations and organizations. However, there are a number of arguments in favor of it. If companies want to remain successful with their marketing, they have to deal with the topic of diversity. Kid Rock can shoot as many Bud Light barrels as he wants.