Gone are the days of playing with stereotypes and catering to societal norms alone. As society develops and marginalised groups are starting to be listened to online, brands can no longer go without judgement on their tired stereotypes. Whether we’re talking gender, sexuality, class type, body shape, subculture, disability or race; the spectrum of possible representation is vast and growing. We don’t want to only see slim, young women and tall handsome muscular men in our media anymore, because it doesn’t really represent real life. Sure, there are always going to be classically beautiful people, but a modern audience wants us to see beauty in diversity too. Which is a totally fair thing for society to ask for, since beauty does come in many shapes and forms, just like real people do.
Traditional marketing focuses on stereotypes and generalisations based on market data to make decisions that are statistically proven to drive sales. It’s just this reason why so many of us have been brainwashed into thinking we should look or be a certain thing. It’s because society, marketing and media has taught us to aspire towards a very specific set of success markers. Be beautiful, be healthy, be rich, have a big house, drive a fast car, marry a supermodel and have beautiful children, then retire to your second home in France with your millions. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Reality is, this marketing dream that we’re so often sold is a product that only a select few can afford or even dream of achieving. And we keep wondering why mental illness is on the rise?
Photo Credit: Sam Manns @Unsplash
Although many content creators will see this shift as a hurdle, we should embrace it as an opportunity to make real change in society for the greater good. The World is diverse, so to have truly successful content, we must acknowledge this. Whether you’re a musician, blogger, CEO, marketing professional or freelance writer to consider diversity and empathy in your content is to open your mind and broaden your audience. So, why wouldn’t you want to take action?
Brand diversity and empathy fails and the wrath of social media
Even a selfish person should see the value of increased diversity and empathy on the basis that; if you don’t, you will eventually fall victim to public shaming. Follow that with social media meltdown and if you’re really unlucky a shaming article on the Daily Fail, you’re talking brand damage that may not be easily repaired. Now, some brands would argue that all publicity is good publicity, but we’re not sure that’s true anymore. If you’re a brand owner and you don’t have to manage a Twitter account, maybe it won’t effect you, but what a marketing fail will do for you is to make your poor, under-paid social media manager who is logged into your account 24/7 have an extremely stressful week and maybe even a mental breakdown. Let’s try to avoid that shall we? Because a social media manager weighed down by crisis management isn’t going to be making you any money.
Some people might brush this social media wrath off, saying that we’re all “snowflakes” and too sensitive, what you should actually be seeing is that people are angry, they’re fed up of being force fed unrealistic goals and it would be good for everyone to feel a little less pressure in regards to having to conform to something usually unreachable. This change in public opinion also reflects the influx of newer generations who have grown up with access to the internet (and more diverse information) and are therefore sometimes closer connected to political and social causes, even if just via social media. Audiences are more informed, they have more choice and they’re not taking any crap anymore.
Identifying how you can be more diverse and empathetic for your niche
A great place to start is to look at your work force or team, does your team represent or relate to a diverse and inclusive audience? Recent studies indicate that inclusive teams make more effective business decisions up to 87% of the time and Deloitte’s most recent Human Capital Trends report showed that companies with inclusive teams can generate up to 30% higher revenue per employee and greater profitability than their competitors. You can’t argue with a good statistic. Shelley Zalis female CEO of The Female Quotient wrote for AdAge, “throughout the hiring process, it’s worth taking time to remind decision-makers about the business value of diversity and encourage them to embrace various backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, rather than gravitating to people who are similar to themselves, which is a natural human tendency”.
Once you’ve ensured you have a diverse team, you can then consider how to bring diversity into your content. If you’re catering to women, think about having diversity in terms of height, age, body shape and ethnicity, does your product really only sell on a white supermodel? Probably not. If you’re selling food, consider how broad your audience actually is, everyone needs to eat and enjoys food, so your diversity options are genuinely endless. If you’re selling skincare, address how your audience could be any gender or race and how you can reflect this in your content. We’re not saying you can never use stereotypes ever again, we’re talking about how you’re missing out by sticking with the obvious.
Creating content with empathy
Brands and projects that work authenticity and honesty into their strategies are usually more well liked by their audiences (which generally means they’ll support your more and spend more money). Authenticity shows that you aren’t just about the end product or the hard sell; and naturally, this warms people to you. Empathy is another element that leads on from our conversation about diversity and this is about relating to your audience on another level. Showing empathy in your content is understanding what your audience really wants rather than just selling them something, putting yourself in your audiences shoes. There are some great examples of empathy in marketing campaigns on eConsultancy if you’d like some inspiration. It’s not all about you, you, you anymore, it’s about acknowledging that you can’t function without your audience, so the content that you put out has to resonate with them.
In 2018, there is no place for narrow-minded, half-hearted content creation. With access to literally billions of brands, creators, artists and products at the touch of a button, you have to learn how to stand out to survive. One way you can stand out is to diversify your audience and ensure you’re catering to everyone and not one specific ideal customer, who probably is becoming rarer by the day. If you want to read about some beauty brands who are doing a great job at diversity you can read that on our blog too. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and are looking for support on strategy, content creation or training that considers all your diversity and empathy options, you know where to find us.
Co-Creator @wearefoodscouts & @KitschInc. Digital Marketing & Creative Direction. Illustration, writing, creativity & style. Fan of films, TV, cartoons, colourful hair & clean beauty. Blogger since 2009.
