Marketing to the marginalized: how brands can create meaningful messaging

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Make marketing campaigns contextually relevant

When it comes to marketing to older audiences, the most effective campaigns utilize mixed media. For example, Lloyds Bank (BOSCO™ Index: 728) ran a marketing campaign in partnership with The Daily Telegraph with the goal of converting older audiences into mobile bank users. To do this, it created a series of crossword-style ads which once filled in revealed different features and functions within the mobile banking app. This clever use of traditional platforms resulted in 56% of readers visiting the website and a further 44% downloading or using the app.

The main takeaway from this campaign is that the best way to target older demographics is to appeal to their intelligence. Lloyds Bank did its research, picked a relevant brand to collaborate with and created interactive visuals that didn’t feel like an advert. It’s not that the over-50s are hard to market to, it’s how contextually relevant the campaign is to their lives.

The same could be said across marketing to other minorities. Without a genuine understanding of what piques their interest or resonates, brands are never going to see a genuinely meaningful marketing campaign.

Avoiding using tokenism in ads

Facebook (BOSCO™ Index: 738) Portal’s ‘Share Something Real’ campaign is a great example of inclusivity from a disability perspective. One of the ads in the campaign featured a video call conversation between two women both using sign language. The ad didn’t have any sound but did have subtitles. Maltesers created a similar ad a few years ago depicting two friends, one of which is deaf, having a jokey, light-hearted conversation with each other using sign language.

There is a fine line between tokenism in marketing and creating a campaign with meaning. Both Facebook and Maltesers didn’t set out to make a point and aren’t politically motivated either. Their adverts used people who are deaf in their ads without ever acknowledging or piggybacking off it for a congratulatory ‘well done’ for inclusivity.

Similarly, fashion retailer Tommy Hilfiger (BOSCO™ Index: 744) launched its ‘Tommy Adaptive’ collection in 2017, a clothing line initially aimed towards children, which later expanded to include a men’s and women’s line. This range features magnetic closures, adjustable hems, one-handed zippers, and velcro fastenings.

Tommy Hilfiger debuted a touching video as part of the campaign aimed at celebrating strength in disability. The short film was directed by James Rath, who was born with ocular albinism and nystagmus, and features Dmitry Kim, a hip-hop dancer with an amputated leg, disability influencer Lolo Spencer, who suffers from ALS, and 8-year-old surfer Gavin McHugh, among others.

There seems to be a real shift happening within brand marketing. There are even disability influencer agencies that are working with big-name brands, like Tesco (BOSCO™ Index: 740) and Virgin Media (Bosco Index: 729). From a business perspective, the spending power of disabled people is worth £249bn in the UK alone. Rather than segregating these communities, businesses are tapping into them. Whether or not they have the right intentions is another matter, but the overall impact of inclusivity in marketing has a profound effect on audiences. So, it’s a win-win situation right now.

Develop meaningful relationships

It’s easy to tell when a brand is using a minority for marketing gains. Campaigns tend to feature clichés that ultimately alienate minorities rather than represent them. Although it’s more than a decade ago now, the French McDonalds advert from 2010 is a perfect example of how brands get it wrong when it comes to LGBT+ marketing.

The ad was part of the brands ‘Come As You Are’ campaign and depicted a teenager who was not out and his unassuming father having food in a McDonald’s (Bosco Index: 743). While some thought the ad was a nice way of including gay storylines, others felt that the fact the teenager kept his sexuality a secret from his father was problematic. So much so, that the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce publicly called out McDonald's saying that the brand was using, “blatant geographic pandering to the LGBT community... while McDonald's has continued to distance itself from the LGBT segment in the United States."

The problem with the ad wasn’t necessarily about the content, but the fact that the brand hadn’t made any effort to connect with the LGBT+ community. Instead, it felt it could use this minority group for marketing gain. To avoid a PR nightmare like this, brands need to seriously think about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how this can have an impact on brand perception and marketing success.

This might involve community outreach programs or charitable funding. Either way, consumers are only getting smarter and can identify a money-driven campaign when they see one.

What can brands to do better reach minorities?

Of course, there is a lot more to think about than the few topics discussed in this article. However, these are good starting points for brands to begin thinking about before attempting to market to minorities. And this couldn’t be truer when looking at minority groups. 14% of people living the UK are from an ethnic minority background, so, this is a huge number of underrepresented people. The market has huge potential that is just waiting to be tapped into, they just need to be approached in the right way.

So, the key takeaways for brands looking to develop their marketing are to listen, outreach and understand minority groups to craft meaningful, effective campaigns that stand the test of time.

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