When it comes to marketing, it is monumentally important for brands who are focused on growing their reach and positively impacting their company’s revenue to keep diversity and inclusion in mind. While there are many layers to diversity, it can all be brought back to one question: Do you want your product to be accessible to people who consume food?
At DMA we like to say, “everybody eats” and truth be told, we view this as job security. From a marketing perspective, we should ensure that our marketing efforts are, at the very least, accessible to people who consume food. Perhaps having a mindset of inclusivity sounds like an easy thing to do or perhaps this is a topic that overwhelms you. No matter the case, our team is dedicated to sharing more on this topic to help our team and to help you be more conscious about this reality.
Ways Your Brand Can Be More Inclusive
1. Showcase Different Types of People Who Eat Food
There is not one type of person that eats food, so there shouldn’t be just one type of person, whether gender, age, ethnicity or other, represented in your marketing.
People like to be able to picture themselves with your product. Creating marketing content that showcases various demographics consuming your product will only help you connect on a deeper level with your audience and thus, encourages them to consider or request your product when they are making a food purchase.
2. Better Serve People with Disabilities
Not only is it important for people to be able to picture themselves with your product, it is important that we make our best effort to provide content that people can consume, if they want it.
Recently our team hosted a Marketing Matters Webinar on the topic of diversity and inclusion and we purposefully dedicated a portion of our discussion on providing this underserved group of people with better effort.
ADA compliance provides guidance to marketers relative to websites and over time will likely include help for reaching consumers with disabilities on social media. For now, there are ways that you can better serve consumers with disabilities and you can learn more. We encourage you to download the presentation that we mentioned above as it is full of statistics that will help you formulate a plan.
3. Represent Various Cultures with Recipe Content
A simple way to embrace inclusivity is through the recipes you share whether on your website, social media or at a customer meeting! Retailers are aware that people from various walks of life buy groceries on a daily basis and they appreciate when a supplier can show that they too are viewing sales and marketing with an inclusive mindset.
When it comes to recipes, it just makes sense to share different styles of food to encourage creativity in the kitchen and serve various flavor and cuisine preferences. We love the example below that illustrate how fresh produce brands are doing the work to provide content that is diverse and inclusive using recipes:
California Giant Gluten-Free Japanese Pancakes
Dandy® Celery and Miso Udon Soup
Ocean Mist Farms Cajun Style Cauliflower Rice
4. Follow Influencers Who Are Doing It Well
When doing anything creative, oftentimes just getting started is the hardest part. A great place to find inspiration is via influencers who are or already have a diverse and inclusive approach when sharing content.
We spend a lot of time vetting influencers and finding the very best personalities to represent our clients’ brands. A top quality we are looking for when vetting influencers is, you guessed it… diversity!
Here are some of the influencers we recommend if you are hunting for inspiration:
- @FitMenCook
- @HalfBakedHarvest
- @LunchBoxDad
- @Feyginfoto
- @LePetitChefSB
- @MeikoAndTheDish
- @JessicaintheKitchen
- @EatChoFood
At the end of the day, when talking about diversity, it is helpful to think of it through the lens of inclusion. Ask yourself, “What can my brand be doing to be more inclusive so I’m serving people who eat?”. We hope that our ideas presented here help you get started. If your marketing is in need of help, we’d love to hear more. Contact us or check out our menu of marketing services that will help!
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