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Brands thrive by channeling their creative energies into what works—and away from what doesn’t. Yet many marketers and agencies focused on DEI in marketing aren’t hitting the mark when it comes to widening the aperture of the gender lens. Accordingly, they’re missing the chance to invite people to see themselves in the products and services they promote.
There’s little argument that gender inclusivity in marketing is essential. Consumers of all generations, especially Gen Zers and millennials, question the traditional two-gender binary. Pew Research reporting indicates that more than half of buyers aged 18 to 29 believe digital forms should include multiple gender choices. Forty-seven percent of those aged 30 to 49 agree.
However, a March 2023 CreativeX advertising report shows a distinctive imbalance in female representation in marketing content. Though ads represented women more than males, specific female cohorts were not. For example, women of color and women over age 50 were portrayed less often than their lighter-skinned, younger counterparts. Similarly, The Wall Street Journal found that only 1% of ads targeted LGBTQ+ consumers (outside of Pride month) despite more than 7% of people self-identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community, which has intercorrelations with gender.
This begs the question: Why are the bevy of marketing personalization strategies not getting DEI in marketing “right” from a gender perspective? It’s not a financially driven decision, because the purchasing power of women and underrepresented genders is high. Nielsen predicts that by 2028, women’s spending will make up 75% of discretionary purchases. Instead, it’s an issue with marketing archetypes and how they’ve conventionally been used to drive diversity and inclusion in marketing.
Time for more inclusive archetypes
Marketing archetypes—segments, audiences and personas—enable us to empathize and connect with users early in a campaign’s research, strategy and ideation phases. They allow us to look outside our vantage points to what matters to consumers. Often, we construct archetypes based on actual reflected audiences we see in our data. Sometimes, we create fictional characters that match our “ideal customers.” However, we rarely research and include archetypes who do not resonate with our brand because we’ve already—albeit inadvertently—ostracized them.