I got my first pair of hearing aids when I was 16. They didn’t last long because my Bichon Frise chewed them, but that’s a story for another time. In college, when upset about my hearing, or lack thereof, I imagined what people I knew would look like with hearing aids. At first, I thought I wanted people to understand what it was like to be hearing impaired. Then I realized I just wanted to look like everyone else. I didn’t want to be different in that way.
I can vividly remember commercials in sign language—one, because there aren’t many and two, because they were speaking directly to me. Or in today’s parlance, I felt seen.
When you see yourself in marketing and advertising, it’s instant validation that the world knows you exist. When you see someone like you achieve greatness, you know it is possible. That’s why there are scores of Asian American women named Connie and why I am positively giddy over my Barbie doll with pink hearing aids.
That’s the power of representation.
Where do you start?
As always, start with understanding your customers. Deepen your research into the demographics of your ideal customer. Now compare sales against demographics. Are there audiences you are failing to reach?
Who are those audiences?
Are you not reaching certain ages? Household incomes? Ethnicities? Veterans? As long as your company isn’t in a hyper-niche market, why wouldn’t you want everyone spending their hard-earned dollars with you and not your competitors?
What is your strategy for reaching potentially untapped markets?
Review how and where you are currently communicating your brand messages. Communications is the art of being understood so you need to meet your audiences where they are and in ways that they will see you understand them. That means traditional mass media may not touch everyone.
We know that successful brands create an emotional connection to their customers. A way to forge that bond is to literally and figuratively speak their language. For some businesses, individual audience outreach campaigns in multiple languages may be appropriate. If you go down this road, bring in experts to help guide you. Commit to doing it right or don’t do it at all. In case you missed it, back in 2012, KFC’s “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” wound up “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused” in Spanish-language ads.
Funny (albeit expensive) fails aside, your outreach has to be relevant to your audience and always on brand. If what you are communicating isn’t true to who you are as a company, your efforts will most likely hurt your bottom line more than help.
Is it really worth the effort?
One thousand percent. Start with the basics. Look at the images on your website and in your marketing collateral. Does everyone look the same? They shouldn’t if your target customer is 24-54 or 16-24 or 55-75. People come in all shapes, sizes, and colors…not to mention that one in four Americans has a disability. Customers want you to see them so they can see themselves wearing your clothing, opening your checking account, hiring your law firm, joining your association, and so much more.
According to the World Economic Forum, “people with disabilities (and their friends and family) have a combined spending power of $13 trillion”. That’s a whole lot of dough within reach of some savvy companies.
