Your business should be setting the standard when it comes to cultural diversity. A strong company understands that times have changed; the consumer is demanding equal treatment regardless of race, religion, gender and culture. We live in a fantastic era where everyone understands the value of each other.
While there are still pockets of society that live in the dark ages, overall consumers lose faith if a brand isn’t aligned with their beliefs.
A workplace that understands and celebrates cultural diversity not only relates better to the consumer, but also will find a more productive and creative team and a happier workforce. This can be seen throughout every part of the business and helps give longevity to the company.
You can see through sites such as LinkedIn how companies with a diverse workplace benefit. If you look at the reviews of PhysicalAddress.com, you will see high praise of staff and an average of 4.9 out of 5 for reviews on Trustpilot.
Their staff and team are made up of different religions, race, gender and sexuality. This gives them more understanding across all consumers that use their services, which enables them to respect, relate and work with everyone in our society. The result? Customers want to reach out and tell the world how good their experience was.
Diversity is great for productivity
You can bring different ideas created by various cultures and diverse mindsets together to work in a variety of ways to reach company goals. According to studies, a multicultural urban environment leads to more productivity and success where a team understands to work together and supports each other.
Businesses will find that a diverse workforce will be able to create innovative ideas and solutions to problems or improve products. This is due to multiple experiences based on their cultural background. When a team learns from one another, they can see issues from a different perspective. A White team member may not be able to understand the needs of a Black consumer. A female digital marketer might not be able to reach a male audience. However, when you bring these groups together, they can learn, share, adapt and grow, which will lead your company to higher levels of success.
When a team can diversify through their personal cultural experience and can share and combine this, they can also reach creative heights that a one-dimensional team can’t. This can be, in part, to strong leadership. A company that embraces every pocket of our culture and celebrates each person as an individual while treating everyone as an equal will inspire their team to work harder and be happier in the workplace. Everyone wants to feel they have an opportunity. If you remove the gender or race gap, give all personnel the same privileges and opportunities, then everyone will work together and create more innovative solutions to problems or campaigns.
Marketing
When it comes to marketing, if you have a diverse workforce, then you can cover a lot of your target market in-house. From ethnicity to culture, your team have completely different backgrounds and experiences. Their demands might be the same, or different purchasing goals could fuel them. Learning about each other’s lifestyles, emotions and passions can help you to connect with all of your consumer groups. You can create simple campaigns that are inclusive and show that you have a culture of diversity rooted deep in the core values of your brand.
Diversity understands discrimination and how it makes someone feel. Some brands still alienate people because they have a specific target audience. Due to this, they also have a target workforce. Some products are made specifically for men, and we can accept that possibly men will understand how to sell and promote these products to other men. However, in today’s society, there are still brands that exclude specific sections of society. This is where the consumer is starting to rise up and demand change. And it is working.
Nike is a brand that understands equality and has a culture of diversity. They have always been innovative when it comes to sports’ produce and bold and brave marketing campaigns. They know that their products are relevant to every single person, regardless of race, religion, sexuality. Sport is for all and anyone. Recently Nike worked on a new product the ‘Pro Hijab’ this is designed specifically for Muslim women. They celebrate and understand the consumer because they employ without discrimination. This allows them to target specific cultures while promoting a ‘we are for everyone’ ethos.
Cosmetics company Lush decided to run up to Valentine’s Day with a marketing campaign focussed on the LGBTQ+ community. Using gay couples to promote their products and celebrate the love between all. The adverts didn’t feel forced; they were natural and showed how a healthy relationship looks in today’s society. A normal relationship is one based on people, loving each other, whatever size, shape, colour or gender they are. Love is limitless and Lush really understood how to celebrate this without offending the LGBTQ+ community by trivialising their relationships.
The most recent viral campaign that consumers have forced us to open our eyes too is the Black Lives Matter campaign. It has been shocking how few big brands were bold enough to stand up and tell their world that enough was enough. To openly shout that it is not good enough. Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s decided they could not sit back and say nothing. They took to social media and blasted other retailers for refusing to stand up with this campaign. It was a bold move by the brand, but it worked and strengthened their relationship with the Black community.
EMBED: https://twitter.com/benandjerrys/status/1267875868673794048
The truth is it is hard to stand up for what is right. Sometimes it is more comfortable to sit on the fence and not put your political views out in public. The problem is, by staying quiet or by not having a thriving, diverse workforce, then you are already showing your brands political standpoint.
If industry leaders can keep leading the way, then society will start to change. Make sure you adopt a culture of diversity in your business.
Feature image credit: Fauxels / Pexels
