Customers embrace inclusive brands over those that aren’t
At Mumbrella360, Microsoft Advertising’s head of multicultural and inclusive marketing, MJ DePalma, spoke passionately about why brands should invest in products and services for consumers from all walks of life.
When Rik van der Kooi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of advertising, introduced himself to his hundreds of staff five years ago, he took to a stage lit by a backdrop of a woman riding a Harley-Davidson.
MJ DePalma was in the audience that day and remembers thinking how impressive it was to see a male leader use an iconic female image to introduce himself and kick off Microsoft Advertising’s all-hands meeting. And then he said specific words that later changed her life. Rik said, “No matter what gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation you are, you belong here, and you have a role to play.”
Frankly, she was stunned that a heterosexual, white man was so boldly inclusive in front of so many people. Never had she heard the words, “sexual-orientation” communicated from the stage. This event cascaded a domino effect where her personal learning led a transformation for her personally and with Microsoft Advertising and the many customers as well. Inclusive leadership starts with the words one uses matched by supportive management actions.
This led her to rethink her approach not just to her job, but life, too. In the months that followed, she realised she was actually pretty uncomfortable with how she was presenting herself to the wider world – choosing to prioritise being perceived as “fitting in” over being herself in order to be successful, or so she thought. “Don’t underestimate how words can inspire and generate a ripple effect,” she says. “Because in the years that followed Rik’s speech, I’ve done the best work of my life.”
Today, DePalma – who identifies as gender fluid, complete with a very cool and distinct androgynous style, by the way – works as the tech giant’s head of multicultural and inclusive marketing for Microsoft Advertising. Working across Microsoft Advertising as well as the broader company, she is spearheading its efforts to be one of the most innovative in the world for its employees and customers. She is striving to enable internal Microsoft Advertising employees as well as their customers with the business growth engine of inclusive marketing rooted in empathy for others which she highlights drives insightful understanding of people and the problems we can solve for them. And that leads to innovation.
DePalma describes how inclusive marketing is really the modern marketer’s must-have in their marketing playbook and is a business growth strategy that is not only a necessity in order to serve and reflect the way the world is rapidly becoming more diverse – but solves how people might be excluded from a product or service. In Australia for instance, three-quarters of citizens have ancestors born in a different country; in London, 55 per cent of the population is multicultural; and in the US, there is predicted to be no clear ethnic minority by 2044.
Microsoft has led the world in creating innovations, which have transformed the way people with disabilities participate in the world by using their products, like with the Adaptive Controller, Seeing AI or Soundscape. She describes designing solutions for the edge of ability actually has a larger impact on society as a whole. For example, the numbers of those who require physical assistance is higher than we might think. There are, for example, 26,000 people in the US that are born without an arm, or lose an arm each year. But also consider that 13 million suffer a temporary injury like a torn rotator cuff. And a subsequent 8 million become a new parent.
In each of these scenarios, you can imagine a new parent holding a baby creates a situational impairment where that person only has the use of one arm. So the solution designed for a person with a permanent disability could be used by those with a temporary impairment or situation that creates a similar functional limitation. So instead of considering 26,000 that could use a solution, it is about 21 million that could be served. DePalma calls this theory the ‘spectrum of opportunity’, and it is taken from the persona spectrum that Microsoft’s inclusive design uses when they consider designing new products.
As an example, four years ago, a group of Microsoft employees came together to design a new inclusive gaming controller for their Xbox gaming console. They collaborated with support groups including the AbleGamers Charity, Cerebral Palsy Foundation and even a couple of hospitals, watching first-hand how those with disabilities gamed. What they realised they needed to build was something completely customisable. Therefore, the new device – which they christened The Xbox Adaptive Controller – has two large pads and several jacks allowing it to be adapted and customised to everyone’s specific requirements. “There’s no such thing as average,” says DePalma.
But what the team subsequently discovered took them aback: the breakthroughs made designing for disabled gamers were able to be used in products and services for those with different conditions, or even those with no disabilities at all. “If you design for the edge, it becomes usability for the many. Those who used the controller for gaming started applying it to PCs, too. And in the distant future, we will have a generation of geriatric gamers for the first time.”
Crucially, this idea was taken onboard when marketing the products. Rather than focus solely on the features of the device, adverts and TV spots told the personal stories of users that solves their exclusion from an experience, and in this case it was gaming at their full potential. “When we amplify common human values such as love, family, opportunity and tales of coming of age told by our own customers in their words. If you don’t have a disability yourself, you can identify with being included and how awesome it is to see kids being able to play with others and the proud look on their parents’ faces.”
Microsoft is one a few brand leaders surfacing around the world who have realised they cannot afford to not be inclusive in 2019. Another example, a retail clothing trailblazer, Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive designs clothes for people with disabilities; Morrisons supermarkets in the UK have implemented quiet hours for those with autism or sensory sensitivities; while Target has created furniture for kids with sensory sensitivity as well as a clothing line. Even Virgin Atlantic is putting their values on their flights: promoting a flight between Paris and San Fran for Pride this past June with the entire flight staff LGBTQ community members. “Research shows 70% of Gen Z, and Millennials would choose an inclusive brand over a non-inclusive one.”
Perhaps the most famous example though comes from the pop star Rihanna, whose Fenty Beauty cosmetic company became the first in the world to offer its products in 40 different shades initially, now up to 50, compared to the traditional 13 shades or less most cosmetic companies offer. ‘There were customers who were finding their colour for the first time in their lives and getting emotional at the counter. That is something I will never forget’, said Rhianna. No one was excluded. The result was $110m of earned media coverage, 132m views on YouTube and – incredibly – $772m of revenue in a year.”
“So I’m going to leave you with this quote from Satya Nadella, our CEO, who was speaking to a bunch of college students on the verge of graduating, he said: ‘If you want to be cool, you could go work at any of those other companies. If you want to make others look cool, you want to work at Microsoft.’ So I invite you to advertise your business with Microsoft Advertising because driving business growth while doing good in the world, that is the new cool.”
Absolutely my topic! Love this, thank you.
There is a commercial advantage for being inclusive because that means you are talking to the actual customer out there. I feel like I’ve been banging on about this by myself, so thanks for sharing this story. The cultural impact is huge as well of course.
By the way – hoping someone checked that @DeParma identifies with ‘she/her’ pronouns before going to print, given their gender fluid identity.. just saying. Our industry is a bit behind the 8 ball on this, so it is worth checking. Others taking note too.
Nice ad for Microsoft Advertising, but of course I support anyone doing the right thing for diversity and respecting the customer out there.