EDI has become increasingly important to authentic charity branding. Of course, some charities like Scope and RNID have positioned their brands around the idea of disability equality and making life more inclusive, but now others are taking steps to ensure it is part of their brand work too.
Given it is such a hot topic for branding work right now, here’s some recent practical examples of how EDI has influenced brand expression to give you some inspiration:
Where did the current drive for EDI originate?
In May 2020, a White police officer murdered a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The moment was captured on camera by bystanders who were prevented from interfering with the arrest and preventing the death. The impact was rapid and far-reaching, with protests highlighting racism and inequalities in societies.
Alongside this, the charity sector started to come under increased fire for not representing people from all corners of society fairly. Both on the brand on the inside and the brand on the outside. How we involve people in our organisations through fair employment and volunteering opportunities. And how we represent people fairly through Inclusive Marketing (marketing that considers diversity in all forms, including age, appearance, ethnicity, and gender identity).
Common examples include the campaigning group Charity So White and accusations of charities positioning themselves as ‘white saviours’ and relying on ‘poverty porn’ for fundraising purposes.
Why is EDI important to branding?
Audiences – especially younger generations – are increasingly questioning whether a brand supports EDI. Not just within its representation of people in advertising and marketing communications, but behind the scenes. Making fair processes and procedures for engaging communities, from the people it supports to staff and volunteers, by race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, or differences in ability a priority.
It is not enough to just market inclusiveness or diversity, research by Deloitte shows that 57% of people are more loyal to brands that commit to addressing social inequities in their actions. Furthermore, creating brand loyalty within Gen Z also requires authenticity. These younger consumers will notice if brands aren’t making a genuine effort to live EDI values.
Data also shows that high-growth brands (defined as those with annual growth of 10% or more) are establishing key performance metrics for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) more than their peers or competitors.
Brand EDI in practice…
- Breaking Barriers – scrutinize every word
There has undoubtedly been a shift for brands to be more action orientated, shifting to stronger personalities than the traditional charity Caregiver. For example, many charity brands have moved from ‘supporting’ to ‘empowering’, but this can suggest a power indifference, so is already proving less appropriate. Even the word ‘help’ can potentially remove people’s personal agency to be able to help themselves.
Breaking Barriers is a young entrepreneurial charity that uses the power of partnerships with responsible businesses to enable refugees to build new lives through meaningful employment. For them, refreshing their brand and website, to be launched in September, showed how quickly language is evolving when it comes to EDI.
But carefully listening to the charity’s staff and community enabled Breaking Barriers to create key messages that were respectful of EDI.
Danielle Wootton, Head of Communications, says:
“We had initially used the common phrase ‘rebuilding lives’, but our community felt it was demeaning. To begin with, we’d also dismissed the phrase ‘meaningful employment’ as sector jargon. But when we spotted it had made the English Dictionary, we decided to embrace it and make it our own and break barriers through language. The subtle simple switch from ‘rebuild lives’ to ‘build new lives’ has made all the difference. A valuable lesson in carefully listening to your audiences”.
- Hft – portray people fairly
I am currently working on a brand project with the learning disability charity Hft together with the team. It’s still in progress, but the cross-market analysis we carried out as part of the discovery phase has revealed some valuable lessons.
With the rise of Inclusive Marketing, the Charity Model of disability is no longer appropriate. The Charity Model views disability as unfortunate and disabled people as being in need of pity and charitable giving. Benevolence and helplessness are seen as major aspects of the Charity Model undermining the rights and abilities of disabled people to make their own decisions.
There is no doubt that the portrayal of people in charity brands is changing visually, across the sector. Specifically, there is a shift away from imagery which could be deemed as pitying or paternal, in favour of a greater representation of people having personal agency. Hft plan on tackling this by making sure equality, diversity and inclusion are included in their values and creative brief for visual identity and tone of voice development.
Devia Gurjar Chief Charity & External Affairs Officer, at HFT says:
“As we head into our 60th year at Hft, we’ve taken the opportunity to hear from the people at the heart of the organisation, people we support and the wider population of adults and young people with a learning disability, about what they want from their future and how we can support them to achieve that. I’m excited about our plans for the coming year, because this insight will help us to stay relevant and impactful long into the future. It also means we can genuinely and authentically represent the people we support in a way that brings external audiences closer to our cause.”
And Hft are not alone, Shelter, Asthma + Lung UK and Stonewall are all good examples of brands that used their rebrands to show people from diverse communities with fighting spirit.
Coupled with this is the fact that we’re also much more likely to see and hear authentic stories in people’s own words, rather than using celebrities to highlight people’s stories for them. Take Channel 4, who recently exposed the UK’s woeful representation of disabled people in ads, with disability diversity lagging far behind the progress made in representing other marginalized groups.
There is no doubt that Channel 4 has been turning the dial on EDI in advertising, from their annual diversity advertising awards to their representation of disabled athletes. From representing people with disabilities as ‘Superhuman’ in 2012 to ‘Super. Human’ in 2021. It’s about celebrating our humanity rather than highlighting our differences, showing the realities of people’s lives and the sacrifices made in pursuit of greatness while painting a picture of mental determination, not a disability.
Be ready to invest in EDI
A lesson to take on board when thinking about EDI and brand is that it is about making an investment.
When it comes to language, you need to invest in truly listening to your audience. Think about the words that resonate with them and what would be a genuine representation for them. Be prepared to shift and adapt with them if needs be.
When it comes to imagery, if you can’t invest in good quality photography, you may wish to use graphic devices, illustration and iconography instead. Or you may choose to focus on great messaging and typography instead or look to more inclusive royalty-free options like Unsplash for Good or the Ageing Better image library.
And remember you will also need to invest your time. All of the points above are important in reviewing a brand to reflect EDI. But require collaborating with colleagues from human resources to make sure the brand on the inside and outside are true to each other. Because of the desire for authenticity and transparency in branding, people will notice if you try to pull the wool over their eyes.
Our next Brand Breakfast will be exploring aligning brand strategy with organisational strategy so reserve your spot if you want to learn more.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
- Tips for communicating a new strategy with everyone in mind
- Scope’s rebrand journey to set themselves apart as Disability Gamechangers
- Brand 360 guide
Banner Image: Rafael Garcin on Unsplash