Inclusion and Marketing
Sonia Thompson
Attract, convert, and retain a bigger, more diverse, and fiercely loyal customer base with inclusive marketing strategies that fuel business growth. Inclusion & Marketing is hosted by Sonia Thompson — inclusive marketing strategist, consultant, and columnist for Forbes, Inc., and HubSpot — and gives you practical strategies to infuse inclusion into every stage of your customer journey, from customer acquisition and conversion to customer loyalty and customer success. Through solo deep dives, expert interviews, and behind-the-scenes case studies with top brands, you’ll learn how to create customer experiences that resonate with underrepresented and underserved communities — and drive business growth. Part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.What you’ll hear:
How to build internal systems that support inclusive marketing — so your campaigns are authentic from the inside out.
How to deliver marketing campaigns, communications, and customer experiences that win more customers — including people from underrepresented and underserved communities.
What’s working (and what isn’t) for brands today as they try to effectively engage today’s consumer.
If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place:
How do I deliver authentic marketing that actually converts more customers?
How can I grow my customer base in today’s diverse marketplace?
How do I effectively engage underrepresented and underserved customer groups?
How do I connect inclusive marketing directly to business growth and results?
How to build internal systems that support inclusive marketing — so your campaigns are authentic from the inside out.
How to deliver marketing campaigns, communications, and customer experiences that win more customers — including people from underrepresented and underserved communities.
What’s working (and what isn’t) for brands today as they try to effectively engage today’s consumer.
If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place:
How do I deliver authentic marketing that actually converts more customers?
How can I grow my customer base in today’s diverse marketplace?
How do I effectively engage underrepresented and underserved customer groups?
How do I connect inclusive marketing directly to business growth and results?
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 21, 2023 • 15min
77. 5 Common reasons brands hesitate to engage in inclusive marketing (that are costing them sales)
With a growing number of consumers now expecting the brands they buy from to be inclusive, more brands than ever are making inclusive marketing a priority. But there’s still a number of companies standing on the sidelines when it comes to including people with identities that don’t so cleanly fit into what is considered to be ‘mainstream,’ and it’s costing them sales. Here are the 5 most common objections I hear from marketers about inclusive marketing, along with how to overcome those objections.Get the episode transcript hereGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterEpisode 65 - The truth about 'woke' brands and companies getting political
Sep 14, 2023 • 43min
76. 'Nothing about us without us' and working with an inclusive marketing agency, with Matthew Tsang
Inclusive marketing isn't quite yet the standard way of engaging in marketing. Although it will soon be. As you work with your agency, here's when to think about bringing in an inclusive marketing agency to support you in engaging underrepresented and underserved communities authentically. We also cover the very important principal of 'nothing about us without us."Matthew Tsang (he/him) is the Co-Founder of AndHumanity, an integrated inclusive marketing and communications agency with the core purpose of serving people-first brands that want to leave a legacy of belonging.Matthew's agency AndHumanityGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterCode Switching
Sep 7, 2023 • 46min
75. Inclusive marketers react to campaigns from Barbie, Sainsbury's, McDonald's, and more
One of the benefits of including others are the diverse perspectives you get when looking at a situation. In this episode, I invited my inclusive marketing colleagues Matthew Tsang and Joyann Boyce to the show, and together we reviewed, reacted, and gave our perspectives on several brand campaigns that were published around the world.Get the episode transcriptGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterJoyann Boyce at Arima & CoMatthew Tsang at AndHumanitySainsbury's adB&Q adAI Barbie"Barbenheimer" controversyMacDonald's commercials side by side
Aug 31, 2023 • 24min
74. How to authentically engage Muslim consumers with Mariam Shahab
Twenty-five percent of the world’s population identifies as Muslim. However representation in media and marketing for people of Muslim faith is nowhere near the population. And when Muslim representation does exist, it often isn't favorable and showcases people of Muslim faith in negative stereotypical ways. No bueno.In this episode, I chat with Mariam Shahab, an inclusive marketer who is also of Muslim faith, to talk through ways brands can ensure the people they serve from this community feel seen, supported, and like they belong. You probably already have customers or people who've considered buying from you who are Muslim, so this is an important listen.Get the episode transcript hereStudy: Erased or extremists: The stereotypical view of Muslims in popular episodic seriesEpisode 67: Evite CMO shares how the brand grew by including more customersKitKat Canada Ramadan commercialGet the Inclusion & Marketing Newsletter
Aug 24, 2023 • 18min
73. How to bake inclusion into your brand guidelines
Every brand needs to have brand guidelines. And those guidelines also need to incorporate your approach and style as it relates to inclusion. This episode we dive into how to make your brand guidelines more inclusive, specifically by focusing on language and visual imagery.Get the episode transcript hereGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterInclusive Brand AcademyEpisode 15: Getting started with inclusive language with Nailah King
Aug 17, 2023 • 37min
72. Why brands should practice responsible marketing with Lola Bakare
Responsible marketing, which is very closely related to inclusive marketing, is a term that I heard from the wonderful Lola Bakare. In this episode, we cover why smart brands engage in it.Lola, who is my guest today, is an Anthem Award-Winning CMO Advisor & Inclusive Marketing Strategist, and founder of be/co, a boutique consultancy that empowers brands and marketing leaders with strategic guidance, coaching, training, and workshops that unleash new levels of success.Get the episode transcript hereGet the Inclusion & Marketing NewsletterFollow Lola on LinkedIn
Aug 10, 2023 • 17min
71. Rule #1 of inclusive marketing
There's a foundational principle of inclusive marketing that a lot of brands overlook, and that a lot of consumers don't realize. In each of these instances, people end up frustrated which is no good. In this episode, I cover this foundational principle and how to put it into action for your brand.Get the transcript of the episode hereGet the Inclusion & Marketing Newsletter hereEpisode 29 - What inclusive brand type are you?
Aug 3, 2023 • 38min
70. Growth through Spanish translation: Best practices for reaching customers that speak different languages
We are finishing up our growth series with this episode that is all about helping you and your brand communicate in a way that wins the hearts, minds, and loyalty of consumers who speak a different language.For this episode, I chatted with my Spanish translation team - Alicia and Andrea. Together, we help brands communicate and create love connections with Spanish speaking consumers.Spanish is the fourth most common language spoken in the world, behind English, Mandarin, and Hindi. And it is the second largest number of native speakers in the world – only behind Chinese.So if you want to reach more consumers - thinking about how you communicate and serve people who speak Spanish is a smart thing to do.Now if your goal isn’t to reach Spanish speakers, but for people who speak other languages, this episode is still for you – because many of the principles we cover are applicable no matter what language you’re looking to translate or localize to - we’re just using Spanish as the reference point.Specifically – we’re covering topics related to what marketers need to know and the decisions they need to make to ensure what they communicate, how they communicate, and the process to getting to communicating with excellence happens smoothly.Get the episode transcript hereGet the Inclusion & Marketing newsletterChat with Sonia about Spanish language translations for your brand
Jul 27, 2023 • 30min
69. Growth with globalization: How smart brands of all sizes and budgets are doing it
Globalization is a smart growth strategy. When you focus on serving people who have the problem your business solves who speak different languages and or live in different countries, growth is inevitable.With the technologies that exist today, this is easier and more cost effective to do than ever, no matter what type of business you have.So in today’s episode as we continue with our growth series, we’re going to cover how you can use globalization as a growth strategy in your business, with my guest, Hilary Atkisson Normanha, a globalization specialist.Get the episode transcript hereConnect with Hilary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilary-atkisson-normanha/Get the Inclusion & Marketing newsletterInclusive Brand Growth AssessmentBelonging Accelerator
Jul 20, 2023 • 20min
68. There's no growth without "we"
How you think about the people you serve matters. In this episode, I cover how to define more specifically who you are including, and how you think about, show up for, have empathy for, and fight for, using examples from the Oppenheimer cast, Rihanna, Johnson & Johnson and more.Get the episode transcript hereWhat inclusive brand type are you? (episode)What inclusive brand type are you (quiz)Get the Inclusion & Marketing newsletter
