When I think of inclusive brands, I expect to see evidence of continually learning from and listening to their audience, empowering people who are traditionally marginalized, and addressing the needs of the diverse identities their commerce serves.
I chose the brands on this list based on familiarity and research into the work they are doing in the following 3 areas...
- Equitable Products & Partnerships: Providing product that respect diverse needs and seeking partnerships with underrepresented business owners.
- Inclusive Marketing: Designing campaigns to avoid negative stereotypes and to amplify diverse identities and lived experiences.
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in the Workplace: Hiring people of different lived experiences, ensuring everyone feels valued, and providing equitable access to the same promotion opportunities.
In no particular order, let's dig in. And for the record, we all know there's no such thing as perfect.
Fenty
Fenty has been getting a lot of attention for its inclusive branding. Rihanna launched her Fenty Beauty cosmetic line in 2017 and in 2018 she launched her lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty.
Equitable Products & Partnerships
Fenty Beauty product line offers an impressive 50 foundation shades to match a broad range of skin tones. In an interview with Time magazine, Rihanna said “It was also important that every woman felt included in this brand. We are all so different, with our own unique skin tones.”
Rihanna has had 4 mega-partnerships. She partnered with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton fashion house to launch her Fenty Beauty, with TechStyle Fashion Group to launch her Savage X Fenty brand, with Amazon to stream her Savage x Fenty fashion shows, and with Goldman Sachs to raise money to expand her Savage X Fenty brand. Hopefully she has partnerships with marginalized business owners within her supply chain, but no data was publically available.
Inclusive Marketing
Fenty Beauty's “Beauty For All” ad disrupted the beauty industry’s status quo with images of women across a broad spectrum of ethnicities and skin tones to represent the Fenty Beauty brand. It was the biggest makeup brand launch in YouTube history with 132 million views.
The groundbreaking Savage X Fenty fashion shows are the epitome of inclusion and intersectional pride. The shows feature models of various genders, skin tones, disabilities, and body sizes. When recruiting models for her show, Rihanna said, “I’m looking for unique characteristics in people that aren’t usually highlighted in the world of fashion as it pertains to lingerie and sexy, or what society sees as sexy." You can view the Savage Fenty Shows on Amazon Prime.
DEI in the Workplace
The jury is out for this criterion. Working for Fenty Beauty means working at Kendo, the incubator company that manufactures Fenty Beauty. Working for Savage X Fenty means working at TechStyleOS an operations and service provider for the brand. I was not able to find workplace statistics for Kendo nor TechStyleOS.
Target
This was a tough addition to the list. Target has made great strides for inclusivity within their workforce, suppliers, and product lines. However, the retail giant maintains a questionable Safe City program that funds police neighborhood surveillance systems in Minneapolis. I’m hoping they re-evaluate that initiative as such surveillance has been known to contribute to over-policing of Black residents.
Equitable Products & Partnerships
From partnering with underrepresented product suppliers to stocking adaptive products, they have shown a commitment to inclusion.
Target seems to be intentional about maintaining product lines that meet the diverse needs of their customer base by partnering with a long list of companies owned or founded by LGBTQ+, BIPOC, veterans, women or persons with disabilities. Their 2021 corporate responsibility report indicates they partnered with 702 suppliers owned by underrepresented groups in 2020.
Their stores offer adaptive clothing for customers with disabilities, post-mastectomy swimwear, LGBTQ pride apparel, Black hair care products and cosmetics for a wider range of skin tones.
Inclusive Marketing
Target’s marketing campaigns reflect the diversity of their customers with ads featuring a variety of body sizes and shapes, people with disabilities, and people of color. One of their 2020 swimwear ads featured Jeyza Gary, a beautiful model with a rare skin condition called ichthyosis. Target spokesperson, Courtney Foster stated, “We want our guests to see themselves reflected in our campaign.”
DEI in the Workplace
Fortune ranked Target as one of the top five Fortune 500 companies for their workplace diversity statistics. In 2019, Target’s data showed that people of color made up 50% of their workforce, 40% of their managers, and 46% of their board members. It also showed that women reflected 50% of their workforce at all levels.
Microsoft
Microsoft has had some pretty embarrassing failures with their artificial intelligence software manifesting racial bias. Their 2016 machine learning chatbot “Tay” quickly started spewing racist tweets and had to be shut down. They also attempted to replace journalists with a robot news editor that failed to discern between two different mixed-race members of a British girl group, another algorithmic bias failure.
However, they have made strides in other areas worth recognizing.
Equitable Products & Partnerships
Microsoft has positioned themselves as a leading resource for UX professionals by providing a repository of inclusive design resources to include design principles, toolkits, and downloadable booklets. They have partnered with AIGA, Creative Reaction Lab and individuals to identify barriers to entry and explore opportunities for human-centered design.
They have recently embarked on an initiative to increase partnerships with and provide economic empowerment to marginalized business owners. In 2020, they partnered with Siebert Williams Shank Co. to launch the Clear Vision Impact Fund, which will provide capital to entrepreneurs of marginalized groups. In 2021, they also started the Black Channel Partner Alliance to provide resources in support of Black-owned technology businesses.
With a chief accessibility officer and a formal accessibility program, Microsoft has made it a priority to bake accessibility into their Windows operating system, suite of Office 365 apps, and Xbox accessories.
Inclusive Marketing
Microsoft’s advertising blog offers guidance on inclusive marketing based on their firsthand experience. In 2016, they ran a year-long “Can you name any women inventors?” campaign to encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The “Real People” campaign in 2017 featured individuals from diverse groups sharing how they use various Microsoft products. In 2019, they debuted their “We All Win” ad during the Super Bowl announcing their Xbox Adaptive Controller designed in partnership with disabled gamers. They also have a collection “Accessibility and Inclusion” short videos with ads and interviews covering topics from AI for accessibility to Intersex.
DEI in the Workplace
Microsoft was the highest-ranking Fortune 500 company for their diversity data. In 2019, people of color made up 47% of Microsoft’s workforce and 26% of the company’s managers are women. They also reported that 6.1% of their workforce self-identify as having a disability.
Adobe
Being a company that produces software for creating and delivering great experiences through creative digital content it makes sense for them to be front and center when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
Equitable Products & Partnerships
Adobe provides numerous guidelines and tutorials to help creators use accessibility features to create accessible content for each of their products. They've ensured that many of their products can be exported to formats that are compatible with assistive technology.
They've provide tools and training to people with disabilities through partnerships with organizations such as Exceptional Minds and Enable India. They also partnered with Limbitless Solutions to offer software and training to children with limb differences.
Inclusive Marketing
Adobe established an inclusive design program for their employees and provide inclusive design workshops and content for industry professionals. They have also run inclusive ad campaigns. In 2020, “When I See Black” highlighted the work of Black creators and their “Create Change” digital series amplified creators from diverse backgrounds and creative disciplines.
DEI in the Workplace
I wasn’t terribly impressed with Adobe’s 2020 workplace diversity data, but they seem to be moving in the right direction.
They are very focused on, and proud of, hiring and promoting women with the first 4 pages of their 2020 DEI report devoted to those statistics. They report that women making up 33.5% of their global workforce and 26.1% of leadership roles.
Their DEI data shows a very slow, but steady increase in the percentage of underrepresented BIPOC in their US workforce, increasing from 7.5% in 2015 to 10.8% in 2020. Hopefully this will accelerate exponentially since they have partnered with organizations such as Girls Who Code, AfroTech, The Valuable 500, Lesbians Who Tech Summit, and HBCUs to increase diversity in hiring talent.
Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s has been very in-your-face about their social activism over the past couple decades, which endears some to the brand and infuriates others.
Equitable Products & Partnerships
Wonder how an ice cream company can be inclusive? Let’s see: they offer non-dairy flavors for vegans and people like me who are lactose intolerant, gluten-free flavors for those who are wheat-sensitive, light ice cream for calorie watchers, and even doggie desserts for your furry friends.
They have partnered with BIPOC-owned companies and individuals for many of their campaigns. For their 2021 limited edition flavor “Change is Brewing,” they partnered with Black-owned coffee company Blk & Bold and commissioned Black artist Laci Jordan for the container artwork. They have also worked with NAACP, Colin Kaepernick, ACLU and Color of Change, to name a few.
Inclusive Marketing
In 1985, they launched the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which offers grants to grassroots organizations and programs that are led by BIPOC, the people most impacted by the issues being addressed.
Since 1988, when “Social Mission” was added to their mission statement, there’s been no question about their stance on social issues such as: criminal justice, voting rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, climate justice, campaign finance reform, and refugee rights. Throughout their digital content and ice cream flavors, you see their values and active measures to impact change. It’s pretty hard to overlook their Social Mission Flavors, to include:
- Change is Brewing, 2021
- Change the Whirled, 2020
- Justice ReMix’d, 2019
- Pecan Resist, 2018
- Home Sweet Honeycomb, 2017
- Empower Mint, 2016
- I Dough, I Dough, 2015
- Save Our Swirled, 2015
- Hubby Hubby, 2009
- Food Fight, 2004
- One Sweet Whirled, 2002
By the way, check out their podcast “Who We Are," which was launched in 2020 to educate audiences about America’s past and present racial injustices and to encourage action to dismantle systemic racism.
DEI in the Workplace
At the time of this post, workplace data was not available on their website, only a page presenting their board of directors (50% women and 50% BIPOC) and an annual Social & Environmental Assessment Report (SEAR).
Notably, the 2019 SEAR mentions a partnership with an outside-party to assess their DEI areas for improvement. They acknowledge the minimal progress made on their DEI initiatives in 2019 and affirm they have accelerated their effort to improve racial equity in their workforce going forward.
Final Thoughts
While researching these statistics, I could not ignore the various language that was used: minorities, non-white, BIPOC, people of color, underrepresented, disempowered. Both Adobe and Nike (not included in this list) used the label “non-whites vs whites” in their data reports. This gave me pause as they’re clearly trying to increase their DEI efforts, but are using language that “centers” whiteness. The term Non-whites implies that being white is the human standard and everyone is defined by whether they are white or not. I suspect someone called attention to this supremist language to Nike because their 2020 stats chart was void of “Non-whites,” using the more inclusive phrase “BIPOC communities” instead.
Another divisive and supremist term I often saw was “minorities” which conveys that people in this group are “less than.” Even if the term is being used to refer to a numerical minority, it has an oppressive social construct undertone, which usurps any explanation for its use. Such language insidiously invokes a feeling of inferiority, hence Forbes has refrained from using the term minority to refer to black and brown people.
Lastly, I want to re-emphasize the headline. At the time of writing this article, I saw these companies as "striving" for inclusion by committing to continually learning and listening to underrepresented groups, transparently measuring progress, and accountably improving; perfection is a misnomer.
Being inclusive is not a destination, it's a journey.
---
Thanks for reading. If you know anyone who would find this useful, please share. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact me.
