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A Letter from the Founder: How to Reach Consumers with Disabilities

February 16, 2020

Carmen JonesAccording to the U.S. Census, there are 56 million people with disabilities (PWD) in the country. While this market intersects all races and ethnicities, on its own, it is larger than the African-American (42M), and Hispanic (35M) segments. Targeting this market can be challenging since disabilities are diverse, individuals don’t always disclose they have one, and there’s no residential segregation or concentrated areas in cities and towns where people with disabilities reside.

This begs the question: How do you reach them?

Representation matters and I celebrate (and patronize) disability inclusive companies. I applaud brands like Toyota, Facebook, Microsoft, Duracell, and AT&T, who’ve included authentic images of people with real disabilities, not actors faking it. In the 20 years since I founded SMG, one thing remains consistently true – to reach consumers and prospective employees with disabilities, your organizations must know how to reach them – on-the-ground or digitally.

Your organization’s ability to effectively reach candidates for employment or as customers depends on how well you understand the needs of people with various disabilities. Creating a candidate or buyer persona will help identify what their goals and challenges are as relates to familiarizing themselves with your business.

If you want to elevate brand affinity, drive business growth and shareholder value, and have a wider talent pool, there are a few actions your organization can take.

  1. Create the Candidate/Buyer Persona: Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers or candidates. They help you understand your customers/employees (and prospective customers) better and make it easier for you to tailor your marketing strategy to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of customers and employees. The strongest personas are based on market research and interviews you gather from your actual customer or employee base — through surveys, interviews, and so on.
  2. Go Where People with Disabilities (PwD) Are: This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many organizations focus solely on internal processes and procedures, like starting an Employee Resource Group or sponsoring a disability-focused event with expectations that it’ll drive traffic. To move the needle, begin by identifying organizations to build relationships with that are trusted voices or influencers; reach/serve a large number of PwD, their families and allies; and, want to build a relationship with your company beyond a donation or contribution. The most beneficial partnership will add value to your organization by providing access, as well as resources and tools.
  3. Develop a Disability Inclusive Team at Headquarters and Beyond: Many organizations focus disability inclusion from the headquarters office. This team will have senior leadership support, and is responsible for providing the vision, resources and guidelines for disability inclusion, throughout the enterprise. Regional teams should be established to implement the vision, as well as build and maintain relationships with disability organizations in the region.
  4. Develop and Implement a Digital Marketing Strategy: According to Pew Research, “constant” internet usage among adults increased by 5% in just the last three years. The way the general market shops and buys is constantly changing, and the ground game must integrate online tactics. This means consistently connecting with the audience in the right place and at the right time, with resonant messaging. A few tactics to consider are:
    • Content Marketing: Do you include disability-relevant blog posts, Ebooks or whitepapers, or infographics that generate brand awareness, lead generation or sales? If not, this is an excellent way to share your organization’s disability inclusive evolution.
    • Social Media Marketing: This practice promotes your brand and your content on social media channels which increases brand awareness and drives traffic. Channels to consider are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
    • Email Marketing: Companies use email marketing to communicate with their audiences. Email can be used to promote content, discounts and events, such as job fairs. I suggest using emails of those you gather contact information from, at events or from your website, and use your company’s CRM system to consistently reach them. The types of emails to consider sending for an email marketing campaign include: blog subscription newsletters, follow-up emails to website visitors who download resources, customer welcome emails, holiday promotions, tips or a similar series of emails for customer nurturing.

Your ability to reach people with disabilities – as customers or candidates – relies heavily on C-Suite support, organizational will, focus and consistency.

Carmen Daniels Jones
President and CEO
Solutions Marketing Group

Filed Under: General, Notes from the Founder Leave a Comment

Tags: disability inclusion, disability marketing

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Nike flagship store in New York CityNike Just Did It: A Brand’s Disability Inclusion Evolution Customer: PWD Senior Caregiver/Parent Influencer Type of Disability: Physical (Wheelchair User Limited Dexterity or Muscle Tone) Sensory Intellectual Mental Health Learning Other Demographics: Age Gender Salary/HHI Location Education Family Structure Goals & Challenges: 1a. Primary Goal 2a. Secondary Goal 1b. Primary Challenge 2b. Secondary Challenge How the Product Helps Customers Achieve/Overcome: Goal/s Challenge/sUnderstanding the Disability Market: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
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Let 2019 Be Your Organization’s Breakthrough Year for Disability Inclusion!

January 3, 2019

Carmen JonesI’ve found companies that are champions for diversity, inclusion and belonging excel in supporting employees who represent many dimensions of diversity, but disability inclusion lags behind. I’ve also had employees from client companies pull me aside after a training session and share their hesitancy or frustration to disclose their invisible disability to their supervisor. They’ve stated ‘our culture hasn’t caught up to the training we’re doing.’

Since starting SMG 20 years ago, I’ve worked with brands that know they should advance disability inclusion, but they aren’t sure what to do or where to start. That is why I developed this free, practical tool – the Disability Inclusion Blueprint – to help get your team started.

Download the Disability Inclusion Blueprint

The Disability Inclusion Blueprint will provide clarity to help propel disability inclusive in your organization.  You just need to download, print and answer the questions. When your team returns from holiday break use it as a guide to solidify 2019 planning.

If you still have questions after filling out the Disability Inclusion Blueprint, I’ll be opening up my calendar January 28 – 30th for 15-minute conversations.   You can ask me anything and I’ll share from two decades of working to ensure inclusion for people with disabilities and their families. In the coming weeks I’ll be sending an email to the SMG mailing list to schedule the call. If you haven’t signed up to receive emails from SMG, join today!

Let’s make 2019 the year your company takes meaningful steps to understand, penetrate and retain employees and customers with disabilities.

Happy New Year!

 

Carmen Daniels Jones

President/CEO

PS:  I’d love to hear how the Disability Inclusion Blueprint has helped your organization.  Send a note to info@disability-marketing.com and let me know.   

Filed Under: Notes from the Founder Leave a Comment

Tags: disability inclusion, Disability Inclusion Blueprint

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Nike Just Did It: A Brand’s Disability Inclusion Evolution

November 20, 2018

By Carmen Daniels Jones

Nike flagship store in New York City

Nike flagship store in New York City

In 2000, the disability community was outraged by a Nike print ad, featuring a shoe called the ACG Air Dri-Goat. The ad ran in national and regional copies of outdoor and backpacking magazines.  The copy was intended to be humorous, but it backfired and ran as follows:

Fortunately, the Air Dri-Goat features a patented, goat-like out sole for increased traction, so you can taunt mortal injury without actually experiencing it. Right about now you’re probably asking yourself, “How can a trail running shoe with an outer sole designed like a goat’s hoof help me avoid compressing my spinal cord into a Slinky on the side of some unsuspecting conifer, thereby rendering me a drooling, misshapen, non-extreme-trail-running husk of my former self, forced to roam the Earth in a motorized wheelchair with my name, embossed on one of those cute little license plates you get at carnivals or state fairs, fastened to the back?” 

To that we answer, hey, have you ever seen a mountain goat (even an extreme mountain goat) careen out of control into the side of a tree?

Didn’t think so.

It’s OK to pick up your jaw now. Crazy, right?  How anyone within Nike or its ad agency thought this was funny is beyond me. The disability community responded by slapping Nike’s wrists with letters, public shaming and protests.  The story was covered by media outlets such as Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Nike issued a few apologies and also sent an executive to meet with disability leaders in Washington, DC to smooth things over.  On a personal note, I owned Nike stock at the time and sold it. It was my way to quietly rebuke the brand.

Since that time, Nike has evolved.  Over the years they’ve been a sponsor of Paralympians. They created the Pegasus Fly Ease, which features a zipper-and-strap system to assist athletes of all abilities with getting their shoes on and off quickly and easily. The company also recently signed Justin Gallegos, the first athlete with cerebral palsy to sign with the company.  I’ve been in meetings with Nike representatives and have discussed how they’ve emerged as a disability inclusive brand in product development, partnerships and messaging.

Nike could’ve thrown in the disability inclusion towel after its misstep with the Air Dri-Goat, but they didn’t. They learned, changed and evolved. They’ve demonstrated that while they didn’t initially get it right, they provided their teams to innovate, create and partner. Companies are clamoring to been seen and heard by diverse customers and so many don’t include or engage the disability market. It’s incredibly refreshing that the disability market wasn’t left behind for this company.  Well done, Nike.

Filed Under: Notes from the Founder Leave a Comment

Tags: disability inclusion, disability marketing, lessons learned, Nike

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Customer: PWD Senior Caregiver/Parent Influencer Type of Disability: Physical (Wheelchair User Limited Dexterity or Muscle Tone) Sensory Intellectual Mental Health Learning Other Demographics: Age Gender Salary/HHI Location Education Family Structure Goals & Challenges: 1a. Primary Goal 2a. Secondary Goal 1b. Primary Challenge 2b. Secondary Challenge How the Product Helps Customers Achieve/Overcome: Goal/s Challenge/sUnderstanding the Disability Market: One Size Doesn’t Fit All Default ThumbnailDisability Inclusion Done Right!
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Disability Inclusive Messaging: What is Inspiration Porn?

August 23, 2018

Man in wheelchair with text that reads "Inspiration?"We’ve all seen people with disabilities in movies or commercials where the music and imagery make them seem either super human, brave or courageous.  This usually follows themes such as: tragedy to triumph, some sort of athletic fete, or getting into the ‘in’ crowd.  The word you’ve heard, and likely have said, is INSPIRATIONAL – the most over-used word to describe people with disabilities. We’ve all heard some variation of these messages: ‘People with disabilities are such an inspiration.’ Or, ‘When I see people like that, it makes me realize I have nothing to complain about.’ Many companies default to this type of messaging, which the disability community has categorized as “inspiration porn.” While well-intended, these types of portrayals can spark significant backlash from the disability community and its supporters.

So, what is ‘inspiration porn?’

Inspiration porn is used to describe society’s tendency to reduce people with disabilities down to objects of inspiration. This is most often displayed through images, videos, or feel-good articles that sensationalize people with disabilities.

Where did this idea come from?

The concept of “inspiration porn” emerged around 2012 from an editorial and subsequent TEDx Talk by late disability rights activist, writer, and comedian, Stella Young. Young’s 2014 Ted Talk, entitled, “I’m Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much,” focused on popular social media memes of people with disabilities, with captions like, “Before you quit, try!” and “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” More often than not, these images include people with disabilities doing everyday activities, like coloring or rolling down the street in a wheelchair. “These images…are what we call ‘inspiration porn,’” shared Young. “And I use the term ‘porn’ deliberately, because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. In this case, we’re objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people.” Although these images are designed to motivate and inspire able-bodied people, as Young explained, they are degrading to people with disabilities. The goal is for people without disabilities to think, “Wow! I thought I had it bad, but it definitely could be worse.”

How can you identify ‘inspiration porn?’

When it comes to identifying whether an image, video, or text could be considered inspiration porn, look for these characteristics:

  • People with disabilities are objectified – In inspiration porn, people with disabilities are not represented as people, but as objects. Captions such as, “What’s your excuse?” or “Your excuse is invalid,” use people with disabilities as tools to guilt able-bodied people into doing or achieving more.
  • People with disabilities are devalued – In inspiration porn, people with disabilities are generally praised for commonplace activities (like getting dressed or sitting at the beach). This makes it seem like people with disabilities are not capable of the same level of achievements as their able-bodied peers, or that able-bodied people should be doing a lot more (e.g. “If they can do it, I have no excuse!) Also, it implies that disabled lives aren’t worth living. Statements like, “You’re so brave. I don’t know how you do it,” send the idea that people with disabilities have it so bad that simply existing is an achievement.
  • People with disabilities are depicted as the “problem” – Inspiration porn focuses on portraying visible disabilities as problems that need to be overcome. This overlooks the idea that people with disabilities encounter access barriers, both physical and attitudinal, that are really the true problems.
  • Able-bodied people are portrayed as heroes for simple, human acts – You’ve likely seen images or heard stories about “heroic prom-posals,” where able-bodied teens ask their peers with physical or intellectual disabilities to prom. One picture even shows a boy offering a corsage to a wheelchair user as he asks her to prom, with a caption that reads, “He asked her to prom in her condition. Like and Share = Respect.” Many media stories and images praise able-bodied people for doing things for people with disabilities that really should not be considered heroic or special. Other stories have gone viral that include able-bodied students “giving up” their homecoming court titles for their disabled peers, or people in restaurants helping wheelchair users access their food. None of these acts should be considered heroic. They should be considered human.

Can people with disabilities be considered inspirational?

Categorizing some disability-focused messaging as inspiration porn doesn’t mean that people with disabilities can’t and don’t do inspiring things every day. People with disabilities are starting their own businesses, completing high levels of education, winning significant sporting events, fighting on the front lines for their rights and those of others, and so much more. The problem with inspiration porn’s messaging is that the inspiration is watered down merely to a person having a disability. That, in itself, should not be considered the source of inspiration.

Could your message be perceived as inspiration porn?

If you’re trying to figure out if an image, video, or other media message could come across as inspiration porn, simply ask these questions…

For an image of a person with a disability:

  • If a person with a disability was not doing this activity, would it still be inspiring? If an able-bodied person were completing this task, would it still be considered brave or courageous?

For an image of an able-bodied person interacting with a person with a disability:

  • If two able-bodied people were having this interaction, would this be considered extraordinary? Would it be “heroic” or special?

If your answer is no to any of these questions, then don’t share it. Rework your angle. Instead, focus on the truly extraordinary achievements of people of all abilities.

Filed Under: Featured, SMG Tip Leave a Comment

Tags: disability inclusion, disability messaging

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#SmallBusinessWeek Resources to Grow

May 2, 2018

#smallbusinesweek resourcesI started Solutions Marketing Group in 1998, when I saw the need for businesses to target people with disabilities, as consumers. As an African-American woman, companies marketed to me, but not as a person with a disability. I determined what services I was able to provide, and made a prospect list of clients to target. I had collateral designed and printed, and I began speaking at conferences to get ‘out there.’

At that time, there weren’t a lot of resources for entrepreneurs with disabilities. And honestly, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. All I had was seed money and a vision to help make corporate America disability inclusive.

I’ve made mistakes. I’ve tried to learn from them and course correct and refine my systems and processes. As I’ve grown as a business owner, I’ve discovered information and organizations which have impacted my business. Periodically, entrepreneurs with disabilities contact me for advice and, since it’s #SmallBusinessWeek it seemed a good time to share some of my go-to resources with you.

Whether you call yourself a CEO, president, founder, consultant, or small business owner, these tools will help expand your vision, create new networks, and potentially scale your business.

  • Alice: Alice connects every entrepreneur, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, geography or stage of growth, with the programs, people and opportunities they need to succeed. Alongside business owners, investors, government institutions, Fortune 100 companies, startup organizations and industry leaders, #TeamAlice is enabling global accessibility to the intellectual and financial capital that helps all founders build the businesses that will change the world.
  • Disability Supplier Diversity Program: The Disability Supplier Diversity Program (DSDP) is the leading third-party certifier of disability-owned business enterprises (DOBEs), including service-disabled veteran-owned business enterprises (SDV-DOBEs) promoting their utilization and growth.
  • Facts About Disability-Related Tax Provisions: The Internal Revenue Code has three disability-related provisions of particular interest to businesses as well as people with disabilities.
  • JPMorgan Chase’s Report – Cash is King: Flows, Balance and Buffer Days: In this inaugural report on the small business sector, the JPMorgan Chase Institute explores the financial lives of small business through the lens of cash inflows, outflows and account balances.
  • Procurement Technical Assistance Center: Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) provide local, in-person counseling and training services for you, the small business owner. They are designed to provide technical assistance to businesses that want to sell products and services to federal, state, and/or local governments.
  • Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program: The government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses that participate in the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program. Joining the disabled veterans’ business program makes your business eligible to compete for the program’s set-aside contracts. You can still compete for contract awards under other socio-economic programs you qualify for.
  • 3 Tips for Starting a Small Business with a Disability [Updated 2018]

I hope these resources help you grow your business, team and impact.

Here’s to your success!

 

Carmen

Carmen Daniels Jones

Filed Under: Notes from the Founder Leave a Comment

Tags: disability inclusion, small business

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Quick Facts

The disability market consists of 56M people, representing an annual disposable income of $544 billion.

The disability market is more than twice as large as the tween market (20M), and has almost 3X the disposable spending power ($180B).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 69.6 million families in the U.S., 20.3 million families have at least one member with a disability.

A University of Massachusetts Boston survey found 92% of consumers felt favorably toward companies hiring people with disabilities; 87% prefer to do business with such companies.

By the year 2030, 71.5 million Baby Boomers will be over the age of 65 and demanding products, services, and environments that address their age-related physical changes.

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