Solutions Marketing Group

Providing clients with innovative strategies that position them to understand, penetrate and retain the disability market.

Understanding the Market

The disability market is the largest untapped group of consumers in the United States, comprised of 56 million people and represents an annual disposable income of $544 billion. The disability market is more than twice as large as the tween market (20 million), and has almost 3 times the disposable spending power ($180 billion).

The facts alone are not enough.  Many companies know they should do more to reach the disability marketing, but few take decisive action. Successful companies know that in order to reach consumers with disabilities and their influencers, it’s important to understand what drives them.  What are their needs? How to communicate in ways that resonate with them? And, how can a company build a relationship that inspires the know/like/trust factor?

The Solutions Marketing Group (SMG) has completed extensive research for companies in various sectors and has discovered a few things to jumpstart disability marketing for companies.  Among the things we’ve learned are:

  1. Most people with disabilities receive and trust information on products and services from peers, conferences and disability organizations. The power of an endorsement coming from a trusted source is strong. If your company has built relationships with disability organizations, begin to identify the one/s that have programs or services that align with your company’s mission and explore opportunities to attend events, or add value at their conferences with workshops that enhance the lives of the people they serve.
  2. Peer review of products is preferred over solely receiving advertisements from a company.  Word of mouth for the market is THE most trusted way to reach them.  Determine how your product/service be experienced by ‘influencers’ so they can share their experience with their peers?
  3. Consumers want companies to demonstrate a meaningful commitment to the disability community by employing people, strengthening the buying experience, and placing products and information in an easy-to-find format.  How can your company tell its story so it resonates with consumers? This goes a long way to build credibility.
  4. People with disabilities want to be able to interact with the product or service before making a purchase. As your team plans its 2015 outreach calendar, what disability events can be integrated into the schedule so consumers can see and touch your products?
  5. When possible, promote products and services in a staggered manner – regionally, statewide and nationally.  The SMG Team has found that repeated, consistent resonant messaging that is focused in approach allows consumers to understand corporate commitment to them, and lays a solid foundation for building trust.  This approach provides companies with the ability to test and refine messaging and tactics, creating a win-win.

If you’d like to learn more about how to understand the disability market, contact the SMG Team for a 30-minute free call to gain further insights.

SMG Tip: The Power of Family and Friends

A young boy in a wheelchair with his brother and motherThere are 70 million families in the United States and the Census Bureau indicates that one third of those are impacted by disability. That means that a little more than 20 million families have a loved one with a disability. There are more subtle shifts in these numbers as 1 in 68 children born in our country are on the Autism Spectrum. This requires infrastructure and social supports in our communities at unprecedented levels, which reinforce equity of education and opportunity.

Why is this information important for businesses to know?

It’s important because it can translate to sales. The number of people with disabilities in the U.S. is currently estimated at 56.7 million with an aggregate disposable income of $544 billion. Friends and family comprise 105 million people with a disposable income of $3.9 trillion. Companies who employ, serve and market to people with disabilities and their families reach a large and powerful market, which is more than 2 times the size of the tween market, with more than 4 times the spending power.

Families and friends witness the lives of people with disabilities and understand what they encounter daily. They often become passionate advocates and are ready to share about the value of the person they love. There is unlimited opportunity for the company looking to reach this market.

There are a number of things your company can do to target family members and friends. Here are just a few:

When a company successfully targets families and friends of individuals with disabilities, most assuredly they will not only have a lifelong customer, but also an ambassador who will gladly share about their experiences with other families. Word of mouth has more influence that promoting products and services in ads. Receiving an endorsement from a peer, who has managed similar disability circumstances, builds a credible connection that shapes how consumers know, like or trust your company.

  1. Go where they are: The quickest and easiest way to find family and friends of people who have disabilities is to go where they are: school systems, disability-specific groups, blogs, and non-profit agencies.
  2. Find out what they need: By completing qualitative and/or quantitative research you will hear not only what is important to this important group of consumers, but what services would enhance and add value to their lives.
  3. Speak to them directly: Build facilities and services to support them well. Walt Disney World has built in several accessibility features into the rides, as well as the property for family members to tend to the personal needs of their loved one in a most discreet manner.  Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has provided value-added for people with mobility disabilities, and has recently been awarded the designation of Autism-Friendly Cruise Lines by the group Autism of the Seas.
  4. Tell it! When your company has made enhancements to provided services and products to people with disabilities and their families, do more than issue a press release.  Advertise on disability sites, and reach out to the disability media, establish partnerships with disability organizations. And share what the latest innovation is, repeatedly.

To learn more about reaching family and friends of people who have disabilities and the money your company is leaving on the table, contact Celeste Beaty at the Solutions Marketing Group, at cbeaty@disability-marketing.com.

SMG Tip: Communicate Authentically

Originally Posted Feb. 17, 2015:

Companies that are champions of multicultural marketing do their homework to understand how to create resonant messaging that inspires consumers to respond by liking a page on social media or purchasing products in the store or online. Their ads tell consumers how the products can be a solution for avoiding pain or deriving pleasure. Messaging to people with disabilities and their families is no different.

In order to effectively connect with consumers with disabilities and their families, what’s conveyed must be clear, inclusive and highlight relevant feature that address barriers. Most importantly, it must be honest and authentic, as consumers are very discerning at identifying companies that lack a sincere commitment to the market. SMG’s clients, that have been the most successful, have used our recommended approach to developing messaging:

  1. Interest/Inspirational – This creative approach is intended to leverage emotions and generally strongly appeals to the general market.
  2. Integrated – Includes messaging that integrates the individual with a disability as just one of the employees/friends/family members. They aren’t ‘special’ or patronized in any manner.
  3. Feature Focused – This approach to creating messaging highlights valuable features that may appeal to the market. Many of SMG’s clients utilize this approach.

Within the past 2 years there’s been a rising trend to include disability themes in commercials, digital and social media, fashion and in print. Follow the leadership of Duracell, who featured Derrick Coleman of the Seattle Seahawks, the first Deaf player in the NFL who was Super Bowl bound. Guinness Beer’s commercial that included a group of able-bodied athletic men playing wheelchair basketball with their friend who used a wheelchair full-time, received millions of YouTube views and critical acclaim. Retail giant, JC Penney included mannequins that were taken from actual molds of people with disabilities as part of its ‘When it fits, you feel it campaign.’ The company received acclaim from the mainstream and fashion media for being inclusive. The key to success is allowing your brand’s essence to connect with the market.

If you are interested in learning how to communicate your company’s commitment to the disability market in an authentic way, leading to building a strong relationship with consumers, contact the Solutions Marketing Group at info@disability-marketing.com.

SMG Tip: Simplicity + Value + Consistency = A Recipe for Success

Checkbox next to the word 'success'Companies that successfully reach consumers with disabilities understand that it requires commitment, discipline and strategy. The truth is, there is such a barren landscape of companies that are speaking to them directly, that any company that is serious about penetrating the market has the opportunity to make the competition irrelevant. These disability-savvy companies know that moving beyond understanding to market penetration requires well-developed tactics. The SMG Team has developed a quick list of tactics that change the culture and impact the bottom-line:

1. To Get the Consumer with a Disability, Keep it Simple

Most companies get into a quagmire about what to offer and what to say to consumers with disabilities. After the research has been completed and your company understands key drivers for purchase decisions, create an efficient path for consumers to navigate to help them understand how their needs will be met, communicating with them consistently and minimizing the number of information sources consumers must touch while moving confidently toward a purchase. We’ve found the most successful brands achieve this by personalizing the route. One way to personalize this process is to have customer service staff that understands how products and services are used by people with disabilities.

2. Offer Value

In most instances, people with disabilities, and families with a disabled child, live financially below their peers. They have to make their dollars stretch among the basics, and have medications, therapies and medical supplies that also need to be purchased. Companies that simplify the purchase process, and offer bundled packages, incentive discounts and additional value will win the market.

3. Be Consistent

The general rule is that a prospect has to have 7+ interactions with a company before making a purchase decision. Seven! That means that companies have to develop an integrated strategy with multiple touch points with consistency to make an impact. There can no longer be limited discussion about reaching people with disabilities in July (anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act) or October (National Disability Employment Awareness Month). It must consistently happen, with resources, all year long.

To learn more about how your organization can penetrate the disability market, contact the SMG Team for a 30-minute free call at 703-920-0225 or info@disability-marketing.com.

SMG Tip: Make a Smart Budgeting Choice for 2016

hand-drawn graph showing increasing bars and a stack of moneyThe reason many companies indicate why they aren’t targeting consumers with disabilities is because of ‘limited budgets’. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if Dove Soap didn’t target real women with a range of body shapes, Old Navy didn’t target tweens, and Chipotle didn’t target millennials? These brands would have missed a loyal following of consumers, sales would remain stagnant and stock prices would be flat.

Why hasn’t this same attention been placed on the disability market? There are 56 million people in the United States with disabilities, with aggregate disposable income of $544 billion. Why aren’t more companies targeting them as guests, customers and employees? Why, when budget planning takes place inside of companies, is the disability market placed at the back of the new markets discussion? There seems to be avoidance or lack of understanding. Once this gap is closed, then companies can penetrate and retain new consumers.

As many companies are ramping up for 2016 budget planning, here are a few things you should know about consumers with disabilities that will shorten the typical learning curve:

  • The global estimate of the disability population is 1.2 billion people.
  • There are 56 million people with disabilities in the United States, with a disposable income of $544 billion.
  • Friends and family understand disability and are also loyal consumers. There are some 100 million+, with a disposable income of $3.9 trillion.
    Source: Return on Disability

That’s a lot of people. And a lot of money.

Armed with these facts, the time is now to begin shifting the internal discussion about the disability market from compliance to value that’s created by building a relationship with these consumers and their friends, families and/or caregivers. As this shift is taking place, there are a few key questions that must be honestly answered:

  • What does our company understand about the disability market, as it relates to products/services?
  • Who is our ‘ideal’ customer who is connected to disability?
  • What’s important to them?
  • Where are they?
  • How can we most effectively reach them?
  • What do they want to hear from our company?
  • What is the most important driver in their purchase decisions?
  • What do we need to know that we do not currently know about this market?
  • What initial steps do we need to take?

Questions like these have been answered by global brands about the African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and LBGT markets. The reality is that budgets didn’t get in the way of companies formulating strategies to reach multicultural markets, (or niche markets for that matter). Isn’t it high time that the disability discussion change as well?

If you feel your organization is ready to head into a new direction in how it employs, markets to and serves the people who have disabilities; and if you’d like to ask questions related to your company’s disability marketing, contact the SMG Team for a 30-minute discovery call. To schedule, send a message to cbeaty@disability-marketing.com.

Happy Budgeting!

Carmen D. Jones