Who Is Gender-Inclusive Marketing Actually For?

Brands have become more conscious of how they represent women in their marketing. Their understanding of the language of inclusivity is miles ahead of where it used to be. Modern campaigns feature a wider range of ages, body types and backgrounds, and gender equality is a more visible part of conversations across the advertising industry, but more faces in a campaign does not necessarily mean a brand has changed how it understands its audience in depth.

A brand’s campaign can feature women from different backgrounds and use all the right language while relying on the same assumptions about what women want, what they value and what motivates them to buy or engage. The imagery changes, but the brief, the message and the decisions and decision-makers behind them can stay the same.

For marketers, this raises a question worth asking: are brands getting better at understanding women as consumers, or just getting better at showing them in their advertising?

Representation is only part of the picture

Who we see in marketing matters. Industries used to rely on narrow portrayals of women, often tied to familiar ideas about beauty, femininity and success. Seeing a broader range of people represented now challenges those expectations and helps more consumers see a place for themselves in a brand.

However, representation cannot do all the work alone. A campaign might feature women of different ages and backgrounds while still telling them that confidence comes from looking a certain way, or that they should buy a product to improve something about themselves. The casting has changed, but the message still rests on an assumption about what women need.

The same problem exists when brands try to reach audiences they have historically overlooked. Adding women to a campaign does not automatically tell a brand what draws them to a product, what puts them off buying it or what would make them choose it over a competitor.

Women are not a homogeneous audience

Gender can influence how people experience products, services and industries, but it doesn’t determine their interests or purchasing behaviour by itself. Age, income, culture, personal interests and life experiences all intersect and influence how people respond to brands and experiences.

Two women of the same age might have entirely different relationships with sport, technology, beauty or financial services. Treating them as one audience because they share a gender could work to an extent, but it also risks overlooking those differences, along with the commercial opportunities they present in truly globally aware marketing.

What happens beyond the campaign?

A brand's approach to gender is visible in more than its advertising. It also shapes the products it develops, the audiences it invests in, the partnerships it pursues and the experiences it creates for customers.

Motorsport offers one example. As women engage with racing as fans, creators and participants, brands have opportunities to reach audiences that traditional motorsport marketing didn’t use to prioritise. Featuring women at a race or in marketing material may increase visibility, but is it changing the core structures of women’s access to the world of motorsport overall?

The same principle applies across industries. If a brand wants to reach an audience it has historically overlooked, its wider marketing activity needs to give that audience a reason to connect. Otherwise, the campaign risks making a promise that the customer experience does not fulfil.

This also affects how success is measured. Reach and engagement show whether a campaign attracted attention, but marketers need to look at who they reached and whether the activity helped build stronger relationships with those customers. That gives a clearer picture of whether inclusion is influencing the business, rather than appearing only in its advertising. And, of course, if diversity is a checkbox, audiences will find out in the end. 

Who is shaping the brief?

The decisions that shape a campaign begin long before the creative is approved. Audience research, budget allocation, media planning and partnership choices all influence who a brand speaks to, and who it continues to overlook; but people are the key driving force. 

Marketing that is diverse at its core requires a diverse foundation in its decision-making. We are well past the days when people didn’t understand how brand marketing worked. To fill a diverse audience with confidence and trust, we need to reflect values across product and experiences, not just messaging. 

The real test is whether a brand's understanding of its audience and the people behind the brand changes alongside the people it puts in front of them.