Inclusive design is no longer a niche concern or a ‘nice to have’. It is a strategic imperative for brands that want to stay relevant, credible and commercially resilient. That theme sat at the heart of a panel discussion Designing for Diversity: Building Brands That Speak to Everyone, where expert voices from strategy, research and creative leadership explored what real inclusion looks like in practice.
Our very own Kathryn Ellis, Group Strategy Director at Audience Collective and a PhD researcher specialising in diversity and creativity in advertising. Bringing together deep agency experience and academic rigour, Kathryn offered a grounded, practical and sometimes challenging perspective on what inclusive branding really demands.
Why the Language Matters
Kathryn was clear from the outset that the industry’s thinking has evolved. Where the conversation once focused on diversity, it is now (and rightly) shifting towards inclusion.
“Diversity can easily become a tick‑box exercise,” she explained. “Representation alone isn’t the goal. Like all good marketing, inclusion has to start from inside the business.”
This distinction is critical. A campaign that simply features visible diversity, without the systems, culture or products to back it up, risks being exposed as tokenistic. Inclusive brands, by contrast, build from the inside out; embedding accessibility and equity into their proposition before communicating it externally.
Kathryn pointed to Currys as an example of this approach done well. The brand first invested in making its stores and services more accessible for neurodivergent and disabled customers, and only then made that work visible through marketing. “They did the work first, then talked about it,” she noted – a hallmark of authenticity.
Inclusion Starts Inside the Organisation
A recurring theme in Kathryn’s contribution was the idea that inclusive marketing cannot exist in isolation.
“You can’t advertise diversity,” she said. “You have to do diversity throughout the business.”
This includes recruitment processes, internal culture, leadership representation and decision‑making structures. Kathryn referenced the reality that marketing and advertising remain highly elitist industries, which makes true audience representation within teams unlikely without conscious intervention.
To address this, she recommended assessing where an organisation sits on the Inclusion Maturity Curve (often cited by Creative Equals and inspired by Harvard Business Review). Most organisations, she suggested, operate in the ‘emerging’ or ‘strategic’ stages – meaning inclusion requires deliberate, structured effort at every stage of the process.
“Nothing About Us Without Us”
One of Kathryn’s most powerful principles was her emphasis on participation:
“Nothing about us without us.”
If the people you are designing for are not in the room, you must find ways to bring their voices in. That might mean inclusive research design, expert panels, audience communities, or drawing on lived experience from across the wider organisation – not just from marketing teams.
Kathryn shared examples from her own career, including building advisory collectives to address gaps in female representation and involving employee resource groups to inform work around menopause and hormonal health. These approaches ensure work is shaped with audiences, rather than merely about them.
Expect, and Welcome, More Conflict
Inclusive work is harder, and Kathryn didn’t shy away from that reality. One of the clearest signals that a team is taking inclusion seriously, she argued, is the presence of task‑related conflict.
“More inclusive marketing means more questioning, more challenge, and more debate,” she explained. “That’s not a bad thing.”
From an academic perspective, Kathryn highlighted the distinction between personal conflict (which is harmful) and task‑related conflict (which pushes ideas further). The latter is strongly correlated with higher levels of creativity – making inclusion not just ethically sound, but creatively powerful.
The Business Case for Inclusive Brands
Kathryn also tackled growing nervousness around diversity and inclusion, acknowledging the current climate of backlash and brands quietly withdrawing public commitments. Her response was unequivocal: the business case remains compelling.
“Your audiences are becoming less white, older, more mixed in faith, and more likely to identify outside the gender binary,” she said. “If your marketing isn’t inclusive, it’s actively exclusive.”
She referenced research from the Unstereotype Alliance showing that more inclusive brands outperform their competitors across brand consideration, loyalty, long‑term sales and pricing power. For brand leaders, inclusion should be viewed not as a side conversation, but as a strategic growth lever.
Kathryn summarised the commercial impact through her Five Rs:
- Reach – inclusive brands connect with more people
- Relevance – deeper human insight resonates across audiences
- Reputation – inclusivity drives positive brand sentiment
- Referral – marginalised audiences often show higher advocacy
- Resilience – inclusive brands are better aligned with future demographics
Measuring What Matters
Finally, Kathryn cautioned that brands must ensure their measurement is as inclusive as their marketing. Standard ‘NatRep’ brand tracking can under‑represent minority audiences, masking the impact of inclusive work. Where specific audiences are being targeted, boosted or bespoke research may be needed to truly understand effectiveness.
Perspectives from the Panel
While Kathryn’s contribution anchored the discussion in clear strategic principles, other speakers in the webinar added valuable context and practical texture to the conversation.
From a research perspective, the panel reinforced the importance of evidence‑led inclusion – highlighting how qualitative depth and inclusive sampling are essential if brands want to avoid designing for a narrow “average” consumer. Insight teams discussed the danger of relying solely on traditional demographic models, and the need to reflect the complexity of real audiences across age, ability, identity and lived experience.
Creative leaders on the panel built on this by showing how inclusive thinking unlocks stronger creative territories, not weaker ones. Rather than constraining ideas, clearer inclusion principles were shown to provide sharper focus, helping teams move beyond clichés and produce work that feels more human, emotionally resonant and culturally relevant.
Together, these perspectives echoed Kathryn’s core message: inclusion works best when strategy, insight and creativity are aligned – and when it is treated as a shared responsibility, not a specialist add‑on.
A Strategic Imperative, Not a Trend
Kathryn Ellis’s contribution grounded the conversation in both evidence and experience. Her message was clear: inclusive branding is not about perfection, nor about optics. It is about intent, effort and embedding the right questions into how brands operate.
In her words, inclusive design is simply good strategy – one that reflects the reality of today’s audiences and the demands of tomorrow’s growth.
To explore more conversations like this, follow our LinkedIn page for upcoming events, insights and perspectives on strategy, creativity and the future of brands. If you’d like to listen to the full webinar, you can do so here.
