In the wake of new Consumer Duty and proposed diversity rules – which demand accessibility in all aspects of customer communications – being mindful in marketing to underrepresented groups is becoming more crucial than ever.
The way global marketers communicate with their audience has changed drastically since the turn of the century, with new regulations, social movements, and a push towards diversity, equity, and inclusion driving much-needed representation.
This changing face of marketing has seen a sharp increase in representation across different genders, sexualities, ethnicities, and neurodiversities.
However, to be authentic when marketing with DEI in mind, a company’s output can only be as representative as its actions, ethos, and team putting together campaigns.
While other sectors are making significant headway in representation, customer communication, and diverse employment, our sector is lagging across most areas and measurements.
Women in financial services suffer nearly double the gender wage disparity to the UK average, according to 2023 data by the Office of National Statistics, which means attracting new and diverse talent into financial marketing is tricky.
As an example, women made up just 28% of the investment banking workforce in 2022, according to the Women in Finance Charter.
Though marketers across all sectors are largely female – 60%, according to global LinkedIn data – women continue to be excluded from the highest levels of corporate leadership, occupying only 20% of board seats globally, according to Deloitte.
The flipside of this means that the proportion of marketing teams that make it on to boards is lower.
Data by Forbes in 2016 showed that only 2.6% of global board members have senior marketing experience. In a separate study, Forbes found only 4% of those surveyed believe that marketing is an important experience to have as a board member.
Though global recognition of marketing has come on somewhat since 2016, the lack of modern data available on marketers in the boardroom tells its own story.
With female-heavy marketing departments and the profession often still not earning its place at board level, women can fall into the “only marketing” bucket, rather than be seen as the key changemakers in their industries they truly are (given the opportunity).
Without implementing practical initiatives, the sector can’t be expected to make rapid transformations on DEI – nor can it hope to reflect and interact with a diverse customer base either.
Feel the need
Consumer Duty rules stipulate that firms must consider the needs, characteristics, and objectives of their customers, especially vulnerable individuals.
While the regulation does not explicitly reference DEI, the FCA’s own research shows consumers in minority ethnic groups are disproportionately likely to have low financial resilience.
Consumer Duty and DEI are “aligned and mutually reinforcing” – as noted in the regulator’s diversity proposals – and organisations need to leverage Consumer Duty to adapt their communications to neurodiverse people, for example, or for those without access to financial education.
The regulation also calls on firms to support customers facing financial trouble, putting the onus on organisations to give those of a low socio-economic background access to their services.
The regulator’s impending release of DEI measures, first consulted on in September, are likely to herald a new approach for decades-old tactics for many firms.
Those taking the regulator’s propositions seriously – likely the individuals and organisations already investing in and considering DEI – are also creating the most inclusive and creative content and campaigns.
Claire Barker is group head of corporate communications at wealth manager Brooks Macdonald and a founding member of the award-winning Female Folio, a platform for women who want to invest.
After many years working outside financial services, her introduction to the sector was a wakeup call.
“When I walked into my first financial services event, I just saw a room of 300 men, and it was almost impossible to pick out a woman,” says Barker.
“I spoke to one woman who, it transpired, was only there because her male boss, who would normally have come, couldn’t make it.”
This encounter set Barker on a mission to unpick the wide-ranging challenges that financial services faced then, and continues to face: “getting women to work in the industry, getting women to invest, and educating women to invest in a way that appeals to them.”
“At Brooks, we knew that when talking to females, we had to build their confidence and educate them first,” she says.
“We wanted a platform where we didn’t sell products or services. Female Folio is by Brooks Macdonald, but it is an education-only platform, and that gives us a lot of advantages.”
Finding females
Marketing is at its best when it understands that people interpret messages differently, says Barker. “You cannot have one message fits all, because that doesn’t recognise the broad differences between the way women and men are genetically programmed. And we are very different.”
Similarly, not all women can be marketed to with the same messaging. When forming Female Folio, Barker and her team were careful to steer clear of a “pink, fluffy brand” and produce something gender agnostic.
Their first launch event was at Harvey Nicholls in London. Barker received feedback from the younger generation that the location was too gender typical.
“There was a lot of misunderstanding of our intention. The reality is, we’re trying to market to people who are probably 45 plus and really enjoy events like these, so it comes back to intended audience,” she says.
Pinning down Female Folio’s intended audience – wealthy and over 45 – has helped the group to narrow down its marketing, delivering hyper-personalised events and advice.
The platform’s podcast – The She-Wolf Investor – similarly features episodes about investing in specific gender-focused strategies and themes.
“One of Female Folio’s episodes asks whether a lipstick is a barometer of the economic situation, which it is,” says Barker.
“When interest rates go up, and there’s less cash in your pocket, women don’t buy things like designer bags anymore, but they will buy designer lipsticks, so you see the price of some luxury items going up as interest rates go up.”
Despite the gender stereotypes, which a younger audience may question, Barker says it’s easy to get gender beaten and think women can’t show their interest in lipsticks and handbags.
“The ultimate game is to get women thinking differently,” she affirms.
With its William Morris-esque branding and wolf emblem, Female Folio has transformed the general perception of what a mature generation of women looks like.
“Marketing to those 45 and over typically will include a grey-haired woman with a surfboard on a beach. These are women who are supposed to be my age but don’t look like me and are doing an activity that doesn’t represent me,” Barker says.
Understanding your audience – which can only be done through researching and testing – means you can’t go wrong, she says.
“That’s how you influence people – that’s how you win marketing influencer awards,” she laughs.
Proportional representation
In the insurance sector, just 7% of chief executives are female, according to employment law firm GQ Littler.
It is undeniable that there is a scarcity of women in senior roles across the industry, yet some progress has been made.
As the first transgender woman in Lloyd’s of London over twenty years ago, Rebecca Mason, senior wordings manager at MS Amlin, has seen the accessibility and representation of the insurance industry transform.
However, the LGBTQ+ community has a much lower stake, with only 0.06% of US-listed companies in all sectors reporting an openly LGBTQ+ CEO, according to 2023 research by Shanaev in the Research in International Business and Finance journal.
This lack of representation can be partly put down to a lack of inclusivity, and partly due to 44% of the community having a low level of confidence in financial services as a whole, according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s 2023 survey.
“I joined the industry in the late 80s, when it was dominated by white, straight men, and a high proportion of them were privately educated,” says Mason.
“In much the same way as people from diverse ethnic backgrounds are now better represented in marketing initiatives, so it should be for the LGBTQ+ population. We all use supermarkets, drive cars, and buy clothes.”
Showing the LGBTQ+ population in those normalised settings is one way that the marketing industry can foster greater inclusion and move towards proportional representation for the community, Mason says.
However, the criticism of corporate “rainbow washing” – performative activism that signals support for the LGBTQ+ community without substantiated actions – has been levelled at many in the sector in recent years, by those who want to see more action than words.
“I would like to see companies feature the LGBTQ+ community in their marketing because it is truly representative of their core beliefs. Inclusive marketing should be matched by an inclusive workplace culture,” Mason adds.
As the FCA’s diversity proposals set out its intentions for mandatory reporting of firms’ gender identity, disability, and socio-economic data, organisations are urged to “come up with their own solutions” to aid diversity in the workplace.
Girls Are Investors (GAIN), a not-for-profit organisation on a mission to inspire young women to get into investing, has recently altered its communications to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.
Becky Taylor, marketing manager at GAIN, says the organisation has altered its messaging to show they are here to assist “women and non-binary students.”
Being conscious of the language GAIN uses its content and marketing materials has encouraged positive feedback among students, Taylor says.
“For financial firms, it’s about always having your door open to learning about how to improve and how you can get better.”
Attracting talent
If marketing has the power to challenge representation within the industry, it’s important to make financial services a sector that is open, welcoming and supportive in the long term to all.
A diverse customer base requires a diverse team of marketers, as a company can benefit in many ways from its employees reflecting the profile of its consumers.
GAIN works closely with schools to nurture young talent early on, bringing exclusively female or non-binary industry specialist speakers into the classroom.
Despite being open to male allies for other events, narrowing down its speakers chimes with GAIN’s phrase: “If you can’t see her, you can’t be her.”
The organisation also works with communities outside of London to increase the accessibility of finance across the UK, launching regional events to create a community for those not working in the City.
“We can’t deny that a lot of the opportunities will be in London because it’s the financial centre of the UK, but not everybody necessarily wants to move 200 miles away from their families,” Taylor says.
Chloe Canham, vice president of global public affairs for EMEA at Citi, is part of Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF). Unlike GAIN, WIBF is a membership organisation for women already established within financial services.
In an industry brimming with men, people rely on these networks to know they belong, Canham adds.
“WIBF aims to demystify financial services, promote equality, and make sure that everyone feels like they have a place in the finance industry, no matter what they’re doing,” Canham says.
Similarly, Brooks Macdonald’s Female Folio fosters a space of belonging for women.
“Many women have impostor syndrome, which affects how they approach job interviews and question salaries and pension contributions. Yes, I’m generalising, but you have to – we are talking about a lot of women,” says Barker.
By recognising the way women think, organisations can more effectively sell to them and advise them in a way that suits their thinking, Barker adds.
Attracting strong, female talent into the sector is not only done at junior levels, however: Barker only ventured into financial services in a senior role in 2019. She had previously headed up communications and marketing departments in IT.
“Financial services itself needs a massive PR campaign,” says Barker.
“I got into financial services because Brooks Macdonald looked outside the sector – there are fantastic women out there who would bring rich diversity and fresh thinking into the sector.”
Encouraging talented individuals into a somewhat stagnant sector is no mean feat – particularly those in underrepresented groups – but for the sector itself to continue to grow and meet its own targets, it is a vital part of its remit.
For many marketers who do make the leap, or work their way up, working in finance gives them the opportunity to change the status quo – corporate legacies notwithstanding – and improve DEI across the industry.
As the UK regulator cracks down on promoting financial services as an accessible, fair, and clear industry, firms that offer these services in both a B2B and B2C environment services need to be inclusive places to work.
With diverse and talented marketers in organisations, legacy landscapes can and will change to foster representation for those in all walks of life – and achieve their marketing and growth goals too.
This article is taken from the Winter 2024 print edition of Financial Promoter. Click here to subscribe.