Ought To, Have To, Really Really Want To…

Make Our Marketing And Communication Accessible And Inclusive And Better For Everyone
Kevin M Thomson FCIM Founder Hidden Differences Group Author Emotional Capital, The Company Culture Cook Book, Formerly President The Marketing and Communication Agency MCA

There are five good reasons for every marketer and business communicator to take note of an issue that so far has eluded just about everyone. This includes their advertising agencies, design agencies, and let’s not forget the below-the-line agencies, and especially web designers, as well as print (that’s everybody I hope). I am sad to say, it eluded me too in my lifetime in marketing until recently, through my initial involvement with a family member with learning difficulties. Since that time, my team and I have been working on this issue with many experts in the field to raise awareness and provide help for our profession. I believe the opportunities for all marketers are truly significant.

I refer to the world’s largest untapped, unrecognized and often simply unloved market – of millions and millions, in the UK alone. The great thing for everyone in marketing is that if you cater for this market, then everyone else, and I mean everyone else, will benefit. Customer and companies alike benefit; stakeholders and investors benefit; public and private organizations benefit.

This untapped market is enormous, of those with ‘communication needs’, such as sight, hearing, literacy, language and learning difficulties. The ‘everyone else’ market is vast too because we all have ‘communication preferences’. The good news is that the solutions marketers can provide for those with real communication needs match almost identically the solutions for everyone else, with their own personal communication preferences. For example, speech enabled websites and talking RSS feeds for those with sight and dyslexia needs are vital; and so too, talking web text, and RSS feeds direct to your MP3/iPod, for everyone with ‘time starved’ preferences are critical too. This creates the classical double whammy, with five times over returns.

Here are the five reasons and returns why we in marketing will really, really want to do something, now. I’ll call them the 5R’s of Marketing Communication Performance – ROI, Revenue, Reach, Reputation and Responsibility. And if you could enhance all of them – big time – in one go, wouldn’t you be interested and really really want to do something new, different, and better? Then there’s the law (DDA 1995/2005) that requires you to do something to comply. Finally there’s the ‘good’ in all of our profession that says (just an example) that we don’t just give 1% to Africa on all RED branded products but we actually look to making our very own products of words, design, copy, packaging, small print, instructions, text, adverts, promotions etc more effective for everyone – of all ages and abilities and in all countries through the web and print.

But first an admission. I am dyslexic. I didn’t discover this until I started working with experts. As I get older I have sight issues, and I have more ‘differences’ besides- see later. Yet despite my hidden differences I, like everyone else, simply prefer some forms and styles of communication over others. All of us have, or will have, communication needs at some time in our lives, and that means you – you will get older! In addition, we all have communication preferences. Let me explain the distinction I make.

Communication NEEDS are where we ‘have to have’ our marcoms served up in a special way, for example spoken or BIGGER text for those who can’t see well, or can’t read, or have English as a second or third language and need to hear it, not read it. Secondly our communication PREFERENCES are where we ‘like/want/prefer to have’ our marcoms served up in the way that suits us, for example, saving text as an audio file for listening later/on the train/in the car on our MP3/iPod.

I will illustrate the ‘needs and preferences’ concept - and the massive size of the market, using myself as an example. I am neither unique nor alone. I hope my raising these issues will help stop marketing simply offering a one size solution on everything it produces. Our words are our brand and too many brands are unrecognisable, by too many.

It is only since becoming involved in the world of what I call ‘hidden differences’ that I have discovered I am dyslexic. Yet I also discover there are 5 million others in the UK like me. Spelling is only one of the issues I and others face e.g. words ‘dance’ on the page making reading much text almost impossible. I also have discovered my ‘visual stress’ - the glare of black text on white slows my reading down by 30%, and has done all my life. There are an estimated 20% of the population i.e 10 million in the UK with visual stress (Meares-Irlens syndrome). Probably, like me until recently, they have no idea it even exists. I also have a pretty high attention deficit problem - anything distracting like a Flash driven website, well, distracts me! Oh, I forgot. I’m over 50 so I need glasses and big or spoken text will become ever more critical – and here’s the thing - the over 50’s have 80% of the wealth of the UK population. That’s most of it!

There are my needs. What about my preferences, and yours and everyone’s? Don’t you just hate small text anyway? You hate the glare of white backgrounds – 80% of people do too, that’s over 40 million. You want to access a website on your 3G phone or pda but it’s too small to see, but you would be happy to hear it spoken. You want to listen to reports, and your e-mails, on the move, not read them – I could go on, but you get the idea.

The solutions? First the ‘thinking’ behind opening up this market. A group of highly involved and committed people working with the sponsorship of 2080partners, like the BDA, RLSB, RNIB,BPIF (for acronyms and others see www.welladjusted.org.uk ) got together to create the Great Communication Guide. There is a free pdf version on the Well Adjusted website. If you only take note of half of the advice in the guide, you will be well on the way to meeting your 5R’s.

Secondly the practical solution. Having spent the 80’s and 90’s developing the concept of internal marketing, I have now come to realize the massive impact on the 5 R’s by meeting the needs of the world’s largest untapped market – the 20% with hidden differences on external as well as internal audiences. Meeting their needs benefits the other 80% of the population, by making marketing and communication material flexible for all. Working with a range of designers with communication difficulties, we have developed a range of tools, techniques and training. These are being launched fully in 2007 (beta tested now) and will be used by the voices of our profession and many others like the AA - Advertising Association, IPA. IAA, ICSA as well as a growing band of leading associations and charities, including PATOSS and the Independent Schools Council –ISC.

I think you can work the list of 5 R’s benefits out for yourself:

1. the greater ROI - return on marketing investment
2. the greater Revenue from satisfying new and existing customers;
3. the greater Reach of at least 20% of the market – 10m in the UK;
4. the greater Reputation of brands who care about every individual;
5. the greater Responsibility of complying with laws like the DDA and meeting the needs of the disadvantaged.

You can get all this, and more if you can let your customers, staff and community be able to say ‘I like this website in BIG type, easy to see colour, with a simple design that doesn’t distract, a point and click text player in every major language, so I can listen later and get my RSS feeds when I want. This is no longer a pipedream, but a reality. Technology does more than just inform, it informs and educates and excites – and now provides solutions to suit everyone. So too can technology can provide ‘Print and Publication On Demand’. We call it P-Pod. A whole new market.

So ought to, have to, or do you really, really want to make your marketing and communication accessible and inclusive AND better for everyone else too? As it will enhance your return, revenue, reach, reputation and responsibility, can you afford not to?

FACT BOX – 12 Reasons to Make Accessible and Inclusive Marketing a No1 Priority.

1. People with communication differences – those who have, for example, dyslexia, ADHD, low vision or visual stress or poor hearing - are estimated to account for about 20% of the UK population, yet 94% of the Fortune Top Global Corporations make little or no accessibility provision for this huge group (source: 2004 Big Button Survey by the Communication Foundation)
2. 80% of the wealth of the UK is in the hands of the ‘silver surfers’. Yet while EVERYONE over 40 loses their sight as the cornea hardens, only 4 out of the FTSE 100 have a specific large text option. BIG print is a good idea when selling to those with the most money.
3. Accessible websites are read 33% faster – by EVERYONE. The StickAbility of accessible and inclusive websites are a benefit to all.
4. There are 300 languages spoken in London. Few websites even offer FREE Babelfish let alone have text to speech in alternative languages.
5. 20% of people have ‘visual stress’ and need a coloured background to reduce glare. 80% of people prefer a coloured background. The majority of print, word documents, emails and websites are in white.
6. Three million people (those with sight difficulties and dyslexia) are denied the right to read in this country because most publications are never available in large print, audio or Braille formats (source: RNIB)
7. 4% of people in the UK are severely dyslexic and a further 6% are mildly dyslexic. That’s 6 million people in the UK. (source: British Dyslexia Association)
8. Entrepreneurs are five times more likely to be dyslexic (source: 2004 Simfonec research carried out for the Cass Business School, City of London) B2B marketers take note.
9. Over 7 million people in the UK have hearing difficulties ranging from being hard of hearing to completely deaf. Of this number, 70,000 use sign language as their preferred source of communication and 250,000 are regular signers – this figure includes families of deaf people (source: British Deaf Association)
10. 15% of the UK have a literacy issue. This is a real issue in an increasingly regulated world where people have to have read and understood the ‘small print’ e.g. The TCF Treat Customers Fairly campaign in the Financial Services Industry.
11. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) prohibits discrimination against disabled people in employment and tasks employers with making ‘reasonable adjustments to their premises or employment arrangements, if these substantially disadvantage a disabled employee or prospective employee’. Most companies interpret this as ensuring there are disabled loos and ramps, but ignore the bigger picture – communication friendly websites, emails, advertisements, literature, and direct mail.
12. In a global world trading on the internet the ability to ‘customize’ communication for literacy, learning and language means that every marketer is able to meet the needs of millions of customers e.g. W3C and ‘The Great Communication Guide’ while delivering real ROI on all marketing.