By Peter Minkoff

As the world continues celebrating differences and unique identities, the need for thoughtful inclusion in business persists. Modern consumers hold strong values and morals, choosing only to support the companies that align with their views. Whether you are a queer entrepreneur or a cishet leader building an inclusive brand, demonstrating your ethical practices and values is crucial to success. With that in mind, here are some authentic ways you can make your products more inclusive for the LGBTQ community:

Be More Diverse in Marketing

Images of different types of people are an excellent sign that your business is LGBTQ-friendly. Show diverse bodies and different gender expressions in your product marketing content across all platforms, from your website to social media. The LGBTQ community cares deeply about representation, inclusion, and diversity across marginalized communities – your brand should too. For example, companies in the wedding industry can display images of same-sex couples on their landing pages and galleries, allowing customers to see that the business is inclusive as soon as they open their website. This type of diverse marketing is great at boosting online visibility, as it grabs attention easily, engages consumers, and encourages loyalty.

Focus on Year-round Support

Many brands use tactics such as pinkwashing to seemingly demonstrate their support for the community. They do this, mostly by changing their logo to a rainbow version during Pride Month and using similar strategies. However, this is mostly performative rather than genuine support. If you want your brand and products to be truly inclusive, you need to show year-round support and devotion. You can do this by highlighting the gender neutrality of your products, putting your queer product designers in the spotlight, and even donating to LGBTQ organizations. Showcase these efforts on product pages, packaging, and marketing campaigns to clearly demonstrate your devotion to inclusivity.

Design Your Packaging Mindfully

Product packaging is another simple yet effective way to display your commitment to diversity. Incorporate vibrant colours, empowering pride messages, and images of queer collaborators or icons in your packaging design. This way, your support for the LGBTQ community will be evident to consumers as soon as they spot your product on the shelf. Hire an expert design agency to develop packaging that demonstrates your values clearly and uniquely. These professionals will help you come up with an impactful design solution that attracts customers and boosts sales while being more special and distinctive than the classic Pride packaging, thus distinguishing you from the crowd.

Embrace Gender Neutrality

Gender neutrality plays an important role in cultivating an inclusive environment, so make sure to prioritize it whenever possible. For instance, fashion brands can focus on producing gender-neutral clothing and accessories that cater to a wide range of consumers, while software companies can use neutral terms such as "user" or "person" in their interface or provide options for individuals to specify their pronouns. Removing gendered selections from your product development, placement, and marketing processes will showcase your support for the LGBTQ community while attracting more diverse customers. What’s more, research has shown that gender neutrality has a positive effect on the brand equity dimension, further cementing your business as inclusive.

Conduct Inclusive Research

By conducting comprehensive consumer research, companies can gain deeper insights into their preferences, needs, and challenges. This process allows you to develop products that are truly inclusive and customized to the diverse experiences of the LGBTQ community. Don’t overlook intersectionality either. Other factors such as nationality, race, disability, and familial status combine with sexuality and gender to create multi-faceted and unique experiences. Regardless of who your target audience is, these identities can impact their experience, and should therefore be considered when developing fully inclusive products.

In conclusion, inclusivity should be a genuine, authentic, and ongoing process. By following the tips mentioned above, you will be able to create products that align with the LGBTQ community and allies. In turn, they will award you with their attention, loyalty, and greater levels of success.

Peter Minkoff is a lifestyle writer for The Homo Culture and Queer Voices magazine. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.