Measuring inclusive marketing — why traditional KPIs hinder both customer success and brand growth

Brands want to know that they are on the right track toward achieving their goals. That’s why measurement matters. Key performance indicators (KPIs) often give leaders signals to determine if what they’re doing is working or if they need to adjust.

A client I worked with a while back wanted to ensure they were effectively engaging the African-American and Hispanic communities as a part of their growth strategy. So, they tracked many of their brand KPIs by race and ethnicity. They identified that they weren’t performing as well with African-Americans as they should have been. My role was to help them figure out why and help them improve those KPIs.

As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, I’ve found over and over again that traditional KPIs don’t tell the full story. Marketers and business leaders will struggle to reach a diverse customer base and make informed decisions with this missing context.

Below, I share why traditional KPIs fall short and how metrics that focus on diverse groups are the key to unlocking customer success and brand growth.

Why Most KPIs Don’t Tell the Full Story

In my experience, most brands’ KPIs fail to accurately measure diverse communities. Why? The brands’ initial marketing collateral has not been tested on a diverse audience.

For example, I recently gave feedback on an ad during an inclusive marketing audit. The client noted that their team tested the ad and didn’t get the indication that there were any issues.

So, I asked them who they tested the ad with. Therein lay the problem. Their “general market” test failed to give them an accurate indication of how their ad would be received by diverse consumers.

Sinners: A Case Study

A compelling case study of this point comes from Sinners, the highest-grossing original film this decade. The hit movie earned $261m in domestic box office sales and $357m worldwide. Before I even saw the film, I knew there was a pivotal dance scene that mesmerized audiences. People had already been raving about it on social media.

When comedian KevOnStage talked about that scene, he said that he’s “never felt so seen, in a scene.” Commenters agreed with him on the impact.

Given the impact this scene had on a broad diversity of viewers, I was shocked to learn that it had been cut from the film at one point during the editing process. Actor Saul Williams, who was in Sinners, told Essence Magazine that he saw a version of the movie that didn’t include that scene because it didn’t test well with general market audiences.

The performance indicators showed that the scene should be left out. However, the feedback from audiences reflected the fact that the scene was pivotal to the impact and success of the film.

Where did this disconnect come from?

The performance indicators were captured from the perspective of the “general market.” What would have been more helpful — and this is true for most brands — is to understand how different types of audiences responded to the stimuli.

In short, I’ve discovered that “general market” numbers are no longer reliable enough for market and customer research.

How to Ensure Your KPIs Give You a More Complete Story

First off, you must acknowledge that any metrics you track solely at an aggregate level are likely telling an incomplete story. If you want to uncover the root of what is happening and why, you’ll need to go deeper. That means adjusting your performance metrics and looking at them based on subgroups.

Deborah Pickett, a mathematics instructional trainer and coach, has been analyzing data with school systems for more than 20 years. One of her roles is to focus on data at schools to better understand how they are performing. She explained how she and school leadership use data to track performance. First, Pickett and her team see what percentage of students are learning the material. Then, they dig into subgroups.

“In other words, if we’re looking at the subgroups of students, whether it’s by grade level or by course or by ethnic subgroup or by students with disabilities. Are those students also performing at the same levels as the masses are? That’s how we know if what we’re doing is working for students,” Pickett says.

Pickett went on to add that you have to look at several data points to uncover a more complete story.

“One of the things we talk about often is triangulating data. For example, if you just look at teacher data, or you just look at student data, or you just look at the big picture, you miss all of the things that are happening when you look at it all together and see what story that data is telling you,” Pickett says.

Tune into my full conversation with Deborah Pickett, which includes recommendations on what to do about the story your data tells you on this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast:

Why track KPIs for diverse consumer subgroups?

A common objection I hear when recommending this approach is that people don’t understand why they need to track performance by subgroup. I always remind clients that it is important to do so because consumers are different.

Moreover, with growing diversity from a race and ethnicity standpoint in the U.S. and minority groups increasing their representation, businesses simply can’t afford to ignore what resonates with diverse consumer groups. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that non-Hispanic whites will account for less than half of the population in the next 25 years, and minority consumer spending is expected to reach $7 trillion this year.

We also need to consider other dimensions of diversity apart from race and ethnicity, such as sexual oritentation, age, body size and type, neurodiversity, parental status, and disability, to name a few.

So, even though the consumers you serve are all coming to you to solve a specific problem, I’ve found that the identities each of them has can influence a number of things that impact the journey they have with you, including:

• The ways in which they receive messages from you.
• Whether or not they convert into a customer.
• The degree of success they achieve.
• How long they stay with you as a customer.

Comparing your overall data with performance metrics by subgroup will help you evaluate how effective you are with different consumer groups. That insight lets you identify when you need to make adjustments to your approach.

In this short video, Pickett explains why looking at data by subgroups generates better markers for success, along with an example of how this method generated positive results.

Key Performance Indicators Your Brand Should Be Tracking

Brands engaging in inclusive marketing aren’t as effective as they could be.

A recent HubSpot study found that just 32% of marketing professionals whose companies invest in inclusive marketing felt their marketing efforts were very successful. That same study showed that 61% of marketers said their inclusive marketing efforts were somewhat successful.

There are many reasons why more brands aren’t seeing their desired growth from inclusive marketing. One of those reasons is they aren’t tracking the right metrics to understand how they’re landing.

A number of marketers have said to me that their way of tracking inclusive marketing effectiveness is based on specific actions taken by the brand. That has often meant tracking the different types of representation included. For example, X percentage of people in a campaign are from an underrepresented or underserved community.

However, I don’t advise those types of metrics. These KPIs don’t tell the story of how your brand is actually performing with consumers.

Remember, inclusive marketing drives business results. Because of that, the best way to track your effectiveness is by evaluating how well you are doing with the various communities you want to serve.

Simply put, the key is to track your existing KPIs, but do it by subgroup of the communities you want to grow with.

Say your brand has general KPIs such as:

• Brand awareness.
• Brand satisfaction.
• Brand engagement.
• Brand retention.
• Market share.
• Customer success.

My recommendation is to track that same data, just at the subgroup level as well.

That means if you’ve chosen to serve Spanish speakers, Gen Z, and the disabled community, you should be tracking all of those KPIs for each group.

Gary Osifchin, former CMO at Reckitt U.S. Hygiene (which makes brands like Lysol, Woolite, Finish, and more), told me that the marketing teams at Reckitt are tracking KPIs by the subgroups they want to serve. The KPIs they are using are just standard marketing KPIs, but focused on the African-American and Hispanic communities they want to reach. The team is looking at:

• Household penetration.
• Buy rate.
• Frequency of purchase.
• Message and communications testing.

Bottom line: When it comes to KPIs, don’t reinvent the wheel. But also make sure you track enough data to tell you the truth about your performance.

The right KPIs will support your growth.

Go beyond general market metrics to evaluate how well your brand is performing. Doing so gives you a fuller picture of your brand’s impact with all the different types of consumers you want to serve.

When you do, I guarantee you’ll better understand what adjustments you need to make or where you can double down to achieve your goals. KPIs based on consumer subgroups allow you to serve your audience segments better and to see fresh brand growth.