The top inclusive marketing trends of 2025, according to Sonia Thompson

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Brands have engaged in inclusive marketing for decades, but it is only in recent years that the practice has become more widespread.

As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, I’ve spent the last eight years observing trends in the space. There’s been a lot of evolution in recent years, both at the macro and micro levels, in how brands think about and apply inclusive marketing (or not).

Here are my top inclusive marketing trends and observations for 2025, backed by data from the HubSpot Blog’s recent Inclusive Marketing Report.

5 Inclusive Marketing Trends to Pay Attention To in 2025

1. More brands are investing in inclusive marketing.

I am constantly telling my clients that inclusive marketing is the future of marketing, and that future is materializing today: survey results show that 63% of businesses invest in inclusive marketing.

Brands can engage in inclusive marketing in many ways, and I get excited to see more and more examples in my work and when I’m out and about as a consumer.

For example, I was recently in Mexico, and I saw several vendors engaging in inclusive marketing in the form of personalizable, handmade bracelets that featured U.S. organizations, like, “The Divine Nine” (a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities) and regional representation of U.S. college and professional football teams.

I think inclusive marketing is growing in prominence because consumers have a variety of different identities and brands that want to engage them are realizing that continuing to take a “general market” approach won’t work.

Camila Victoriano is the Chief Content Officer and co-founder of Sonoro, a fast-growing media company that makes culturally relevant audio content with Latino creators and brings it to life in film, TV, and beyond. The brand recently announced an original podcast series with Toyota Corolla, designed to reach young Latino consumers.

Victoriano told me “The most important thing that you cannot erase, ignore, or disregard is the fact that the world is changing. And it’s looking a lot different, and it’s looking a lot more multicultural. And so if you are a brand and you have a product that you want people to buy, you need those people. Those are the people that are going to be buying.”

If you aren’t investing in updating your marketing strategies to be more inclusive, I suggest making this the year that you start. Get going by identifying a specific community you want to engage. Then develop a deeper degree of intimacy with them so you understand more about their needs, desires, fears, and frustrations. Then work to infuse your insights throughout your marketing mix. Taking this approach will support you in being more effective with your inclusive marketing, and helps you avoid tokenization (including a community just to be able to say you included them).

This video goes more in depth about what tokenization is, how brands commonly engage in it, and how to avoid it.

2. Consumers expect brands to be inclusive.

One of the reasons so many more brands are engaging in inclusive marketing is because consumers expect it. In fact, 74% of marketers agree that they’ve noticed a shift in consumer demand for inclusive marketing.

Gone are the days when consumers from underrepresented and underserved communities just take what brands offer them. They are letting their needs and desires be known, and brands are responding to those voices.

In summer of 2024, retailer Forever 21 had to respond to outrage from consumers over what they felt was a substandard experience for shoppers with larger body types.

In the comments of the post, consumers continued to share their expectations of what a good experience should look like for the brand. One commenter wrote, “Same clothes, same rack, same sections, our size. Hopeful of your action toward inclusivity.” 

Another wrote, “Plus sizes should be in every store and should be dispersed by item like every other piece of clothing, not pushed into a dark and dingy corner in the back.” Another added, “Have girls that are ACTUALLY plus size girls be models! There’s never been a girl that looked like my body type in the media and it’s time!”

I think you’ll find that your existing customers have already thought about what they want from your business, and you can start by talking to them to gain a better understanding of their identity-based needs, desires, and expectations for your brand. 

3. Brands investing in inclusive marketing are seeing a positive business impact.

Inclusive marketing isn’t just the right thing to do —it’s a growth lever for your brand. Doing a better job of serving a broader consumer base leads to higher customer acquisition and retention rates.

HubSpot research confirmed this as well: 96% of respondents whose companies invest in inclusive marketing say it impacts their business success.

I see real-life evidence of the benefit of inclusive marketing in The Sports Bra, a bar in Portland, WA, that only plays women’s sports on TV.  It earned more than $1M in its first eight months of business, and its wild success of catering to a highly underrepresented community attracted high-profile investors eager to help the business grow  through franchising.

My tip is to look deeper at the consumers with the pain points your brand solves. Identify which identities are currently underrepresented and underserved by your brand and others in your industry, then brainstorm ways to serve this audience like none other.

4. Brands aren’t as effective as they could be with inclusive marketing.

When done well, inclusive marketing has proven to produce positive business results. However, results aren’t automatic just because a brand decides to start marketing to underrepresented and underserved communities.

I  like to use this analogy: Just because you invite someone to your party doesn’t mean they will just show up eagerly, especially if you have a long history of not extending invitations to them.

Case in point:  just 32% of marketing professionals whose companies invest in inclusive marketing felt their marketing efforts were very successful, while 61% said they were somewhat successful.

When I’m doing inclusive marketing audits, I almost always find examples of friction-filled experiences that negatively impact conversions of people from the underserved communities brands are trying to reach.

There are a number of reasons why brands who engage in inclusive marketing aren’t as effective as they could be, including budget limitations (38%), fear of resistance and blowback from consumers and the general public (28%), and even concerns about getting inclusive marketing wrong (25%).

Inclusive marketing has many benefits, and taking the time to do it right is worth it. When you do, you’ll see even greater returns on your investment. One study showed that brands whose ads were most effective from a cultural inclusion perspective showed increases across key performance indicators, including 69% in purchase intent, 67% in brand trust, 49% in brand affinity, and 43% in brand recommendations. 

Regarding budget constraints, I advise my clients to double down and focus on building case studies with unignorable results, showing that further investment in inclusive marketing is warranted.

I also advise clients that fear of backlash and concerns about getting it wrong resolve themselves if they engage in inclusive marketing effectively. Following best practices like deepening relationships with the groups you want to serve and producing products and experiences that are truly authentic demonstrates that your brand sees and supports them, not that you’re tokenizing them.

5. Brands have a limited view of what effective inclusive marketing is.

Even though inclusive marketing isn’t a new concept, the reality is that inclusive marketing as a competency among marketers is still very much in its early stages. 

Inclusive marketing is all about acknowledging the many ways in which consumers are different, intentionally choosing which identities your brand will serve, and then incorporating those identities throughout all areas of your marketing mix.

Most brands engage in inclusive marketing in a few key areas of their overall marketing mix, and survey results showed that the most popular adoptions are: 

• Inclusive imagery (74%)
• Accessible web design (44%)
• Using inclusive language (36%)
• Awareness month campaigns (36%)
• Multicultural campaigns (26%)
• Inclusivity in overall brand image (20%)

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with engaging in inclusive marketing in this way; it’s just very much focused on communications. There’s missed opportunity for inclusive approaches in other areas, like:

• Inclusive product design
• Inclusion in distribution channels and modes of discovery
• Product positioning
• Inclusive pricing

Throughout all these areas, the customer experience can be optimized for different communities to reduce friction, increase conversions, increase customer success, and increase customer retention.

Inclusive marketing is just good marketing. To be even more effective, don’t just limit it to how your brand communicates and through your visuals;infuse it into every part of your brand.

To expand your view of where inclusive marketing fits in your brand, I recommend listing out all the different forms of marketing you and your teams engage in. Then, workshop how to make each component of your marketing mix appeal to a broader base of consumers. 

To help you get started, check out this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast for inspiration. In it, I walk you through how to infuse inclusion into your SEO strategy.

It’s Time to Go Deeper With Inclusive Marketing

The way we do marketing continues to evolve. With each passing year it becomes less of an “optional” thing to do, and more of a “must do” to stay relevant and grow. 

Both your business and your customers need you to go all in with inclusive marketing. When you do, you’ll see the positive impact it has both on your customers and your brand’s results.