How to Reach Gen Z Through Diversity in Design

Born between the mid-to-late 1990’s and early 2010’s, Gen Z makes up roughly 40% of U.S. consumers. These (mostly) teenagers and 20-somethings have yet to establish habitual buying patterns, which presents marketers with a golden opportunity to secure ‘brand of choice’ positioning within this age cohort.

Given that design is your brand’s first impression, this is a natural place to start. Of course, to design with Gen Z in mind means integrating a visual identity that reflects their values and beliefs.

According to U.S. Census data, 49% of Gen Z identifies as a minority, implying that diversity is of paramount importance. This is backed up by a study from Quantilope , which found that nearly 80% of Gen Z said that it’s important for brands to address diversity and inclusion.

Putting two and two together, we come to the conclusion that if brands want to reach the most racially diverse generation in American history, they must prioritize diversity in design.

The Problem isn’t Why…But How?

Most marketing teams understand the importance of diversity in design already, so there’s no sense in preaching to the choir here. Instead, let’s address the elephant in the room: namely, that diversifying in-house talent takes time.

Practically speaking, increasing diversity amongst senior-level marketers and decision-makers within an organization, and having those diverse hires inform branding and design decisions in a meaningful way will take many months, if not years.

Meanwhile, the famously impatient (some might say fickle) Gen Z is already on the hunt for brands that exemplify diversity…and some of those brands may be your competitors. So the clock is ticking. Brands looking to court Gen Z need to achieve diversity targets now, not six months or one year from now.

This is a common refrain amongst marketing teams who already have buy-in with regard to increasing diversity. The issue isn’t why diversity is important, but rather how to implement it effectively.

Distribute Your Diversity

Simple solutions often resolve complex problems.

In this case, marketing teams can achieve instant diversity by outsourcing their branding and design needs. By hiring an external design firm that meets diversity expectations, brands can add diversity into their talent mix right away, providing some much-needed uplift to a current project or initiative.

Distributing diversity enables brands to achieve near-term benefits—increased innovation, enhanced empathy, expansive audience reach—without sacrificing recruitment and hiring standards. It also helps warm in-house talent to the benefits of diversity, making it easier to push for internal diversity hires down the road.

To be clear, distributing diversity externally does not supplant internal diversity hires, which are needed to sustain the long-term health of the company (brands are indeed healthier over the long-term with more diverse, senior-level staff). Rather, distributing diversity externally in the short term helps support the efforts of the brand to increase diversity within its ranks over time.

A perfect example is Bank of America’s Breakthrough Labs accelerator program. The aim was to provide early-stage businesses that have minority founders from underserved communities, with access to expertise and mentorship.

For the six-month part-time program, Bank of America turned to DBC—a Black-owned and women-led branding and design studio—to develop branding, strategic marketing elements, and web design for the five fintech startups in its accelerator.

Bank of America needed a rapid injection of diversity, and got exactly that through the DBC collaboration. The accelerator’s website redesign included videos of joyous BIPOC adult and child interactions, to parallel the startup accelerator’s mission of establishing multigenerational wealth for BIPOC communities.

The end results? A 160% increase in site sessions and 208% increase in unique visitors (reaching a wider audience has its benefits!)

Bank of America distributed its diversity with the design team at DBC, and in so doing, realized immediate returns on its investment.

The Next Step

Diversity used to be a nice-to-have. Now it’s a competitive edge.

The way to reach Gen Z is through diversity, and branding and design is your company’s first impression with end users. So partnering with an external branding and design agency makes sense.

As a Black-owned, women-led and globally-distributed organization, the team at DBC is happy to share our thoughts on helping your brand reach a wider audience. Fill out the form below to set up a complimentary consultation with a DBC team member.