Diversity Research

We were invited to research how the global Mars brand could link its marketing with diversity platforms. In particular, we investigated how different diversity areas – disability, LGBT, class, race, gender – are perceived in the Chinese, American, Russian and UK markets. We analysed external data and reports from each market, then conducted interviews with human rights activists, academics, journalists and semioticians from each culture. The results enabled the Mars global team to understand which diversity issues they could talk about in each country, and which issues were off-limits.

We were asked by Mars to understand how the UK feels about diversity and the best ways of communicating it. We conducted a large number of groups with people from both diverse backgrounds and non diverse background in order to understand how they felt about brands promoting diversity. The finding helped Mars develop their communication strategies across all their brands.

Argos wished to explore how they could make their stores and offering better for disabled people. We conducted depth interviews and groups with a large number of disabled people covering visual, aurdordrity and mobility impairments. Argos have used the finding to further develop their retail offering.

We researched the Children’s Traffic clubs book from a diversity perspective. We conducted research with parents and children from ethnic minorities, different religions and disabilities.

The research helped to inform the representation of the characters.