Inclusive Marketing – Reality Or Make Up

There is no model of the ideal man or woman in the world. No one is perfect! We all, as people, parents, consumers, doctors, businessmen, professors, politicians, students, tailors, shoe-makers, butchers, etc. have our strengths and weaknesses. We are capable of performing certain activities and incapable of doing others. We cannot ideally understand and complete all the jobs and activities because as human beings we are faced with lack of skills, knowledge, intelligence, physical strength, health, money, beauty and so forth. Due to different types of barriers, we are not able to respond to all challenges and feel disadvantaged. However, we live in a cruel, commercial and fast-paced world. Companies that offer products and services should address to all consumers. Marketing literature, in order to make it easier for companies and to help them to save on costs, indicates that they need to segment and target consumers and position and sell their products only to the selected, profitable segments. But do companies really have to do this in practice? By targeting one group of consumers, they miss the others. The world nowadays requires companies to address all consumers, regardless their demographic, physical, emotional, psychological features. Inclusive marketing helps companies to respect, value and represent all the people. This paper strives to illustrate the discrepancy between theory and practice regarding the inclusion of all types of consumers in companies’ marketing.