The Potential Market
According to a 1992 U. S. Census study, there are 49 million*
Americans with disabilities—that's nearly one out of every five Americans.
Approximately half those over the age of 65 are disabled. The more the
population ages, the more likely it will be that the number of persons with
disabilities will increase.
The 49 million Americans with disabilities currently control $175
billion in discretionary income, despite the fact that only 52 percent of the
working-age population, 15.3 million persons with disabilities, is employed.
People with disabilities who are unemployed receive public and private direct
income support totaling $109 billion. As more and more individuals with
disabilities enter the workforce, their purchasing power will increase.
Added to these dollars is the purchasing potential of families of
persons with disabilities. A recently released study by the U. S. Department of
Education, based on 1990 data, reports that of the 69.6 million families in the
United States, 20.3 million have at least one member with a disability.
Except for products geared specifically to disability-related
needs, this segment of the consumer market has been largely ignored. Only in
recent years have advertisers of general merchandise begun to recognize persons
with disabilities as an important market segment.
* Editor's note: More recent Census data puts the number of
people with disabilities in the U.S. at 53 million.
What You Need to Know
The first thing to remember when marketing to persons with
disabilities is that they have the same range of preferences, perceptions,
attitudes, habits, and needs that drive consumer behavior of persons without
disabilities. Customers with disabilities have the same requirements as
customers without disabilities quality products and services that meet their
needs, reliability, and competitive market prices. Company outreach initiatives
need to convey that people with disabilities are valued as customers. If their
needs are satisfactorily met, customers with disabilities become loyal users
and advertisements for the products and services. In addition to the
discretionary purchasing potential that individuals with disabilities and their
families may have, public and private third party payers, such as veteran
service organizations, vocational rehabilitation programs, and the educational
system, purchase services, equipment, and/or products for persons with
disabilities. In 1993, direct service expenditures by the Veterans
Administration, the U. S. Department of Defense, and the Rehabilitation
Services Administration totaled $3 billion.
According to a General Accounting Office report, implementing the
access provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act has increased revenues
in the hotel and hospitality industry by 12 percent. Other industries should
take note and follow suit. Some advertisers cater heavily to the teen market,
which controls only $67 billion in spending power less than half that of the
disability market. A largely untapped consumer market exists, and business has
a lucrative window of opportunity to tap into this market if it becomes
customer responsive to persons with disabilities.
Marketing Strategy
As with any market, it is important to segment and define the
disability market and to utilize a variety of strategies that include both
generic and niche marketing. In developing a marketing strategy, perhaps the
most important thing to remember is that people with disabilities are the only
ones who really know what they need or want. For much too long, assumptions
have been made for them, rather than with them.
The following ideas should be considered in a marketing strategy
for consumers with disabilities:
- Test your marketing approach with people with disabilities.
Select people with a variety of disabilities to be part of your strategy
- Keep an open mind about what persons with disabilities can or
cannot do, want or need, to drive your marketing strategy. Advances in
technology, rehabilitation, and medicine, coupled with changes in societal
attitudes, make many activities previously thought impossible for persons with
disabilities possible.
- Recognize the diversity of the disability market. Do not assume
that one size fits all. Define why this market sector, and its development
team. individual components, needs your services or products.
- Include people with disabilities in your product development.
Remember that products geared to meet the needs of persons with disabilities
often can be marketed to the public at large (e.g., the electric garage
opener).
- Develop simple modifications to make existing services and
products user-friendly to persons with disabilities.
- Test market your products and services with the disability
community to measure accessibility and/or usability by persons with different
types of disabilities.
- Develop promotional strategies that target persons with
disabilities and their family members as desired customers.
- Integrate persons with disabilities in your print and
television advertising. Use persons with disabilities as models, actors in your
commercials, or as spokespersons.
- Include disability community newspapers, magazines, and
newsletters in your print advertising budget.
- Attend and exhibit at annual consumer disability conferences,
as well as disability-related conferences for third party payers and
professional organizations.
- Become involved with the disability community by sponsoring
and/or participating in a national or local event or project.
Resources
Office of Disability Employment Policy:
(202)
693-7880 (V), (202) 693-7881 (TTY)
InfoODEP@dol.gov
http://www.dol.gov/odep/
State Governor's Committees: (For a list of state
liaisons, see Office of Disability Employment Policy's Web page:
http://www.dol.gov/odep/state/state.htm.)
National Council on Independent Living:
(703)
525-3406 (V), ncil@tsbbs02.tnet.com
July 1997
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