Masks as a Branding Strategy
Joining healthcare workers, employees and employers across industries—even children and teachers—are wearing masks. They’ve become an essential part of your daily ensemble. Everyone is wearing a mask.
The mask situation presents an innovative, communal opportunity for organizations and individuals to join a cultural phenomenon and help reduce the community transmission of COVID-19. Masks also created an uncharted space for branding.
Many organizations have galavanted into the uncharted territories and have found success in promoting their brands with masks. Schools and universities led the way with branded spirit-wear masks for graduations last spring.
Although we have observed that to be truly successful, we need to be inclusive of everyone and their needs.
Despite masks being a great branding tactic, we’ve noticed that with a solid-clothed masked, one of the most consequential hurdles to conquer, is figuring out a way to use masks in a brand strategy while also remaining accessible to all. According to ClearMask, “55% of communication is visual,” so when we have branded masks that don’t show our mouths we miss a pivotal opportunity to be inclusive.
School leaders and educators need to think about how reading facial expressions is critical to childhood development. Team leaders at organizations need to think about how important it is to read a team’s facial expressions during a brainstorming session or how essential it is to see the clients’ reactions during a presentation or a pitch. Healthcare workers know that patient health, safety and comfortability are key to building a trusting relationship, and it makes an experience less intimidating if clients can see a provider’s face. ClearMasks states, “Miscommunication is a leading cause of medical errors and can be prevented. When traditional masks are worn, miscommunication may increase with people who heavily rely on visual communication, such as deaf and hard of hearing individuals, children and older adults.”
We all know someone who is hearing impaired or someone who relies on reading lips and facial expressions.
According to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), “About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears” and “approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing.”
Let’s make it a goal to create a branding strategy that is accessible to everyone.
The solution: A CLEAR MASK.
ClearMask™ is the first fully transparent, FDA-cleared surgical mask with full-face visibility. Be comfortable, breathe well, and create a branding strategy inclusive of all.
Order yours today: https://www.theclearmask.com/product
For an extensive list of resources for home modifications and assistive technologies that improve communications, see Home additions and apps for the Deaf and HoH.
Published on: September 15, 2020