MARKETING AND AUTISM

Read articles on appealing to, and employing, neurodivergent individuals and their communities

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Autism

Time blindness causes autistic and ADHD consumers to miss sales deadlines despite genuine purchase intent. Learn why extended windows and smart reminders increase conversions.

4 min read

Time Blindness and Purchase Timing: Why Autistic Consumers Miss Sales and Deadlines

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Jan 12, 2026 8:00:02 AM

Your flash sale ends in 24 hours. An autistic customer with ADHD sees the promotion Tuesday morning. They think, "I'll buy that tonight after work."

Sales Autism Psychology Behavioral economics
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Popularity-based marketing backfires with autistic consumers who distrust social proof and prefer technical specifications over testimonials. Learn why niche brands win neurodivergent customers.

6 min read

Social Proof Backfire: When Autistic Consumers Distrust Popularity-Based Marketing

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Jan 5, 2026 8:00:00 AM

"Join millions of satisfied customers!"

Autism Psychology Digital marketing
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Scent marketing drives away autistic customers with sensory sensitivities and chemical reactions. Learn why fragrance-free retail creates competitive advantage and customer loyalty.

4 min read

Olfactory Marketing Disasters: When Scent Drives Away Autistic Customers

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 29, 2025 8:00:02 AM

Walk into an Abercrombie & Fitch. Before you see a single product, the smell hits you—aggressive cologne pumped through the ventilation system at...

Autism Product marketing Sensory
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Sound logos and audio branding can trigger sensory overload in autistic consumers. Learn why acoustic branding needs volume control, frequency consideration, and silent alternatives.

6 min read

Acoustic Branding for Autism: When Sound Logos Cause Shutdowns

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 29, 2025 7:00:00 AM

You open Netflix. Ta-dum. You boot up your Xbox. Startup chime. You visit a website. Autoplay video with sudden music. You receive a notification....

Branding Autism Audio
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Autistic pet owners represent premium customers whose special interest intensity drives deep product research and sustained spending. Learn how to market to this passionate, loyal demographic.

5 min read

Pet Product Marketing to Autistic Animal Lovers

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 22, 2025 8:00:02 AM

An autistic person develops a special interest in marine biology at age seven. By age twelve, they can identify 200 species of fish by sight, explain...

Autism Neurodivergence Product marketing Lifestyle
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Face-blind consumers can't recognize celebrity endorsers or brand spokespeople. Learn why prosopagnosia demands logo-first brand recognition strategies that don't rely on faces.

4 min read

Prosopagnosia in Brand Recognition: Marketing to Face-Blind Autistic Consumers

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 22, 2025 8:00:01 AM

Your brand ambassador just posted to their 2 million followers. The engagement is strong. The comments are glowing. And a significant portion of your...

Branding Sales Autism Product marketing
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Discover why autistic consumers resist product upgrades and how brands can capture this market by marketing continuity, maintaining legacy products, and reducing transition costs.

3 min read

Transition Resistance: Why Autistic Consumers Won't Upgrade Even When It Makes Sense

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 8, 2025 8:00:01 AM

Your smartphone is three generations old. The camera is objectively worse. The battery dies by noon. Apps crash regularly.

Audience Autism Product marketing SaaS marketing
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Learn why autistic consumers' pattern recognition abilities expose performative disability marketing and how brands can build genuine accommodation that creates loyalty instead of backlash.

4 min read

Why Autistic Consumers See Through Performative Inclusivity

Picture of Writing Team Writing Team: Dec 8, 2025 7:59:59 AM

Your brand posted a puzzle piece graphic for Autism Awareness Month with the caption "We celebrate neurodiversity."

Audience Autism Neurodivergence Inclusivity
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Learn how autistic consumer shutdown and recovery cycles create unique purchasing patterns that smart brands can anticipate and serve more effectively.

4 min read

Marketing During Overwhelm and Recovery Periods

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 1, 2025 7:59:59 AM

Your marketing calendar assumes consistent purchasing capacity throughout the year.

Marketing Autism Communication
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Discover how understanding stimming behavior can help brands create products and experiences that serve the growing neurodivergent consumer market more effectively.

3 min read

Stimming as Product Interaction: How Autistic Consumers Engage with Tactile Brands

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Dec 1, 2025 7:59:59 AM

There's a massive consumer segment that evaluates your products on criteria you're not even measuring.

Autism Product marketing
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Traditional sensory marketing overwhelms neurodivergent customers. Discover how autism-friendly retail design creates inclusive experiences that benefit everyone while expanding your customer base.

4 min read

Sensory Marketing and Autism-Friendly Retail Experiences

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 24, 2025 1:25:13 PM

Walk into most retail environments and you're immediately assaulted: fluorescent lights blazing overhead, music pulsing through speakers, competing...

Autism Neurodivergence Sensory Retail
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Autism-friendly tourism generates billions in revenue for brands that understand accommodation. Discover what travel and leisure leaders are doing right—and what it means for your industry.

4 min read

The Growth of Autism-Friendly Travel and Leisure: What Brands Can Learn

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 24, 2025 1:24:53 PM

The theme park announced "sensory-friendly hours" and expected modest attendance. They prepared for a few hundred guests who needed accommodation.

Branding Autism Travel
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Discover how brands can authentically represent autistic individuals in advertising—moving beyond stereotypes to build genuine trust with the autism community and allies

5 min read

Authentic Representation of Autistic Individuals in Advertising

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 17, 2025 7:00:02 AM

Let's talk about the advertising industry's autism problem.

Branding Autism Neurodivergence Advertising
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Autistic consumers are disproportionately concerned about sustainability—but greenwashing is instantly detected. Here's how to market authentically to this audience.

5 min read

Sustainable Marketing and Autism: Environmental Consciousness in ND Communities

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 17, 2025 6:59:59 AM

A sustainability manager at a consumer goods company showed me their new "eco-friendly" packaging campaign. Glossy materials featured green leaves,...

Autism Environment Digital marketing
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Virtual worlds offer autistic consumers the sensory control and social flexibility physical spaces can't. Here's how brands can show up authentically.

4 min read

Marketing for Autism: Virtual Worlds as Safe Spaces

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 17, 2025 6:59:59 AM

A 23-year-old autistic woman told me she does 90% of her socializing in VRChat, a virtual reality platform.

Marketing Niche marketing Autism Neurodivergence
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Smart home technology gives autistic users unprecedented control over sensory environments. Here's how brands can market adaptive technology authentically.

7 min read

Smart Home Marketing for Autism: Technology That Adapts to Sensory Needs

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 11, 2025 10:49:56 AM

A 32-year-old autistic software developer showed me his smart home setup last year.

Autism Neurodivergence Technology AI technology
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Traditional marketing ROI misses the value of autism-inclusive strategies. Here are the metrics that actually capture returns from neurodivergent-focused marketing.

6 min read

ROI Measurement in Autism-Inclusive Marketing

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 11, 2025 10:33:39 AM

A VP of Marketing at a mid-sized e-commerce company presented quarterly results to her board last month.

Autism Data Digital marketing
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Autistic consumers have $791 billion in spending power—but most brands misread their needs. Here's how social listening reveals what traditional research misses.

5 min read

Social Listening for Autism Communities: Understanding Unspoken Preferences

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 11, 2025 10:27:58 AM

A major clothing retailer spent $200,000 on focus groups to understand why their "sensory-friendly" clothing line wasn't selling.

Autism Community Digital marketing
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Discover how autism-informed A/B testing reveals response patterns that traditional conversion optimization misses. Learn to design tests that capture neurodivergent user preferences and buying behaviors.

4 min read

Autism-Informed A/B Testing: Beyond Neurotypical Response Patterns

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 10, 2025 8:00:01 AM

Every A/B test you've ever run makes an invisible assumption: that your audience processes information, makes decisions, and responds to persuasion...

Autism Email Marketing A/B Testing
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Learn how autistic users exhibit distinct visual attention patterns in heat mapping data. Discover three examples of different browsing behaviors and compare Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and Microsoft Clarity for tracking neurodivergent user experiences.

4 min read

Heat Mapping Autistic User Behavior: Different Visual Attention Patterns

Picture of Neurodivergence Writing Team Neurodivergence Writing Team: Nov 10, 2025 8:00:00 AM

Your heat maps are lying to you. Not intentionally, but by showing you aggregate user behavior that assumes everyone processes visual information the...

Autism Website User Experience
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