Marketing is no exception. Marketing and advertising have always intersected with the racial issues of the time, from Pepsi’s niche marketing strategy to Tibor Kalman’s famous use of visual diversity in the United Colors of Benetton campaign. As demographics and cultural paradigms are constantly changing in America, we’re long overdue for a fresh conversation about multiculturalism and marketing. Optimizing your marketing strategy using a multicultural approach means new audiences, new customers, and new heights for your business.
Multiculturalism in marketing doesn’t get the respect and attention it deserves. All too often, multicultural marketing strategies are not given their own budgets—instead, marketing to diverse audiences is considered a tertiary factor in a general marketing strategy. Within market segmentation strategies, there is a big emphasis on demographics—black audiences, Latino audiences, Asian audiences, etc. These sweeping categories lack specificity. Instead of appealing to the unique Chinese cultural experiences in America, a lazy general marketing strategy would just run the same ad dubbed in Mandarin. This dumbing down of multiculturalism to small token gestures doesn’t give multiculturalism the credit it deserves, and more importantly, it has created a well of untapped potential for companies that are smart enough to engage earnestly with multiculturalism in America.
Social media can be a huge boon to your multicultural marketing approach. By using analytics tools offered by Google and Facebook, you can look at your brand message, see how it’s resonating with different communities, and test and refine accordingly. It’s important to note that social media habits vary according to race. For instance, as Jeremy Bradley writes for Chron, black Americans have a greater presence on Twitter compared to other social media platforms. So, if you’re looking to see how your message could resonate with young tech-savvy black Americans, a robust Twitter campaign could be hugely important.
There’s also no substitute for real-world research. In order to truly create an effective multicultural marketing strategy, demographics data and analytics simply won’t cut it. Go out and meet people who are members of your target community. Conduct surveys, host events, and start recruiting in diverse neighborhoods. By going the extra mile, you’ll start to understand your multicultural audience on a personal level—their needs, expectations, interests, and experiences—which will lead to a much more nuanced strategy.