Multicultural Marketing 101

Marketing to a multicultural audience is no easy task. If you take a look to past campaigns and their attempts to fit a diverse group into a 30-second spot, you might be pleased to see that American advertising does have some ethnic variety. But take a closer look at multiple campaigns trying to make it work and you might start to see a pattern.

In the June 2007 Washington Post article, The Potholes of Multicultural Marketing, author Warren Brown points to current flaws in many American companies' attempts at expanding markets to reach a more international consumer. American companies attempting to make their products global are getting into trouble because, although there is diversity in advertisements, portrayals of our "melting-pot" society tend to look the same after a while.

Brown used cars to illustrate this point. Think back, if you can, to the last car commercial you saw. Now try to remember if the commercial featured racially mixed occupants driving in the car or truck. If yes, who was driving? Most likely, the driver was white and male. If the driver was female, she was probably white. Black or other occupants of color usually sit in the front passenger's seat, or they sit in the rear. Rarely do they sit behind the wheel.

This not so subtle but frequent attempt at inclusion has been called "Multicultural Marketing 101". Monique Tapie, communications director for Global Advertising Strategies, explains multicultural 101 as the marketing assumption that "all Asians are alike, that all African Americans are alike, that all Spanish-speaking people are alike, that we are all alike, which means that we're all mainstream, with "mainstream" still considered to be white."

We live in a country that doesn't want to offend anyone through mass media messages, which, in advertising, translates into, for lack of a better word, a formulated seating chart -- a woman here, man there, black person there, Asian here, Latino there. The purpose of this seating chart is an attempt to send the message that this company can be for anyone.
"We're being fair. We've included everybody. Buy from us."

To many, these types of ads are turnoffs. They are not being fair, and if one were to look deeply it could be seen that this seating chart places certain groups in a symbolically subordinate position. Multicultural Marketing 101 assumes that all Asians are from Japan, China, or Korea and all Spanish-speaking people are from Mexico. This method obviously does not yield the best results, and for those who have spent most of their lives trying to overcome discrimination, it can be aggravating to still be stuck in the passenger seat.

There are other strategies, which companies like Global Advertising are attempting. They rely on in-depth studies of cultural groups, differences within the groups, and how lucrative market segments can be found in these groups. It's a good idea to actually take a look inside these groups, instead of just considering them one entity with the same ideas, interests, and values. Ethnic marketing is not a matter of exploitation for profit, says Tapie. "It's simply a recognition that differences exist."

To make any marketing campaign successful, it's necessary to immerse yourself in information. Learn as much as you can about what you're selling and who you're selling it to because almost every humorous (or not so humorous) marketing mistake made through global campaigns could have been prevented through a bit more audience research.

Tapie finished her interview with The Washington Post pointing out that America is composed of different cultures. "If you plan to sell to those cultures," she says, "you better try to do a better job of understanding them."