The buying power of the U.S. Hispanic, African American, and Asian populations is projected to climb to $3 trillion by 2011, per the Selig Center for Economic Growth. From a strategic perspective, this is a major reason why integrating diversity marketing into a company’s business development plans is becoming more common among U.S. corporations.

For marketers, these demographic and cultural shifts represent tremendous new avenues of growth. Catering to groups who seek to reinforce their ethnic identities, businesses have either modified their products/marketing campaigns or created entirely new product lines - everything from grocery brands to greeting card lines.

The fluctuating demographic trends in the United States over the last three decades have inspired the initiation of entirely new kinds of businesses and services created to reach a culturally diverse consumer base. The increasingly fragmented market not only calls for advertising campaigns tailored to specific groups, but also requires a determination of which media are most effective in such initiatives.

Creating a marketing plan that will successfully target these growing consumer groups is no small task. However, before any business can move forward with a multicultural marketing plan it first must ensure that there is a corporate diversity strategy that supports the company's overall objectives. The strategy should address the entire company, including sales, operations, human resources, and community involvement.

It also is helpful to have an understanding of the different buying habits of your targeted ethnic groups and how to take advantage of the differences and similarities within and between the groups.

If you acknowledge that there is a large population that today might prefer (or require) interactions in another language, your course is set – it’s time to invest in staff, technology, and processes to improve your interactions with diverse market segments.

Diversity strategy and planning
There have been a number of missteps made by companies that attempted to market to African American, Asian, Hispanic, or gay and lesbian consumers and did not have anyone on their corporate or external agency teams who represented these market segments. By incorporating diversity into your company and the agencies you work with, you are more likely to avoid potential errors that could offend the consumer and have a long-lasting negative impact on the product image.

In addition, marketing and sales teams must be experts in the target market segments and be responsible for collecting the appropriate research to understand the habits and preferences of the targeted consumer. More organizations are developing campaigns targeted at these growing demographics of culture and language. New events, conferences, and company divisions emerge daily to address multiculturalism and cultural appreciation.

When communicating / modifying your brand to reach a diverse audience, consider cultural sensitivity, translation processes, and legal components related to translating materials into other languages. Successful advertisers and marketers pay attention to cultural cues such as music, food, colors, and history in order to make an emotional connection with diverse consumers and attract their attention – and dollars. They also choose media outlets that these audiences prefer (i.e. TV vs. print vs. online).

Translation and reaching your diverse audiences
One big pitfall is a failure to consider the native language of the target audience. English-language advertisements targeting Hispanic and Asian customers may fail to reach the entire audience. Brand and messaging is often lost with a poor or mistranslation. And, as mentioned above, the failure to connect emotionally with the audience may yield results that are not indicative of the market's true potential.

Again, ethnic consumers are less homogenous as a group than many people assume. There are many important sub-segments within each demographic. Take for example Asians in the U.S. Unlike Hispanics, among the Asian populations – Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. – language (other than English) is not even a common ground on which to base marketing strategies.

What, if anything, differentiates any ethnic group from the general market and which channels/approach will make a significant impact?

A study by Yankelovich Multicultural Marketing and Burrell Communications in 2007 showed that only 25 percent of African American, Hispanic, and Non-Hispanic White consumers feel that today's marketing is both personally and culturally relevant to their lives. To make brands more attractive to a multicultural audience, brand managers need to implement integrated marketing strategies which address life-stage and personal interests in addition to cultural values.

"Multicultural marketing needs to become more multi-dimensional," notes Sonya Suarez-Hammond, Vice President of Multicultural Marketing Insights at Yankelovich. "Of course, not every advertising spot or print ad needs to reach a Hispanic or African American consumer on all three dimensions of relevance. But, an overall campaign should. The more integrated and relevant the messaging, the stronger the overall brand connection will be."

The study stressed that ethnic consumers are less homogenous as a group than marketers often assume. Ethnic consumers have very distinct preferences and respond to different emotional hot buttons. Therefore marketers must refine their messaging to avoid generalization and highlight brand relevance and authenticity. Inclusive marketing strategies are not created overnight. They are developed through careful research and with an in-depth and culturally sensitive understanding of the target market.

Finally, the best strategies are worth nothing if they are not backed up by the staff that interfaces regularly with the customer. Is your staff trained in culturally sensitive customer service? Are they comfortable dealing with people of diverse backgrounds? Typically, companies with diverse employees that are aware of cultural sensitivities will be the most successful at dealing with ethnically diverse customers.

The obvious conclusion is also one of the main tenets of marketing: know your customer.

Find out more
Interested in finding out the top languages spoken in the state(s) your company conducts business? To request a copy of our proprietary report, “Foreign Speaker Demographics in the U.S. - Top 10 Languages in Every State,” please contact us. Or, for our short list of helpful marketing resources, access this issue’s useful links.

Sources:
http://www.brandweek.com
http://www.diversity.com
http://www.delivermagazine.com
Yankelovich Multicultural Marketing