The New Age of Multicultural Marketing

 

December 8^th, 2013

Rachel Young

 

 

The United States of America presents a unique opportunity for those who practice communications, namely through the myriad of cultures which makes up the consumer base.  These cultures are well represented in everything from a Congress of mixed races (For example, Corrine Brown, an African-American in the House of Representatives and Marco Rubio, a Hispanic member of Senate) to bilingual newspapers and even the ethnic food aisle at the local supermarket.  In an advertising sense, these multicultural audiences have the same needs and desires in the American marketplace as any other audience- They have needs which a product can fix, and advertising is needed to marry their need with the products available. Moreover, not only do multicultural audiences need these services and products, but the companies that provide these commodities need the profit that the multicultural audience offers. Leaving the importance of the multicultural sector’s weight unrecognized could be a company’s downfall, but not properly marketing to them could be just as devastating.

 

Hispanic and multicultural marketing companies have taken note of this, and implemented it in their own clientele strategies.  One agency that has been proficient at adapting to Hispanic marketing is Moore Communications Group in Tallahassee, Florida. This Public Relations Agency has a specific Hispanic marketing department which conducts their own research and their own Hispanic marketing programs. The clients who seek their Hispanic marketing expertise range from sports team managers to members of other advertising agencies. These business people, by outsourcing their Hispanic marketing needs, acknowledged that they faced a great challenge. This challenge exists because of the newfound multicultural dominance in the new market and the misconceptions that surround their targeting.

 

Multicultural people are not only dominating in numbers, but also in buying power. About 1 in 3 people in the United States are a racial or ethnic minority in 2010. This equates to about 111,927,986 people (Burgos, 1). Burgos and Mobolade explain it in a different way:

 

“…there are more Hispanics in the United States, Canadians in Canada, Malaysians in Malaysia or South Africans in South Africa. If they were a country, Latinos in America would be the second-largest Hispanic nation, right after Mexico and before Spain, Colombia and Argentina.”

 

With these numbers, it is no wonder that they have become such an important element to an

advertising campaign- These hundreds of thousands of people buy products and services every day, a quality that before had not been so readily recognized. However, the multicultural representation in each specific American state is not uniform: some states, such as California, Texas and New Mexico have the largest proportion of ethnic communities, from 55-60% (Burgos, 3). Even states which had never before been recognized as predominately ethnic have had a drastic rise in representation. For example, Nevada, New Hampshire and Maine all grew their ethnic segments by 50% between the years of 2000 and 2010.  To claim that the buying power of America lay with the predominately white majority would ignore the 83% of people who can trace their ancestry to a foreign nation (Burgoes, 4). More specifically, Hispanic buying power is up 106% from 2000 ($1 Trillion) and Black buying power is up 60% from 2000 ($957 billion) as well. Hispanics alone would have an economy that dominated that of most Spanish speaking counties, save Mexico and Spain (Burgoes, 15).

 

              These incredible numbers not only result from the world’s increasing acceptance of globalization and emigration, but from the creation of multi-generational ethnic families and American-born children. As I noted before, these people consider themselves exceedingly multicultural and would benefit for marketing that is targeted as such. Buying power increases from population increase, of course, but also because many members of these groups are starting and expanding their own businesses (Burgoes, 16). What it means to be an American is changing, and businesses need to adjust to this change or be lost in the shuffle.

 

America is the result of globalization. America is constantly referred to as a melting pot of cultures, a direct result of the expanded globalization in the1600’s. Europe was the new world power, in that most countries had heard of the incredibly civilized and prosperous Europe. This type of culture is described as a “functionally differentiated” society, which had codified values (such money and love), were innovative and inventive, and focused on the role of the individual (rather than the role of the group). Suddenly, it was not that every culture was mutually exclusive- they were being compared to the parameters that Europe set. Not unlike the celebrities of today, these 3 parameters set the standard of world societies and became an integral part to the perception of societal advancement. Cultures that had previously valued group and familial values with no foreseeable issues (mainly Asian and Hispanic societies) were considered “less sophisticated,” an unfortunate stereotype that has persisted, at some level, today (Baraldi, 4). As a result, inequality and poverty existed in these nations.

 

The functionally differentiated society of Europe created a situation where ethnocentrism was unavoidable. Judging others by one’s own personal standards became inherent to calling yourself part of a certain culture.  As immigration became a driving global force, the main form of communication became a type of modern ethnocentrism. It no longer focus on dominance- rather, development (Baraldi, 7). In most successful functionally differentiated societies, due to the increased numbers of immigrants living within their borders, adopted this new form of modern ethnocentrism internally. Goaded by the fact that multicultural communication was required internally as well, it became quite evident that the modern ethnocentrism must adapt to a reciprocal relationship with the multicultural people. The dominant and immigrant cultures conducted a dialogue which required each entity take the time to learn from the other; subsequently communicating in an effective and understanding manner (Baraldi, 15).This type of reciprocal learning is the basis of multicultural marketing.

 

Multicultural marketing maintains a sort of social responsibility; a responsibility that, in the past, those people behind the campaigns have seemingly ignored. Marketing requires the research to understand a culture in a way that is deeper than its stereotypes, and necessitates a change in one’s language to produce a positive response not only in the identity of those who are targeted, but of the

company’s ethics as a whole. Immigrants and people of a foreign heritage are no longer a minority- they are the new majority, and must be treated as such (Moblade, 14). This means that we must realize just who our targeted audience is and including them in innovative campaigns should decrease the presence of stereotyping and racism in the American mind, both intentionally and unintentionally.

 

Stereotypes exist in the American mindset as a result of a long history of functionally differentiated societies. On a more psychological level, stereotypes are created through the existence of in-groups and out-groups.   To explain, one building block of society is one’s belonging to a specific group (in-group) and not belonging to others (out-groups). This group mentality leads to ‘out-group homogeneity,’ which leads people to believe members of out-groups as similar to one another (Burgoes, 25). Peter Wood and Michelle Chesser led a study about the stereotypes applied to African-Americans, and came to learn that out-group homogeneity lead to a variety of different beliefs. Nearly 60% of White Americans believe that African-Americans are more involved in criminal activities and drugs. Furthermore, due to these stereotypes almost 30% of African-Americans are willing to describe themselves as welfare-dependant and more violent. In another study, Carole Macklin and Richard Kolbe explore the importance of gender stereotypes on the development of the children who view them- explaining that they are important to their idea of the ‘self.’ The stereotypes they see help establish a set of acceptable and unacceptable rules by which they form their personalities. When a group is subject to more than 20,000 commercials in a single year- all repeating the same stereotypical messages- it truly has the power to change their perception of truth (Kolbe, 5). In this way, even when the target (as well as untargeted) audiences are older and less impressionable than children, unfavorable depictions can have a negative effect.

 

Stereotyping is not only negative for those who view it, but a negative light is cast on company which produces the stereotypical advertising. The media has been under fire from Social Justice Committees in recent years for their depictions of minorities in broadcast outlets, and have been held more responsible for what they depict- meaning the public is becoming more cognizant of unfair and demeaning roles that characters play in advertisements and are willing to refute them with their spending power (Mobolade, 90). Relying on stereotypes is also depictive of a lack of knowledge about the subject (Wood, 20). Stereotypes, such as the ‘black mammy’ figure that appear on a famous pancake mix company’s packaging can be cited from hundreds of years in the past and have no relevance in today’s market (Mobolade, 88). It would appear to even a slightly informed consumer that the company had done little to no research about their targeted ethnic audience and are relying on well-known, albeit incorrect, roles. The same can be said for that advertisements that employ salsa music when it has no connection to the actual product. If this targeted media is able to generate any attention at all, it will likely be negative. By distancing themselves from dated, offensive and ineffective types of ethnic roles, a company can then use modern interpretations to facilitate interest.

 

Multicultural people will be given the opportunity to utilize many great products and services which, before, may have incidentally excluded them. Predominantly white audiences, once introduced to positive displays of ethnic heritage, will begin to form inclusive assumptions about ethnicities.  This use of media has the power to change what is believed about ethnic cultures.

One way to avoid stereotyping is to recognize that ‘out-groups’ actually have more depth than had previously been believed. There are multiple subcultures of Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans which hold fast to their own beliefs and differ distinctly from others. Now when we speak of multicultural societies, we are no longer referring solely to immigrants- we are referring a limitless combination of people, from immigrants, to their children and sometimes third-generation Americans; frequently, these multigenerational families live under one roof as well.  A non-uniform whole is created, which adds another element of consideration into a multicultural marketing campaign. 

 

Global identity has its roots planted in the proliferation and comparison of functionally differentiated societies, as discussed. Now a more sophisticated, more personal identity is created, where identity is the result of a negotiation process with people within and outside of their own cultures. This is called the Communication Theory of Identity and it views identity as alongside communication, rather than a direct result of it (Jung, 3). CTI describes that an important part of forming an identity is that a person aligns themselves with a group within which they feel understood; the most basic of which would be whether the person/group felt understood by and grouped with acculturated, bicultural or unacculterated people.

 

Acculturation is the process of multicultural people adapting to American culture. There is no industry standard to define acculturation, but most ethnic people can be put into one of three categories which describe their level of acculturation into America. According to Mobolade, unacculturated people are mainly foreign-born and speak a foreign language at home. They strongly identify with the culture of their home country and watch the ethnic media frequently. The unacculturated people are likely to be recent immigrants and have the lowest amount of education and income.

 

A person who’s identity is bicultural can be either born domestically or immigrated, but has lived in the country for a significant amount of time. These people are usually younger in age, but do not strongly align themselves with either culture: they are bilingual, using both languages at home and consume Ethnic and American media alike. This is one of the fastest growing groups, bolstered by the fact that many young people are returning to their proud heritages (Mobolade, 39).

 

A person who is fully acculturated finds themselves understood best by others that would be described as ‘American.’ Most of the time, they are born domestically and use the English language in most situations.  They are older adults with the highest income, education and consumption of English media. It would be wrong to assume that most people who are unacculturated are constantly working to become acculturated, or that all acculturated people are striving to return to their ethnic identity. As you can imagine, these three categories have vastly different needs and consume various (and sometimes clashing) kinds of media- not knowing this could result in wasted time and money, as well as an unsuccessful multicultural campaign (Mobolade, 39-40).

 

Globalization is so deeply embedded in the world’s processes now that we must highly consider one subgroup in particular: those people who are born to immigrant parents. It is necessary to look at how these second and third generations form their identities to know where they exist in the American market and how to reach them effectively. It has been assumed in past research that as ethnic people are incorporated into the mainstream society, much like acculturated/bicultural immigrants and second-generational immigrants have been, their native heritage becomes a much more subdued part of their identity. This has been found to be untrue: transnationalism, once thought to pertain to only the first immigrants, has been found to remain relevant to subsequent generations as well.  (Somerville, 3)

 

Unlike their parents, who often have strong-ties to their home countries, these second generation immigrants have an imaginary transnational connection to their home countries, a connection which is built from the host context of the country. Nowadays, this connect is bolstered and made more ‘real’ by the existence of technology- Skype, long-distance phone calls and text messaging.  These people create relationships with friends and family, and gain an outside perspective about a culture that is inherently theirs (Somerville, 8). They do not see themselves as Hispanic people living in America, as their parents might have, but rather as Hispanic-Americans- a blend of two cultures, where both are appreciated. These people use a mix of fashion and language (symbolic meanings) to work both cultures into an identity which is exquisitely their own- and distinct from their parents (Somerville, 9). This is important for researchers and professionals, who need to trace heritage not only through immigrants but through their children as well. Their dual-ties must be acknowledged, and the forms of communication they utilize so often can even be utilized to reach the second and third generations.

 

John Tomlinson would argue that globalization actually helps create new identities, rather than destroy or blend them. Identity is no longer based on a grounded locality, but rather can travel and manifest itself in places that otherwise were devoid of a significant culture. This newfound importance of personal identity (rather than the stereotypical, overarching ‘cultural identity’) is integral to the success of a multicultural campaign, but how can it be harnessed for a business’s benefit?

 

Defining the multicultural opportunity of a business is the heavy work, but agreeably the most integral component. It is important to gather data and analyze it in the context of your product and company to decide what would be the best method to reach these consumers; in some areas, certain information would be important while other information would not be. Besides identity, other important demographics to take into consideration who gathering data would be 1) the number of years in the United States, 2) the languages spoken at home 3) where they were born, 4) income level and 5) education level.  Use this information broadly to capture an internal as well as external assessment.

 

There are various census data sources available to businesses which track multicultural consumerism trends. In 2002, a Yankelovich Hispanics MONITOR study provided an in-depth model of segmentation based on acculturation. This is one example of a way to save time and money gathering demographic and psychographic information. Using the Yankelovich segments can easily help one learn how multicultural/Hispanic people behave in different groups. For example, Terry Soto uses the model to show that two-thirds of the Hispanic-dominant segment does not use banking, but rather relies on money transferring technology. Among more acculturated consumers, this is opposite.  Only seven percent of the Hispanic population have a loan, but using the same information you can see that  nearly 20% are planning on buying a home- a person with a keen eye would be able to see that there-in lies a need which could be filled with a new product/service ( and Hispanic marketing measures). Demographic information, when laid out in a matrix format, can also be used to learn where an existing product and segments overlap. This indicates a great Hispanic success opportunity (Soto, 180).

 

Nash Finch provides a great example of the multicultural opportunity. Nash Finch supplies many Midwestern supermarkets with a variety of products, namely fresh produce, frozen foods, meat and dairy, health aids, tobacco and paper products. They serve about 1,500 grocery stores and about 300 foreign and military stores. When Nash Finch decided they were going to market to Hispanics in the Midwestern stores, the reasoning was that 30% of the area was Mexican and provided a large opportunity for success. They began testing a concept of a Hispanic assortment of food items in a sample representative of all of Nash Finch’s Midwestern stores. This consisted not only of Hispanic merchandise, but also bilingual packaging and signage. The test (combined with telephone surveys) lasted two years. Afterwards, the executives at Nash Finch took this data and studied it to learn how the target audience already positioned the brand, the nuances among the different locations of the stores, and even inquired so deeply that they learned the region of Mexico from which its consumers hailed. After this testing, they decided to move forward with the Hispanic marketing concept based on the potential return on investment. A Hispanic design firm was hired to create everything from the look and colors to the store mascot around their Hispanic customers. It highlighted positive parts of Hispanic culture, such as family and education as part of its design. The Avanza (meaning “advance”) stores are so successful that they still exist today.  The example Nash Finch shows us an incredibly well planned, tested and innovative concept for Hispanic marketing, without relying on stereotypes or reinventing the wheel (Soto, 185).

 

We have now discussed why it is important to market to Hispanics. It is also clear that general, untargeted advertisements would be ineffective for groups with such differentiated identities, butmany multicultural advertisements and PR campaigns fall short despite the efforts made. Spanish language advertising that have been tested with a sample of Spanish speakers were found to be incredibly ineffective. Without language being a deterring factor, there was still a high level of misunderstanding within the advertisements themselves. These misunderstandings were founds from a multitude of reasons, which were consistent throughout the advertisements:

 

Too many elements were forced into a single advertisement spot, causing message overload. Message overload is common in ethnic advertising for the reason that the companies feel that they have much to tell the consumer in a short amount of time with small budgets. Most of the content is obscured or hidden because the viewer simply does not have enough time (and in some cases, the education) to process all of the information which could be summarized in a simple slogan (Burgoes, 176).

 

Ethnic consumers see both media which is targeted to them, and media which is not. When this happens, many consumers notice a disconnect between the product positioning. A lot of products are needlessly tied to the ethnicity when targeted to multicultural consumers, when the branding should focus on a need that is valued across cultures. This lack of consistency breaks down what could be a strong brand position (Burgoes, 177).

 

The advertisement often focuses on the product, rather than the benefit it offers the consumers. In the words of Burgoes and Mobolade “Consumers do not need heaters, they need warmth.”Too much time is spent focusing on the culture, and is disjointed from the rest of the message. It is important to acknowledge a cultural affinity, but to revolve an entire advertising campaign around cultural music, sports or fashion, which may not apply to the product/service advertised, would only cause confusion in the audience (Burgoes, 177).

 

The ads that were studied suggested that because a person was Hispanic, Asian or African-American, they should buy this product. A person’s ethnicity is often only part of their identity- not the entire existence, nor is their ethnicity the reason they choose to purchase a product. To correctly use ethnicity in targeted media, it is necessary to evaluate the problems that remain within the marketing realm. Doing so takes a significant amount of effort, but the lack of stereotypical and lazy advertising returns much on its investment.

 

One of the most significant issues found in campaigning is that ethnic audiences were targeted for reasons that do not apply to them. Oil of Olay serves as a great example of ethnic marketing done correctly: Olay identified that black women do not have the same skin concerns as White women. Olay used targeted advertisements for the black consumers, explaining how their skin cream decreases the appearance of dark spots (a concern for darker skin) rather than filling in wrinkles (a concern for white skin)(possibly talk more about olay, when you find it in the book.) Once you realize where ethnic concerns are placed, a company can create better targeted advertisements which appeal to the problem, rather than the ethnicity (also include more about what they are spending their money on).

 

The failure of the aforementioned advertising does not lie with the consumer, but with the producer. Simply changing the language of an advertisement does nothing to increase the likelihood of a product being bought by ethnic consumers- the product must appeal to them for a more logical reason.

 

Despite what this may seem like, multicultural marketing is not a compilation of do’s and don’ts. African-American advertisements have had a long standing issue of garnering less response than do generalized advertisements, for one reason: the people behind the creative aspect of the advertisements were overly-cautious. They were afraid to employ humor or creative techniques to avoid offending any stereotypes. While this may seem like a safe place, mundane advertising rarely stimulates any wild success. Multicultural advertisers are encouraged to take creative risks, but to be sure and research the subject carefully before implementation to make sure there will be no backlash or negative public relations.

 

One factor that continuously stimulates an audience is enjoyment, and this is no different for multicultural audience. If a customer enjoyed the advertisement, they are more likely to remember its message and will hopefully result in a trial use of the service or product. Ethnically targeted ads can make use of this by employed several elements that, when tested, have proved to be successful in creating engagement. These elements are:

 

Humor. From culture to culture, the type and amount of humor enjoyed can vary. For example, Chinese- Americans have been found to enjoy traditional advertisements rather than slapstick humor. We can learn, by looking at data, that Hispanics live their lives in a more carefree manner and this is definitely observable in their enjoyment of humor. Often, Hispanics humor pokes fun at sensitive subjects, such as religion or the white race. Alternately, African-American humor finds itself targeting younger consumers about funny situations. In mass media approaches, humor should be tested thoroughly to make sure that it appeals to a majority of people, while in mobile and online environments the humor can be much more targeted (Molobade, 160).

 

Music. Many ethnic genres of music are finding themselves to become very popular in American culture. That is why hearing popular music in advertisements is not uncommon, but must be used in a sensible way if using ethnic music. It must make sense in terms of the product and the scenario, and used craftily- ethnic music looped throughout the background but not connected to the meaning of the ad will have close to no effect. Rather, make sure that the music appeal to the origin and age of the target market and involve it in the storyline (Molobade, 161).

 

Celebrities. Celebrities boost enjoyment significantly, mostly because they create a sense of pride within the targeted ethnicity. A good thing about this is that very famous multicultural celebrities appeal to almost everyone, ethnic or mainstream. Audiences tend to enjoy people who relate to them, or the products that they sell- famous or not. It is important to remember, however, that not all celebrities are liked universally and some have incredibly potent stigmas attached to their figure (Molobade, 162).

 

Family. As one of the most important things for every ethnic group, it is important to display some sort of familial relation in most targeted advertisements. Most mainstream or ‘nonethnic’ consumers enjoy seeing the nuclear family unit- while Multicultural families have a more unconventional family set-ups. Latino families sometimes have multi-generational homes. While African-Americans do have multi-generational homes, there is the prevalent stereotype of the broken family. These can be spun in a positive, empowering light.  Due to the emphasis of the family in ethnic marketing, the theme tends to be overused. Therefore, it is important to differentiate the brand and involve it closely with the storyline to make sure that your ad is not just part of the clutter (Molobade, 164).

 

Humor, music, celebrities and family are all important factors when creating engaging content, but often the message of the brand gets lost in the storyline. This type of advertising does nothing to support that brand which created the content, and may even raise awareness of a need that is then filled by a competitor. To make sure that customers can easily remember and recall the brand, it must be kept “present at key points of interest.” The most enjoyable parts of the content are the most memorable, and it will do the brand well to have it front and center- whether the logo, or if the brand is involved in the storyline. There are obvious brand cues, such as a logo or tagline, which can be effective tools in both mainstream and targeted advertising. Latinos specifically tend to be very brand loyal consumers, and smaller products/services which do not exist in their home countries may have to work harder to be recognized (Molobade, 173-174).

 

Furthermore, multicultural branding must evoke a response. The product/service must be able to do what it is advertising, and it must be believable. The message, not just the creative storyline, must be grounded in a reality that would convince the audience to commit to a trial purchase. Most of the ethnic ‘targeting’ that we have focused on is involved in the creative portion of marketing, advertising and PR. Following this will extend itself to the message (the non-creative part) and will, by association, make it more credible (Molobade, 180).

 

We have discussed many different aspects of multicultural marketing, from necessity, history, social responsibility, data, incorrect methods and useful tips. All of this is for naught if the person driving these campaigns does not do so in an intelligent way- by realizing that the people who comprise the ethnic markets are not defined solely by their cultures. While culture has a big impact on identity, culture is rarely the reason that a person chooses to purchase a certain car or stay at a certain hotel. There are many qualities that come before culture when a need in recognized, and needs to be filled in a similar manner. Therefore, the cultural elements of advertising should not be the message itself. In this way, success and equality can be found for both factions involved in the marketing process.

 

 

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