By Erika Montgomery
The U.S. consumer market is continually growing in diversity, and multicultural marketing is your gateway to building brand loyalty and sales among these groups. It’s a necessity for brands that are looking to establish real, genuine connections with consumers.
Here are some ways multicultural marketing can help your brand remain relevant when trying to connect with diverse audiences.
What Is Multicultural Marketing?
Multicultural marketing is placing an emphasis on connecting with diverse audiences, specifically those whose culture falls outside the majority or macro culture.
A consumer’s cultural background is important because they consume specific services and products influenced by their language, traditions and other concepts passed down from previous generations and experiences.
To reach diverse audiences, multicultural marketing focuses on understanding those influences and uses them to communicating with the target consumer.
Who Are Multicultural Consumers?
Explained by Heinz Marketing, the U.S. Census Bureau identifies a multicultural consumer as Hispanic or Latino, African American, Asian, Native American, or as two or more ethnicities; they also refer to any communities existing outside of majority American culture, including religious and sexual orientations.
With an increased awareness and value placed on diversity across the country, integrating multicultural marketing into your organization is imperative for your company’s success. According to Heinz Marketing:
Multicultural consumers are typically younger. In 2017, 42 percent of American millennials identified as multicultural, and the group is invariably growing. Additionally, 53 percent of Generation Z identify as multicultural. While you decide who to target and how, keep in mind that age will also play a role in how these individuals think and act as consumers.
As a company that aspires to be successful, your brand’s messages are not always going to be perceived with the same emotional zeal when approaching consumers with a single persona. It’s important to keep up with these demographic changes by adapting to the multicultural market. What steps are you taking to attract these consumers?
Multicultural Marketing Strategy Development
Follow these tips to reach a multicultural audience with your marketing efforts.
1. Use Technology to Reach a Young & Diverse Audience
Embracing technology is one of the best ways to reach younger consumers. Focus on providing your target audience with a genuine, relevant experience through your marketing efforts.
For helpful details about your target audience’s motivations, check which hashtags they respond to best and use in their own profiles, and look for helpful feedback for your brand by monitoring their behavior on your website with Google Analytics. This will provide you with the data to discover which messages and platforms resonate with them best, so you know how to further target your marketing messages towards them.
2. Don’t Make Assumptions About Multicultural Audiences
Even with the analytics you have available, do not pass judgement and start creating your content without researching the community. Do your target users believe your marketing messages are addressing their values and interests? Making assumptions about a diverse market can potentially be harmful and comparable to racism.
Topics centered around culture tend to be sensitive. Use your compiled data as an extra helping hand to better understand your target market while taking the time to do your own research into your specific audience’s behavior.
For example, if you’re targeting a second or third generation multicultural millennial, they will have a different perspective than first generation immigrants that struggled with learning English and adapting to the macro cultural when they arrived from their country of origin.
Minorities in America have different levels of acculturation, which means your marketing messages may impact them differently depending on their experience. Currently, many multicultural consumers are especially interested in social causes, so tying your brand in with current events they’re likely to care about (as appropriate) is likely to increase their interest in your brand.
It’s also important to note that it may be possible your target consumers are not able to interpret your message fully due to language barriers or cultural misunderstandings. Be aware of potential challenges and consider ways to overcome them, such as translating your website into a second or third language beyond English.
3. Create Empowerment for Multicultural Communities
When you’re reaching out to consumers of varying ethnicity, language, age and/or gender, think about how to create a sense of empowerment with your marketing messages.
Many minority groups are historically disadvantaged, often stripped of their voice in the past. In order to gain their trust, give them a voice. When multicultural consumers see that a brand is supportive and motivating, this greater representation allows wider perspectives to be heard, leading to a stronger connection with your target audience.
4. What is Your Marketing Strategy’s Core Message?
What is your business’ vision? Clearly defining and explaining your core message is a perfect way to connect to your audience. Make it emotional and inclusive so consumers in a variety of backgrounds feel they can relate and embrace your brand’s core message.
5. Commit to A Multicultural Marketing Strategy for Success
Large companies like Facebook and Google are working to ensure their marketing messages are inclusive. About 95 percent of multicultural millennials are loyal to the brands they like, so learn what’s important to them and infuse it in your marketing strategy. Fostering this loyalty can influence their willingness to advocate for your brand.
According to UGA Today:
The combined buying power of blacks, Asians and Native Americans is estimated to be $2.2 trillion in 2016, a 138 percent gain since 2000. The same time period saw the buying power of Asian-Americans grow by 222 percent, Native Americans by 164 percent and blacks by 98 percent. All of those markets are expanding faster than the buying power of whites, which increased by 79 percent.
Clearly, it can pay off to invest in multicultural marketing initiatives.
6. Include A Budget for Multicultural Marketing Initiatives
Many marketers realize that multicultural marketing is important, but they still do not have any specific initiatives in place to reach this important group of consumers.
Take the time to invest in multicultural consumers. If your company develops a genuine interest in consumers’ cultural differences, then reaching them through your marketing messages will be much easier. Leading with multicultural insights can help you craft realistic and sustainable strategies that will better resonate with your target consumers.
See Original Article at Business 2 Community
