Marketing 101: An Inclusive Approach to Multicultural Marketing

There is no question that the faces of our society are rapidly changing.  Our last census reported that roughly 42 million people identify as “Black” in the United States. This is not to mention recent Nielsen findings that suggest Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the nation, amongst increased growth of other racial minorities.  In our multicultural, multimedia landscape, effective execution of a brand’s communication efforts are key to capture and retain targeted audiences. But, how do we effectively market mainstream products to these various racial audiences? What approach do we take?

It’s been said that brands should include multicultural outreach in their overarching marketing strategy, and I tend to agree. Taking an inclusive approach to multicultural marketing includes efforts that represent the faces, lifestyles, and insights of your targeted racial groups-off course after comprehensive research. This is not to say that every Febreze commercial should include a Black family, if the brand’s goal is to reach out to that demographic; however, by including different family structures from various racial backgrounds for example, you then assume an inclusive approach to your marketing efforts.

More than ever, we’d like for you to remember these key steps when aiming to communicate with multicultural audiences:

• Do your research! As with any audience, extensive research about your target demographics is vital when creating a marketing communications strategy. With multicultural audiences, it’s important to go beyond demographics and look for key insights of a group’s beliefs, wants, desires, and aspirations. With these nuggets of information, you can better conceptualize and execute communication tactics that speak to the group’s core values.

• Give Your Campaign a Test Drive. Before launching your campaign to the masses, try conducting focus groups to gauge accurate feedback of your efforts. Include a balanced mixture of participants from various walks of life and ethnicities to attain a more holistic perspective of your efforts’ effectiveness. Based on your findings, you can either move forward and execute or, head back to the drawing board for a few tweaks of your strategy.

• Weigh and Measure. As with any other marketing communications campaign, it’s important to measure your campaign’s success or failure amongst said audiences. Make note of what tactics may have worked, or could have been executed better amongst your chosen channels of communication.

With all of that said, for your viewing pleasure here are a few examples of campaigns that we thought hit the inclusive nail on the head:

Burlington Coat Factory: “Brag About It” Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE7wabmGOPU

State Farm Insurance: “Magic Jingle” Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRS4shfH1Pw

Beats by Dre: “What Will You B?” Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO33POVfplE