How to embrace diversity with your marketing strategy

It’s by  no means the 1960’s anymore, which means most marketers “get” that multicultural marketing is a must in the modern world. That doesn’t mean, however, that every commercial needs to have 5 different ethnic groups represented or a different ad targeting every minority group. Multicultural or “inclusion” marketing should feel much more organic than that. And remember that by 2042, no one ethnic group is going to have a majority. The whole world will be one big melting pot.

 

Perform a spot-check on your multicultural strategies

 

First of all, Carol Watson, the founder and president of Tangerine Watson, Inc., said businesses shouldn’t feel like they have to recalibrate their entire marketing strategy playbook. Most of the time, your main plan is sound enough because you’re already aware that diversity in marketing needs to happen.

 

But, said Watson, “There may be disconnects in strategy, unrecognized chances to make the most of data that exists or missed opportunities to leverage diversity from the company’s internal and external stakeholders.”

 

Get outside input

 

It’s possible to be too close to your own marketing campaigns. It good take fresh eyes looking at your strategies to point out what you could do to be more inclusive. There are consultants who special in cultural agility transformation whom you can hire to go over your brand’s public persona, social media posts, advertising schedule, etc. Other companies have found success by creating dedicated employee committees which work to solve inclusion challenges.

 

Pepperdine University conducted a study analyzing how companies solve the cultural divide dilemma. The researchers reported, “One executive . . . held a strategy consortium with external ad agencies to weave inclusive marketing into every aspect of their marketing processes. This helped the marketing communications team connect to consumers more authentically.”

 

Gathering and interpreting data

 

Part of developing a good inclusive marketing program is collecting the appropriate data about your consumers. Find out who is buying your products, from where, and why they’re doing it in order to discover who is actually converted to your brand, who the one-time customers are, and who is turned off by insensitive advertising material. Once you have your data, you can incorporate more inclusive strategies where they are most needed.

 

Marketing News brought to you by ClickToCallMarket.com Source: forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/12/05/5-strategies-to-avoid-embarrassing-marketing-missteps-in-a-multicultural-world/2/