Even though businesses have been focusing on multicultural marketing, according to Forbes, there are still 5 hidden Hispanic markets in the US that are waiting to be tapped into. This shows how much potential there is for business to grow and experiment with their offerings.
However, multicultural marketing is where businesses should tread lightly. Many things can go wrong, and it doesn’t take long for the social media to light up and create controversies. What was a sincere marketing effort can easily come across as an act to hurt sentiments.
Here are five blunders that businesses should avoid when marketing to ethnic groups:
Ignoring the numbers
It is really important to get as much data on the target audience as possible. Thinking that one ethnic group can be treated as a single unit to target is one of the biggest mistake businesses make.
Even among the Hispanics, there are three broad categories: US Dominant, Bilingual and Hispanic Dominant. Each group has different lifestyle, tastes and preferences and should be targeted accordingly.
Similarly, using the right labels is also necessary; otherwise it might not appeal to the audience at all. Some may prefer to be called Hispanics, while others prefer being called Latinos. Getting the right stats and implementing them to the strategy is the key to succeeding.
Using only one language
Most of the ethnic groups in the US are bilingual as they are slowly integrating into the culture.
This is why using only Spanish is not a good for targeting Hispanics. However, this does not mean that Spanish is slowly becoming irrelevant to the Hispanics, and soon English-only campaigns will work. Forbes believes that Spanish will remain relevant and being bilingual is the best approach in multicultural marketing.
Not understanding the culture
Multicultural marketing is more than language and demographics. It has a lot to do with the cultural and religious values that are associated with a particular ethnic group.
Not understand the cultural significance or sentiments of a particular group are more often the case of controversy and culture appropriation.
Targeting several ethnic groups in the wrong way
One interesting study reported that ethnic minority groups are more comfortable seeing ads with white people, rather than members of any other ethnic minority group.
This means that businesses willing to target multiple minority groups in a single campaign, for example a Ramadan campaign targeting Muslims, should use white models in their ads rather than models belonging to one particular Muslim-majority ethnic group.
Not hiring An Advertising Agency
By hiring a third party to carry out the marketing campaign is the best thing businesses can do to ensure that the marketing campaign is effective. This will ensure that the marketing campaign achieves its objectives, while also avoiding any unnecessary controversies.
We are one of the leading multicultural marketing agencies in the country and have over 14 years of experience in successfully formulating and implementing multicultural marketing campaigns.