By The Gonzales Group
Multicultural marketing is about casting a wider net to seek customers that ultimately will help boost your bottom line. What many organizations struggle with is “the how” of multicultural marketing. Here are a few strategies that have not only helped organizations reach the multicultural consumer but also helped to grow their profitability regardless of the overall economic conditions.
1.Know Your Customer
Knowing the demographics is one thing but understanding the perspective of the potential home buyer is another. Organizations often get caught up in the frenzy of rushing a product or service to market without giving much thought to the perspective of the customer. Having all your collateral marketing material literally translated into Chinese is a noble gesture, but if your readers do not understand the fundamental principles of home buying or the concept of lending it may as well be in hieroglyphics.
Do the research to find the stages of assimilation of your target audience or the degree of foreign-language use in the home. This type of information can help you utilize your resources and marketing dollars more wisely.
2. Being Relevant
Successful organizations take into account the language and cultural nuances of their targeted audience to insure that their product or service has relevance. Make certain that your product or service is in-culture and not offensive when it comes to phraseology, color, or numbers. As innocent as a marketing campaign may be, the message sent may be as offensive as selling a product here in the U.S. that is packaged in black with the number “13? or “666? on it. Pretty Scary.
3. The Bottom Line
As with all marketing initiatives, it is important to have the support of all the players in the organization from senior leaders to your front line administrative staff and sales teams. Understanding multicultural marketing takes time and is viewed as a long-term investment by successful organizations. Calculating ROI in the traditional sense often takes time to discern meaningful trends. Successful organizations adapt to the changing climate by focusing more on relationship-oriented metrics such as customer loyalty.
For more information, visit www.thegonzalesgroup.com.
