Elevating Brands Through Multicultural Marketing 

For a brand to succeed in a multicultural market, forging genuine connections with consumers is essential. Sadly, many brands are neglecting significant consumer segments that don’t neatly align with their majority audience. However, multicultural marketing provides the perfect solution. 

An inclusive approach that appeals to diverse audiences, multicultural marketing can be used to resonate with specific groups domestically or overcome cultural differences to engage with consumer segments in untapped markets. Ready to discover more about how multicultural marketing can help you grow in a competitive market? We’ve got all the information you need. 

What is multicultural marketing? 

A multicultural marketing strategy involves targeting a particular ethnic or cultural group, rather than the general market as a whole. However, don’t make the mistake of assuming this is simply a case of localization. While languages can be retooled and visuals adapted, the main focus here is to inspire readability and promote a feeling of trust between brand and consumer. 

In an effort to reach the multicultural consumer, some brands utilize inclusive marketing strategies. Unlike true multicultural marketing, an inclusive approach involves shining a light on diversity and attempting to resonate with as many people as possible. Multicultural marketing is more focused on reaching a specific group.

Why more brands are waking up to the potential of multicultural marketing

If you want to appeal to consumers, you need to be thinking about diversity when assembling your marketing strategies. Today, it’s the Generation Z demographic that wields significant spending power. More liberal than their predecessors, they’re more engaged with brands with a commitment to social causes, ethical practices, and sustainability. 

Marketing strategies that embrace diversity are more likely to go down well with this consumer segment. However, they’re far more useful for targeting specific consumer segments in new markets. Some of these markets will be saturated, while others will be ripe for the picking. In either case, it’s crucial that brands inspire trust and credibility with consumers before hoping to see a return on investment. 

How to master multicultural marketing strategy

First time putting together a multicultural marketing strategy? While you can lean on your digital marketing experience as a rough guideline, implementing a more inclusive campaign takes careful planning and plenty of patience. 

Hire a diverse multicultural marketing team 

When assembling your marketing team, make sure you’re hiring people who represent the audience you’re ultimately targeting. If you want your messaging to be effective, let people with shared life experiences and common values be the ones who present it to people from their communities. Far from being a superficial gesture, bringing together a diverse multicultural marketing team means you’ll always have access to genuine insights, which can be used to develop effective campaigns that strike all the right notes with your target demographic. 

The importance of cross-cultural consumer research

While focus groups can be a good way of finding out what makes the general market tick, they’re not always relevant when targeting multicultural consumer groups. In fact, many brands neglect to include target demographics in survey samples. If you want your multicultural marketing efforts to pay off, respondents need to represent all cultural demographics you want to connect with. 

However, opening things up to more respondents alone isn’t enough. First, you need to consider whether the methods you’re using are going to capture the data you need. Surveys are a vital consumer research tool, but you’ll need a representative sample for the results to be reliable. Sampling bias is a major downside of surveys, while simply administering them in a new territory can be challenging thanks to cultural and language barriers. 

Focus groups can prove fruitful, but you once again need to accept that your findings aren’t necessarily going to represent the larger population. No matter how successful a focus group has been, avoid using this as your only source of information. Ideally, focus groups should be just one part of a larger cross-cultural consumer research initiative. 

Getting to grips with a new market can seem almost impossible and you can’t rely on a single research method alone. For viable results you can actually put into practice, you’ll need to adopt a multi-pronged approach that’s deep to multicultural consumer behavior, setting these new demographics apart from the consumers you’ve previously been pitching to. 

Triple-check your campaign for accuracy and authenticity

There’s no point investing time and money into multicultural marketing campaigns if your messaging isn’t accurate and authentic. Before your marketing materials get anywhere near their intended audience, they’ll need to go through a rigorous QA process with native speakers to flag any telltale issues that might alienate consumers or cause offense. 

If you’ve sidestepped stereotypes and dismissed oversimplified observations, this process should be fairly painless. However, it can be difficult to capture the complex nuances of a new culture, so don’t be too disheartened if initial feedback isn’t overwhelmingly positive. The more time and energy you invest at this stage, the more authentic your brand is going to seem to a new market. 

For your brand to be seen as authentic, your marketing campaigns need to appear genuinely inclusive. An authentic brand is a more credible one, and a credible brand is far better positioned to thrive in global markets. 

How inclusive is your content marketing material? 

Consumer behavior is driven by visual stimuli, so you need to carefully consider the creative assets you’re using for content marketing purposes. Whether it’s a print ad for a new product or a video-led social media campaign, make sure your target audience can see themselves reflected in the content you’re putting out there.

When a person sees themselves reflected in your marketing videos and image assets, they’ll be more driven to engage with your brand and explore what you’re offering. Of course, you can opt for a broader approach. Multicultural images and videos are effective at establishing a brand as a global one, avoiding tying things down to a specific culture. 

If you haven’t honed in on a particular territory and considered target demographics yet, this balanced approach is ideal for the first wave of marketing. You capture the concept of your brand as an inclusive, international one, and can start localizing once you’ve decided which market to target. 

Be inclusive when making decisions

Management structures and hierarchies vary considerably between companies. Some businesses are incredibly democratic, while others take a more traditional approach to leadership. Even if the buck stops with you, make sure you’re being inclusive throughout those all-important decision-making stages. 

For a multicultural marketing campaign to succeed, there’s no room for unyielding leaders with no time for the insights of others. Make sure you’re actively listening to what your team has to tell you, encouraging less outspoken members to contribute. If you’re dealing with non-native speakers from a distinctly different culture, your management and communication styles may have to adapt slightly. 

Even within your existing team, you’ll have a rich repertoire of perspectives to draw upon. Is something missing? Rather than second-guessing consumer behavior and a culture that still seems alien, bring in a diverse pool of candidates to plug the gap. 

Increase brand awareness by actually engaging the community 

Looking for a surefire way to boost brand awareness? Consider taking a more interactive approach to marketing. Rather than using products and services to introduce consumers to your brand, let your contributions to good causes be your grand hello instead. Consumers are going to respond well to businesses that show a deep understanding of the issues that matter at a local level, while also taking steps to remedy them. 

A simple social media campaign is all it takes to spark engagement and get a discussion going. Keep an eye on interactions on your social pages to read the room. If people are responding well, you’re on to a good thing. If they’re not, think about dialing it back. Pushing too hard here can hurt your credibility in the long run. 

Ready to reap the rewards of moving into a new market? With a powerful multicultural marketing campaign behind you, it’s easier than you think to establish yourself in saturated markets and strike the right note with a brand-new audience. However, you’ll need an experienced localization partner at your side if you want to succeed. At BLEND, we’re all about empowering brands to achieve global growth. With industry-leading technology and a network of thousands of linguists, we’re ready to help you realize your multicultural marketing dreams. 

Key benefits of multicultural marketing

When deployed effectively, multicultural marketing campaigns say a lot about your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. One consumer might not respond with the same level of enthusiasm as the next, but by upholding these values, you can establish trust and forge stronger connections with your consumers. Need more convincing? Below are just a few of the biggest benefits of multicultural marketing.

You enjoy the growth potential of untapped markets

Nowadays, even a small business can become a global one. There are many markets that remain neglected by businesses due to hurdles like remote locations and the language barrier. Pushing into these territories isn’t without risk, but brands brave enough to bite the bullet can be richly rewarded. With no competition, you achieve market dominance automatically, while having plenty of time to grow organically. 

You remain incredibly competitive

Even if a competitor is active in a territory you have your eye on, you can always find an opening. Most brands tend to focus on incredibly narrow slices of the market, throwing all their marketing efforts into appealing to this small demographic. Establish who is being underserved by your competitors and what they need, then retool your own marketing messaging to establish trust, build credibility, and slowly secure your rightful place in the market. 

You show that you’re a brand that cares about its customers

Multicultural marketing is built on very involved consumer research. This alone will have given you exhaustive buyer personas and market insights. If you’ve done things properly, you’ll have a deep understanding of who your audience is and what they need, and can create incredibly targeted messaging that demonstrates you are a brand that just gets its customer. 

Is multicultural marketing the same thing as inclusive marketing? 

Traditionally, multicultural marketing involves targeting specific sections of the market based on strict criteria. However, more brands are starting to realize that this approach might not be the best one. Instead, brands are looking for ways to connect with consumers from a wide range of backgrounds, while still creating a direct line that sparks a connection between customer and brand. 

With an inclusive approach, marketing needs to consider all types of diversity. This could be age, gender identity, or socio-economic status. In short, inclusive marketing forces brands to think about their audience as a disparate population of many different groups, rather than a homogenous one. As such, marketing campaigns need to be carefully crafted to appeal to as many people as possible. However, true inclusive marketing accepts the nuances of the real world. People can’t be compartmentalized and given a single label, so inclusive marketing needs to accommodate this.  

Need help with multicultural marketing? 

Struggling to overcome the language barrier and navigate cultural differences? Whether you’re keen to capitalize on an underserved segment at home or want to target an untapped market, a multicultural market could be the answer. At BLEND, we have all the tools and resources you need to deploy an effective campaign that delivers ROI. With thousands of linguists working in more than 120 languages, we can make multicultural marketing work for you. 

Keen to learn more? Get in touch with our expert team today!

Rotem Leibovitz-Maman

As BLEND’s VP of Growth Marketing, Rotem offers global marketing expertise from her years of experience in driving innovation and growth at international startups and hi-tech companies.

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