CRM - March 2008 - (Page 26)

MULTICULTURAL MARKETING Fortune 500 companies employ some form of multicultural marketing, which suggests that the rest of the industry is likely further behind. McDonald’s was one of the major pioneers in this arena, featuring African American actors in a 1971 commercial that contributed to building the brand nationwide. Since then, many companies have attempted to specifically target the growing population of minorities, and while a few have been successful, many have failed—and some miserably—leaving those companies with the conviction that they were better off targeting the general market. But the multicultural market isn’t going away—and never will. Currently a third of the U.S. population, that share is projected to reach one-half by 2050. And with more than $1.5 trillion in spending general agency targets—just more rigorous and more efficient,” Muse says. With dramatically smaller budgets, moreintensive research, and less internal support, multicultural marketers are still expected to deliver the same results in the same amount of time, if not sooner. Targeting the multicultural market requires the same business sense that is the backbone of any company. “You’ll want to go to your most profitable segments,” says Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft CRM. Therefore, he believes, “it wouldn’t be smart to not invest in the marketing that’s appropriate to different cultures you want to connect with.”While Muse agrees that it’s unlikely that companies would irrationally cut multicultural budgets if that’s where the revenue is, he worries that few marketers grasp that the ethnic markets may concomes to their role as subjects of marketing. One Asian American woman in her 20s tells CRM magazine that it doesn’t matter to her if a particular product promises to create the shiniest, most voluminous hair—if the model pictured on the box isn’t ethnically Asian, she’ll never believe it will work for her. At the other end of the spectrum, a 50-year-old man who immigrated to the U.S. more than 25 years ago says he’s complacent with the fact that advertising doesn’t directly apply to him. His reason? “Because I’m the minority and I have to adapt.” CHANGE STARTS AT THE TOP Because senior management support plays a crucial role in developing marketing initiatives—especially multicultural ones—companies will need to start by reorganizing their corporate structure Multicultural marketing requires more than just having a multicultural cast in a commercial. power already, according to Larry Moskowitz, vice president of integrated marketing and business development at Global Advertising Strategies, the question isn’t Should you target multicultural consumers? but Can you afford not to? Multicultural marketers have to perform like business superheroes. They have to be courageous risk-takers, willing to offer the next big idea, stand by it, and see it through until the end. Unfortunately, few get the chance to let campaigns take their course before being forced to show results. “We all believe that we have to do it very quickly,” laments Ron Campbell, president of New York–based strategic research and consulting firm Campbell-Communications. “We’ve lost sight of how advertising started: It’s something that happens over time it was about changing thought that would hopefully evolve into changing consumer behavior.” While justifying investments is the bane of any marketer’s career, for the multicultural marketer the pressure is exacerbated. “When you look at how to reach people of color, it’s the same way you reach 26 tain their most valuable consumers. Muse recalls a client meeting “not too many years ago” in which he explained the need to develop ethnic advertising; the client replied,“This all sounds very good, but it just seems too complicated.” This misguided sentiment is precisely why multicultural marketing has taken such small strides in the American market. “[The general market] has been segmented to the nth degree,” says Valerie Romley, author and chief research officer at San Francisco–based Moving Target Research Group. “Why marketers don’t feel the value in doing that in the multicultural population, which is even more fragmented and diverse, I’m not sure.” At the heart of the matter, the issues go beyond marketing—they require a societal shift. For the most part, the heart of the advertising industry resides on the two coasts, “but ‘the flyover space’ is a rough-and-tumble area,” Romley says, referring to the heartland in between. She suspects that the majority “is probably moving at the most it can handle.” Even multicultural consumers show signs that they are conflicted when it and advocating representation from within. “The workforce and executive teams need to reflect the consumer,” Armando Martin, director of multicultural marketing at grocery chain SuperValu, told the audience at the Association of National Advertisers’ 2007 Multicultural Marketing Conference last November. “We need more VPs, SVPs, CMOs that’s when the change will happen.” Ron Campbell says that, in his experience, the clients that are the most sincere and successful in multicultural marketing are those that have senior-level involvement—that’s where, he says, the “real motivation” comes from. “Part of the problem with multicultural marketing is that you can’t intuitively evaluate it [if] you’re not part of that market.” As a result, says Janet Smith, founder and president of consulting firm Ivy Planning Group, most chief marketing officers lack the gut feeling that pushes them to think, “I need to do this.” They’re more likely to react to the competition, rather than pursue the market on their own. Without management support, the lone marketer is left to decide whether or www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2008 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2008

CRM - March 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Re-shoring Contact Centers NetSuite’s Sweet Ride Takes Another Turn SaaS X.0? destinationCRM Dashboard Retailers Dream Big Detroit: Driven to Distraction Required Reading The Markets Within the Masses In Search of... Selling CRM to Your Sales Force Quixtar’s Quick Fix Travelocity’s New Traveling Companion Chasing Down First-Call Resolution Governing Better Marketing Secret of My Success Re: Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.