The Multicultural Marketing - Essay Example

? MARKETING FOR MULTICULTURAL AUDIENCE  PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to show that how business manager can control the multicultural employees and to provide the most suitable environment to be one of the best in marketing for multicultural audience and what may be the best circumstances for them. To succeed, international marketers must understand the nature and extent of difference between the consumers of different societies so they can develop effective targeted marketing strategies. INTRODUCTION  Today almost all major corporations are actively marketing their products beyond their original homeland borders. Infact the issue is generally not whether to market a brand in other countries or to target multiple audience but rather “how to do it” (as the same product with the same “global” advertising campaign, or “tailored” products and localized ads for each country). Today, marketers are much more aware of the significant opportunity that the varying demographic groups present. What's more, they realize that they can no longer afford to neglect the combined buying power of ethnic Americans who, according to estimates, make up $1.3 trillion, or 18.5%, of all US buying. To appeal to these highly lucrative and diverse audiences, marketers are abandoning traditional mass-marketing practices in favor of laser-focused, multicultural marketing efforts. This paper is discussing following points: 1. Understanding what is multicultural marketing? 2. Ways in which ethnicity can be incorporated into marketing strategy. 3. Presenting steps that how a marketer can reach its diverse customers in best possible way. 4. Importance of marketing for multicultural audience, and the benefits and advantages from being unique marketers for multicultural audience.  THE MULTICULTURAL MARKETING  First of all it’s important to know that what multicultural marketing is. The Webster dictionary defines multiculturalism as “the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation.” Taken literally then Multicultural Marketing could be defined as applying marketing principles, strategies and programs to segments of the market that possess more than one cultural identity; but it is not that simple. This paper although focuses on cross-cultural marketing, the discussion is at the level of the individual nation-state rather than marketing between countries. In multicultural societies the composition of the population can be highly culturally diverse, comprising many ethnic groups which necessitate a cross cultural approach to marketing strategy and management as suggested by Rugimbana and Nwanko (2003). Here it is important to highlight the importance of ethnicity in marketing in multicultural societies or as WiLkison and Cheng (1999: 106) refer to it “international marketing at home. TECHNIQUES FOR MULTICULTURAL MARKETING: According to Tharp (2001), decision-makers in organizations in multicultural markets should have the skill of “border mentality” — identifying multiple situational-cultural meanings, or should perform the role of transmigrants” — bridging or overlapping agents among two or more subcultures. In order to be broad minded following techniques should be adopted: 1) To spot patterns that allow subcultures to be grouped together, so that a common marketing Strategy may be extended to several subcultures in a group (“transcultural” marketing); 2) To develop a distinct marketing strategy for each subculture, if there is a significantly distinct cultural dimension that is important to the specific culture (multicultural marketing); 3) To further segment audiences in a subculture, if needed, in terms of cultural affinity, cultural identity or acculturation level (tactical adaptation within a subculture); 4) To develop parameters of culturally acceptable marketing stimuli; and 5) to establish a protocol for measuring cultural effectiveness of the stimuli. THE MOST CRITICAL ISSUES FACED BY MANAGERS  The critical issues are defined below: Difference in language Different consumption patters and product usage Needs are different Economic and social conditions Marketing conditions (religion restricts marketing techniques in few countries). DEALING WITH STAFF: While doing multicultural marketing, employers must begin viewing employees not as passive recipients of bene?t packages, but rather as consumers of jobs, career opportunities, and bene?t. The extent to which managers affect on their staff and the extent to which the multicultural market affect the business in its marketing. Many companies do not give enough thought, or consideration, to the diversity aspect in both their day-to-day interaction with customers - or in some cases, their staff. Whether this is through ignorance, or an unwillingness to move with the times, it is, at this time, unclear A company’s employees are its most precious asset, and any reputable forward thinking manager or Managing Director will want to do their best to make the employees feel they are understood and valued. Diversity marketing and multicultural marketing are extremely complex areas; and although some steps can be taken independently to improve awareness and ethnic marketing development, these well intentioned attempts can sometimes result in causing offence. In order to resolve these issues a competitive HR system has to be developed. THE BEST SOUTIONS AND DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THOSE ISSUES  DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THE MULTICULTURAL MARKETING 1. Assimilation and Acculturation Assimilation and acculturation are often used interchangeably, or in a manner implying that they are a continuum in a person’s life. In other words, the word assimilation refers to the replacement of one’s birth culture by another. Conversely, the word acculturation refers to the preservation of one’s birth culture and the addition of another culture, becoming in fact, multicultural. Assimilation and acculturation are not necessarily stages in a journey to embracing the American culture. For the groups that are fully assimilated, an acculturation phase may precede an assimilated state. For the groups that want to adopt the new general culture without losing its ethnic culture, assimilation is not an end state. Acculturation is. 2. A NEW FRAMEWORK DePaul University in Chicago, recently founded a Multicultural Marketing Program (www.marketing.depaul.edu/multicultural). he says “In my work on the Multicultural Marketing Program I have developed the following framework as a way to think about the topic: “Multicultural marketing:  A disciplined approach to applying marketing principles to segments of the market who tend to preserve different cultures and identities while also adopting varying levels of the mainstream culture on a situational basis.  This concept goes beyond 'ethnic' marketing by fully studying the differences, similarities, and influences in consumer behavior between dominant culture segments and other cultures segments. This concept also goes further, identifying the best practices for implementing the marketing and new product development processes. Although it is common to focus multiculturalism on Hispanic, African American, and Asian communities, the concept applies to other groups, in other countries, as well.”” This framework acknowledges that there are increasingly large consumer groups who are comfortable with and opt to be bi-cultural. It also points at the adoption of varying levels of the mainstream culture, indicating that not everyone within an acculturated group will adopt most aspects of the general culture. This new framework is better for managers to adopt. The proposed expanded definition allows for discussion and inclusion of all these variables. Companies should start by defining what multicultural marketing means to them before making investment decisions based on the idea ‘de jour’. The stakes are too high to spend another fifteen to twenty years trying to figure out multicultural marketing. ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS  The ethical implications of the issues are given below: Inadvertent stereotypes: refers to situations where the actual messages are stereotypical and do not reflect the diversity of minority group Biology and genetics: refers to the use of superficial or exaggerated physical or biological attributes of minority group; Nature of the product: targeting of ethnic market with negative, inferior or harmful products; redlining: selection or exclusion of markets based on racial lines; Ethnocentric bias: when fundamental principles of marketing based on behavior of majority. SOLUTION: There is an urgent need for more systematic and conceptual and cross cultural analyses of the psychological, social and cultural characteristics concerning the consumption habits of foreign consumers. Such analyses would identify increased marketing opportunities that would benefit both international marketers and their targeted consumers. REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES ABOUT MULTICULTURAL MARKETING    McDonalds is the best example of multicultural marketing. In 1955, McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. Today, 2008, it operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide, in 119 countries, on six continents, employing more than 1.5 million people all over the world.  McDonald is a multi-domestic company because they adjust to the cultures of their host countries. This is most seen in their branch in India. Cows are held sacred in the Indian religion of Hinduism which is why McDonald’s India doesn’t serve beef. Can you imagine? A McDonald’s restaurant without beef? Indian McDonald’s burgers are purely vegetarian and they serve several other products that are 100% beef free like several kinds of wraps and pans. It does multicultural marketing with following strategies: 1) Sharing interests with customers, 2) Developing specific marketing strategies for different cultures, 3) Identifying important cultural values and situational identities for distinctive cultural groups, 4) targeting “contact points” between consumers and brands, and 5) Facilitating consumer dialogue by acquiring intensive (vs. extensive) information about their target customers (vs. all potential buyers). CONCLUSION  In conclusion, marketers in multicultural environments should realize the importance of multicultural marketing and must be “culturally sensitive” enough to be successful in complex, diverse multicultural markets. The definition of subcultures and its marketing usage may vary across different cultures and marketing situations. However, the bottom line is that culturally sensitive marketers should know themselves, understand their customers, and create a marketing atmosphere where every market segment receives attention, respect, and appropriate messages. In short, multicultural market planning must begin with 1) Understanding cross-cultural differences in communication patterns, values, and behavior, Followed by 2) Evaluating the need for adjustments in strategy and tactics, 3) Assessing cultural affinity among ethnic audiences, 4) Segmenting the ethnic audiences based on the level of cultural affinity, 5) Exploring culturally acceptable/unacceptable, sensitive/insensitive advertising messages among the identified segments, 6) Developing the most effective and efficient advertising tactics targeted to the identified segments, and finally 7) Evaluating the effectiveness of advertising campaigns among different target segments REFERNCES: Rugimbana , R, and Nnwako, S. 2003. Cross-cultural marketing. Cengage . Learning, EME. Tharp, M.C. (2001), Marketing and Consumer Identity in Multicultural America, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wilkinson, I. F., & Cheng, C. (1999). Multicultural marketing in Australia: Synergy and diversity. Journal of International Marketing, 7(3), 106-124 Read More