Cross Cultural Marketing Strategies
Marketing that fails to speak to a broad audience is marketing that fails. To engage the largest possible consumer base, marketing professionals must send messages that transcend cultural barriers and engage potential customers of every racial, ethnic and religious heritage. Although there is no one-size-fits-all formula for accomplishing this task, certain cross-cultural competency elevates marketing materials from the largest international agency to the smallest neighborhood entrepreneur.
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Cross-Cultural Competency
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Many marketing campaigns fail to resonate with segments of the target market because the message was insufficiently sensitive to a broad range of perspectives. Usually this failure isn't deliberate -- rarely do marketing professionals choose to alienate potential customers. Instead, the basic error is ignorance; the marketing program does not reflect a particular community's investment in certain words or symbols. The only real way to address this is through focus groups with members of all the intended demographics -- these consumers will tell you if an ad program crosses a line or fails to connect.
Race and Sex
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Race and sex are two aspects of the contemporary diversity movement that are immediately obvious. Avoid stereotyping by casting actors into specific roles -- for example, a golf club manufacturer should avoid ads with a black man playing caddy to a white man, and a grocery store should think twice about casting women as smiling cashiers fawning on well-dressed male customers. People notice the presence or absence of racial and sexual diversity, so think carefully about whether a marketing program should reflect a mix of faces.
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Religion
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In most cases, you can't identify a person's religion by looking at him, although Sikhs and Hasidic Jews and some other faith traditions wear distinctive apparel that sets them apart. The major concern with religion is to avoid inadvertent offense. For example, don't try to sell pork chops by saying they're so tasty that even a Jew will eat them, and avoid selling items with stereotypes of disapproving nuns. Most people won't deliberately offend a religious group, but they will deploy humor and act in good faith. However, humor has a way of backfiring in spectacular fashion, so the safest course is to avoid mockery -- no matter how benign -- of the ritual symbols of a specific faith tradition.
Sexual Orientation
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Although more companies are marketing to openly gay audiences, the tendency remains to stereotype them. A recent content analysis of commercials on the Logo Channel -- a TV station dedicated to gay and lesbian programming -- showed upward of 70 percent of items specifically marketed to gay men included young males, often shirtless, who promised quick and easy results. Speaking to a demographic in its own vocabulary is one thing; pandering is quite another. Stereotypes are just as offensive when they're intended to be positive as when they're negative.
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