Notes

Multicultural Marketing by Victor Edozien of The Asaba Group Holdings

Book Excerpt: Alfred Schreiber’s Multicultural Marketing – Selling to the New America

How should a company find success in America’s growing multicultural markets?

That is a disarmingly simple question. Therefore, I will answer in an equally simple way.

A company should think about entering the new markets in essentially the same way it would think about entering a new market abroad. You begin by asking these strategic questions:

1. What are the relevant market segments? (Size and defining attributes)

2. What is your unique value proposition to these segments? How well do your products fit the needs of the target consumers?

3. What are the optimal channels to fulfil the requirements of the target segments?

Bringing it Back Home

Three Questions to Ask

1. How big is the relevant business opportunity?

2. What are the relative consumers segments?

3. How do those segments overlap with my product portfolio?

Therefore, it is critical to take a strategic approach, and not simply spending money advertising in appropriate media.

This is one reason many marketers find themselves in the unfortunate position of saying, “I’m spending all this money in the ethnic segment, but I have no idea whether I am making any sales.”

When marketers express this concern, it is because fundamental marketplace questions have not been asked and answered - the fundamental questions we have discussed above, which must be asked before going into any market.

In addition, questions that are more logical follow.

Is Your Infrastructure Up to the Job?

What portions of your existing infrastructure can you leverage in going after the new multicultural market opportunity?

If you are going after an ethnic segment within the U.S., there are certain elements of your existing infrastructure that you can leverage and some that you cannot utilize in its present form. You might use the same distribution channel and maybe the same sales force. Nevertheless, you have to ask, is that the right way to proceed? Alternatively, is some new kind of thinking required?

As an example, let us consider a marketing problem that can be quite revealing.

Let us say you are a skin-care company and that you have products with a high potential usage with African-Americans, e.g. a lotion that can be an effective remedy for razor bumps. African- American men have a very high incidence of razor bumps and ingrown hairs on their skin after shaving.

Now, if your company already has a product that addresses this problem, the next question is how well are you reaching African-American consumers? Do they have to go to Macy’s or another department store to purchase it? If so, is that the optimal channel to sell your products? I say no. I say the sales you are getting through such general distribution channels are just general-market sales. If you are going to tap the real potential of the African-American market, you have to repackage your product, so that it becomes culturally relevant to African-American consumers.

This can be an African-American cultural image on the packaging - or some other relevant message on the packaging. (Interesting to note, it can be the same product that is already in your product lineup.)
The next question is; how do you distribute the product? The best way is going to be through barbershops and beauty shops that cater to African-Americans.

Because African-Americans, in general, do not get their hair cut or get shaves at typical mainstream salons and boutiques. They have their own hair care channel, which is unique and different from going to your typical saloon. Therefore, if you are the skin-care company and you have an appropriately packaged product, you now sell it through all those beauty locations that are used by African-Americans.

Then you begin to advertise it through African-American dominated media (print and electronic). Marketing investments are promotional fees for free samples rather than listing fees, coop dollars or floor space investments, which characterizes the department stores channel. In addition, you have a unique SKU that allows tracking of product sales and profit contribution in your targeted market segment. You are no longer in the position of saying, “I’m running some ads, but I don’t know how effective they are or if these ads are generating sales.