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Resource
Centre > Best practice/case studies
Ethnic Marketing and Public Relations Introduction “If you don't recognise that people are
different you aren't going to get anywhere. Businesses should be about
engaging people. We've got too many of everything and too few customers.
When people have a choice and prices are falling, that's when marketing
comes into its own.” Ethnic marketing and media is as important as mainstream marketing and media, and in some ways can be more important. It's got nothing to do with tokenism but everything to do with customer segmentation and understanding your audience. It's a point that's not very well understood by many public relations and marketing professionals. Yet ethnic marketing is growing in importance for many mainstream brand owners. Michael Jordan is one of the most famous faces on the planet. He retired a few years ago, got bored spending his vast wealth and bought into a basketball team called the Wizards. He had been the star player for the Chicago Bulls and helped his team to win the NBA league many times. At his peak, he was the richest player in basketball and one of the richest sportsmen in the world. But his greatest achievement was building the brand Nike. Michael Jordan is estimated by Fortune Magazine to have contributed a staggering $6billion in licensed merchandise sales for the NBA during his career. He is a good example of the massive influence of black culture on mainstream marketing. So too is the rapper Busta Rhymes. Rap music is arguably part of mainstream culture on both sides of the Atlantic, but of course it's black culture. In the UK, the cross fertilisation of ethnic and mainstream cultures really started to take off in the 60s with the Beatles. They were in many ways pioneers where West meets East and were famous for experimenting with Eastern music, culture and religion. The Fab Four became the grandfathers of today's popular culture. There is also an increasing non-Asian fan base for movies that make it big in India. One of my favourites is ‘Mother India', a classic black and white film from 1957 which is probably just as famous as ‘Gone with the Wind' in movie history. In fact Mumbai's movie industry makes around 800 films each year, compared to about 100 that come out of Hollywood, making India the most prolific film-producing country in the world. These are just a handful of examples which illustrate the influence of ethnic media and culture on the mainstream. What is meant by 'ethnic'? There's a lot of misunderstanding regarding what is meant by the term 'ethnic'. Perceptions of what's and what's not ethnic change over time. For instance, in the UK, the best selling snack food is the humble samosa which is probably as much a part of mainstream British cuisine as another British favourite - curry and rice! In fact, Marks and Spencer's sell more chicken tikka masala prepared meals (a British invention) then any other choice of convenience meal. The common use of the word 'ethnic'
refers to a segment or sub-culture that can be distinguished from the
dominant culture on the basis of:
However, there may or may not be a degree of mutual exclusivity present when applying the definition “ethnic” to a person, product or service and therefore cultural heritage, affinity and genetic heritage are ‘markers' of ethnicity rather than making up a complete definition. In the US, for example, research by Professor Neal Burns and Dr Martha Russell of the University of Texas found that racial affiliation (African American, Native American, Caucasian and Asian) was only one component of ethnic identity. Within this segment the researchers were able to break this down into primary and secondary ethnic affiliation with nearly 40% of respondents identifying with an additional ethnic background. However, ethnic background and racial affiliation represent only two sources of identity and group affiliation that can be used to identify and address consumers. Lifestyle and “community” identity are also important. In the US research, lifestyle affiliation was measured by respondents' selection of lifestyle terms to describe themselves. Although most respondents identified with multiple lifestyle segments and were not significantly influenced by their racial affiliation or ethnic background, the researchers found that those with multiple lifestyles were more frequently found to share more than one ethnic affiliation. Lifestyle Affiliations:
Community Affiliations:
Ethnic identity is also influenced by attitudes between first, second and third generations. Initially people fear their children may loose their culture and so they teach their children language and traditions. Others accept the inevitability of change and allow their children some freedom in the hope this will encourage their children to appreciate their culture and heritage. It's a compromise between the first, second and third generations. As can be seen from the US research, ethnicity to a large extent is self defined. It is all too easy to attach an “ethnic tag” based upon a simple list of demographic origins. This of course poses a challenge for PR and marketing professionals. In my view, we must increasingly examine and accept an individual's self classification rather than try to place that individual into an ethnic stereotype. Given the opportunity, people elect to describe themselves along several ethnic dimensions. In turn the perception and incorporation of several ethnic identities can affect attitudes and perceptions in powerful ways. The concept of brand too, brings with it the consumer's interest in being perceived by others in a certain way. It is this complex relationship that affects and drives affinity to brands. What is the population of the UK? Britain has a population of about 59 million, according to the latest statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk). Of these, 49 million (83.6%) live in England, 5 million (8.6%) in Scotland, 3 million (3.9%) live in Wales and 1.6 million (2.9%) live in Northern Ireland. How large is the ethnic population of the UK? Increasingly, organisations and brand owners need to communicate with diverse audiences, which pose more challenges for communication professionals. Figures for ethnic groups in the UK, published as part of Census 2001, shows a rapidly shifting demographic population of ethnic minority groups (around 5m of the total population of the UK).
Other recent ethnic population figures
Black African and Bangladeshi communities are the fastest growing of these populations. You would expect a higher proportion of black Africans are born outside the UK and an even higher proportion of Chinese whereas the majority of the white population has been born in the UK. This picture is changing where the majority of blacks in the UK will be born here and where the composition of ethnic groups will be over 80% home grown. This is also a highly educated part of the population where around 16% of all males and 18% of all females have A-levels or equivalent and above. What does this mean for marketing and PR professionals? Successful brand owners will now start (unless they haven't already done so) to segment target consumer groups more carefully by taking account of the increasing ethnic population of their audience. For example, one ethnic group that has excelled is the Asian community in the UK. Of all ethnic groups they enjoy the greatest commercial and financial success with a combined disposable income of a whopping £10 billion. As a brand owner, if you're not interested in converting even 1% of this lucrative market, you will be losing out to your competitors who see the value of marketing to this group. For example, Mercedes sells a high percentage of its top range luxury cars to Asians. And yet there are limited images of Asians in the mainstream media - particularly on TV and TV commercials. Research by Media Reach Consulting shows that Asians, Arabs and Chinese are less than impressed with TV, on both language and cultural issues. Mainstream media stands accused of portraying black people as sportspeople or musicians and Asians as shop keepers. The fact is that many audiences are turned off by stereotyping by broadcasters and brands. The key is market segmentation which can be a complex process. The movie ‘Bend it like Beckham' is a good example of messages working on a number of levels – marketing the movie to a diverse audience although positioning it as a British comedy in the same mould as Bridget Jones, a very different type of film. This works brilliantly and the movie is does well at the box office. Another example of the integration of ethnic humour into the mainstream is the hit BBC 2 show ‘Goodness Gracious Me'. So why bother with ethnic media? In total there are over 200 separate ethnic radio, TV, print and web channels in the UK, and they are growing. Reasons why the ethnic media in the UK is growing:
Where the ethnic media has made a difference and led to some changes in policy:
Ethnic media in the UK providing a different type of content
Who uses the ethnic media channels?
Many of these organisations either use the ethnic media for recruitment or for marketing their products and services. Recent Research on Media Consumption Trends (2003) According to published research (March 2003), minority ethnic audiences in the UK represent a significant cultural and consumer force. Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity - like other forms of societal change - represents both a threat and an opportunity to marketers. New consumer segments can provide fresh sources of top-line growth with focused new product development. However diversity can also mean audience fragmentation, making mass appeal products and mass communications less viable. Marketers are typically unaware of whether or how their own behaviour needs to change to meet the challenge of diversity. This is in marked contrast to media, employers and policy-makers, all of whom are keenly aware of the issues arising from ethnic diversity. Best practice in reaching diverse audiences Best practice in communicating with minority ethnic groups involves consideration of the following elements: Defining objectives (in economic and social terms) This could include:
Audience segmentation of ethnic groups along the following lines:
The marketing strategy should cover:
Measurement and evaluation of the following potential outcomes:
Further information Please contact Ardi Kolah, Saad Saraf and Javed Husain at Media Reach Consulting, 3 Cameron House, 12 Castlehaven Road, London NW1 8QW. Tel: 0207 284 2664 |
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