Advertising Age - September 5, 2011

VIEWPOINT

Edited by
Ken Wheaton,
kwheaton@adage.com
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VERONICA MANLOW & ROGER GONZALEZ

As sun sets on
multicultural space,
execs must adapt

Multicultural marketing, in the traditional sense of the phrase, is dead. There, we said it. Call it what you like: “Armageddon,” a “tipping point,” a “paradigm shift.” It doesn’t matter.

Even with the latest 2010 U.S. Census numbers now on the books and ethnic minorities accounting for the greatest growth sector, marketers continue to underspend with no real breakthrough in sight. Go to any of the few ethnic ad agencies still left and you’ll hear, “we are evaluating our options,” trying to “secure client budget approval,” and so on. As early as the middle of this summer, some agencies were telling traditional media reps that their multicultural ad spending for 2011 was done! In July? Really?

So what killed multicultural marketing? A number of things.

The collapse of “traditional” ethnic segments in light of the emergence of new multicultural identities among consumers— we are not “Hispanic,” we are “Dominican/Ecuadorian”—was a key factor. The 2010 U.S. Census paints a surprising portrait of an America less amenable to classification because of all the layers they bring to the equation. Americans are simultaneously more and less segmented.

FEWER OPPORTUNITIES:

With the shuttering of titles such as En Familia, there are fewer ad options in traditional multicultural media.

Marketers have still not figured out how to engage this changing consumer. There are new realities in consumer behavior and culture. Culture and ethnicity in truth represent only a small piece of the layered puzzle of consumer behavior. What has emerged is a hybrid culture with a bricolage of influences.

The economy, too, played a role. With economic decline comes the unavoidable scaling down in marketing budgets and traditional ad spending. And guess what? Multicultural budgets are often the first to go. When big players like Disney, who insists it is committed to ethnic markets, cut losses by closing En Familia magazine, you begin to see that the traditional approach—and media—are under attack.

That brings us to our third cause: the demise of traditional media coupled with the emergence of digital and social-media marketing. With severe cuts in ad spending, smaller ethnic newspapers, magazines and broadcast properties are in trouble. Even in the large and mostly successful Hispanic segment, some tried-and-true titles ceased publishing print editions, became digital editions, or just closed shop. If you can survive without revenue from major retail, classified, help-wanted, real estate and national ad dollars, then maybe you have a chance. But be ready to adapt fast because here comes the age of split-revenue, Groupon-like e-marketing that relies not only on your ability to generate ROI, but to do so before collecting a dime from the advertiser.

How should multicultural marketing execs adapt to these changes?

The first, most important step—and maybe a difficult one for those who’ve based careers on targeting one ethnicity—is to accept that multiple realities characterize multicultural populations. American society is impacted by contradictory realities driven by an accelerated process of individualism and flexible notions of identity. The simple notion of an Asian-American consumer strongly affected by her Indian heritage overlooks how she identifies herself based on her taste for music and politics, her socioeconomic status or religious affiliation, sexual identity, etc.

Technology has enabled people to possess multiple identities, and to traverse time and space constraints. People can talk on Skype for free. Travel is easier. One doesn’t yearn in the same way for ethnic recognition when one has continued access to family, friends and culture abroad. The desire may be indeed to be more American, more global and less ethnic.

The challenge for multicultural marketers is to stop seeing multicultural marketing as about “home.” Identity is complex and social media reflect this complexity. The marketers who prevail will be those who find creative and dynamic ways to navigate this challenging new landscape.

The multicultural marketing exec— whether she works in-house or he works for an agency—can no longer be the “middleman” who serves as a link between the American brand and traditionally defined target communities. He or she must now be a sophisticated marketer creating links between global products and complex multicultural identities played out on a global arena.

Roger Gonzalez is president of Alliance Media & Communications.

Veronica Manlow is a sociologist and assistant professor of business and marketing at the School of Business at Brooklyn College.

JONATHAN R. COPULSKY DELOITTE
The ‘Counterinsurgency’
field manual should be
on your reading list

Marketing executives often look to books written by military strategists when it comes to describing how to win in the marketplace. It’s a rare CMO who has not heard of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” or Karl von Clausewitz’s “On War” and quotes from these authors often are used to rally the marketing team in the face of tough competition. But military warfare has changed considerably since those works were written.

Today, warfare is an effort in counterinsurgency. Combatants may be hard to identify until it’s too late, the most deadly weapons are improvised, and tactics shift constantly.

Perhaps it’s time to update the CMO reading list with “Counterinsurgency,” a military field manual released by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps. “Counterinsurgency” is filled with thoughtful observations and practical advice that apply to today’s marketing conflicts. Here are three to whet your appetite:

Recognizing the need to catch insurgents in the act, Dell launched a social-media monitoring center in 2010. Named the Dell Social Media Listening Command

Center, it was designed to track more than
22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell, as
well as mentions of Dell on Twitter. The
information gathered by the center can be
sliced and diced based on topics
and subjects of conversation,
sentiment, share of voice,
geography and trends. The
center complements the
more than 5,000 Dell
employees who had
already been trained
to actively listen to
social media as part
of their jobs. While
the main intent of
the Dell program is
to engage
consumers, it also
catches
insurgent
attacks as they
happen.

Don’t rely on
conventional
weapons to fight
insurgents.

Help your
team to
become
quick
learners.

PROFESSOR PETRAEUS:

The coauthor of “Counterinsurgency” has plenty to teach you.

LESZEK SZYMANSKI

“Capabilitiesrequiredfor conventionalsuccess...maybeof limitedutilityoreven counterproductivein [counterinsurgency]operations.” After two restaurant employees posted a damaging video online in April 2009, Domino’s could have tried to shut down all employees’ use of social media. Instead, during its busiest sales season in December 2009, it launched a reformulated pizza recipe and marketing campaign—fueled primarily by social media, including feeds sharing what consumers thought of the new pizza. A video documentary, “The Pizza Turnaround,” starring Domino’s employees, was featured prominently on its website and in aggressive media outreach efforts. By mid-2011, the campaign proved to yield sales increases for Domino’s that significantly exceeded those of its major competitors. Because Domino’s countered a social-media gaffe with an organizational strategic change, it fought insurgency to the benefit of its customers and its bottom line.

Build early-warning systems to
catch insurgents in the act.

“Onecommonfeatureofinsurgenciesis
thatthe...[organization]thatisbeing
targetedgenerallytakesawhileto
recognizethataninsurgencyisoccurring.
Insurgentstakeadvantageofthattimeto
buildstrengthandgathersupport.”
“Counterinsurgencies
havebeencalled
learningcompetitions.
..thesidethatlearns
fasterandadapts
morerapidly—the
betterlearningorganization—usuallywins.”
When it comes to learning from
mistakes, the champion may be the
National Transportation Safety Board.
Unlike many organizations that try to
quickly put failures behind them, NTSB
systematically investigates accidents to
harvest lessons and make transportation
safer. Through the use of “Go Teams”
mobilized after any accident and dispatched
to the accident site, the NTSB sifts through
every single aspect of an incident. In the
past 20 years, NTSB’s quick learning and
constantly evolving recommendations have
led to a significant drop in fatal accidents as
a percentage of miles flown, driven and
ridden on rails or water.