VIEWPOINT
Edited by
Ken Wheaton,
kwheaton@adage.com
Do you have something to say? Send letters and corrections to viewpoint@adage.com or
to Advertising Age, Viewpoint, 711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Please limit letters to
250 words.
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.
Jonathan Copulsky is a principal at Deloitte
Consulting and author of “Brand Resilience:
Managing Risk in a High-Speed World.”
