Outlook for Multicultural Marketing in 2018 – Your Multicultural Marketing News January 2018 newsletter

•   “Will 2018 Finally Be The Year of the Black Woman?” (Vision Strategy and Insights)
•   “Multicultural Influencers: The New Face of Your Industry” (Ethnic Technologies)
•   “2018 – the Year of Translation and Tracking” (Interviewing Service of America)
•   “Helping Multicultural Retailers Compete in 2018” (NRS / National Retail Solutions)
•  “2018: Potential for Multicultural Growth is in Desperate Need of New Blood” (Emerging Networks)

#BlackGirlMagic.  #ReclaimingMyTime. #UnapologeticallyBlack.  These hashtags have been used extensively to describe and promote the unique power and pride of Black women in the United States. But behind the hashtags is another important truth: African American women represent a growing, thriving and increasingly influential segment of both U.S. consumers and voters. According to Nielsen, there are nearly 25 million African American women in the U.S. today, accounting for 14% of all women, and more than half of African Americans overall.  With the spending power of the African American community estimated at $1.5 trillion, Black women are truly a market force to be reckoned with.  Beyond buying power, African American women have also shown their strength at the ballot box. The 2017 elections in Virginia and Alabama clearly demonstrated the impact that motivated, engaged and empowered Black women can have on local and statewide elections. At Vision Strategy and Insights, we believe that 2018 will become the Year of the Black Woman as marketers and campaigns recognize the strength of this consumer and voting bloc and begin to address their unique needs, experiences, values and aspirations. By Brenda Lee, Founding Director, Vision Strategy and Insights (VSI), Brenda@visionstrategyandinsights.com, (215) 808-5415. For more information on how to meet African American women where they live, shop and vote, visit www.visionstrategyandinsights.com.

In 2017, some companies notoriously botched their attempts at multicultural marketing. Through backlash on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it became increasingly clear that consumers are very aware of the corporate structure of the brands they buy from; as a result, some executives may now be wondering how to more appropriately approach multicultural marketing in 2018. So, rather than incorporating marketing campaigns internally, why not engage some of your biggest proponents and help them market your products? Consumers do not want to be seen as just a number or another box being checked. People want to hear from other people, and not necessarily from corporations, so pay close attention to your social influencers and how they develop relationships on social media. Take notes from brand new beauty companies that have been a smash hit with people of color through influencers on YouTube and Instagram. Finally, trust the mixed languages being spoken on these platforms and do not assume your consumers are monolingual. At Ethnic Technologies, as the leaders of Multicultural Marketing data, we are happy to help our clients and partners find these balances and produce outstanding results. We look forward to seeing even more multicultural trends in 2018! By Tracy Fey, Ethnic Technologies, LLC. For more information, please contact Karen Sinisi, Director of Sales, Ethnic Technologies, 866-333-8324 ext.117, karens@ethnictechnologies.com.

As we look ahead to 2018, what changes can multicultural researchers expect in the coming year? This year our clients have seen a lot of success with two of our newer services. Our insight community platform icanmakeitbetter (www.icanmakeitbetter.com) allows brands to have longitudinal conversations with customers, potential customers or competitor’s customers during a period of anywhere from one month to several years. Automated translation technology has improved immensely in the last five years, allowing researchers to break down the language barriers that negatively affected studies of the past. Community members can set their own default platform language, allowing brands to easily scale their global communities. The second service is MySoapBox Meter, a passive metering technology that tracks consumers’ online behavior as they move along the path to purchase. This is especially important for understanding multicultural consumers. Our recent internal studies have found that Hispanics, who are the fastest-growing consumer segment, are also leading the way when it comes to online shopping, mobile online shopping, and using social media to connect with new products. Certainly, 2018 will be the year that brands fully embrace multilingual insight communities and passive metering studies. By Michael Halberstam, Chairman, Interviewing Service of America (ISA), halberstam@isacorp.com, 818-989-1044.

In multicultural communities, almost every other corner has a bodega or small grocery store featuring daily necessity items, phone cards and everything in between. These Mom and Pop urban icons, often family owned, offer the community local shopping convenience. Unfortunately, the struggle to compete with larger, national retail chain supermarkets is increasing. As larger retail chains negotiate deals with product companies, smaller bodegas cannot compete. As online shopping with delivery service increases in popularity, less consumers are visiting stores on foot. To add to bodega store owners’ angst, “grab and go” vending machines are entering the marketplace arena. At National Retail Solutions, we feel for store owners. It is our mission to help small stores survive and thrive in a marketplace filled with giants. With exciting 2018 updates, the NRS point of sale system features large dual-facing (merchant-customer) screens advertising special offers and discounts on popular brands and ethnic specialty products. Our POS has a user-friendly interface with unique tools to track store data and manage promotions, while enhancing the customers’ checkout experience. Our POS terminals are already in over 4,000 stores nationwide, helping stores retain and attract customers, increase sales, cut costs and operate more efficiently. For more information, please contact Elie Y. Katz, President, NRS / National Retail Solutions Inc., 800-215-0931, elie.katz@idt.net.

Spanish-language advertising first appeared in the U.S. in the mid-1960s and really came to life in the 1970 when major advertisers like McDonald’s saw the value inherent in multicultural marketing.  In the 1980 and 90s there was a massive paradigm shift and most national brands had some multicultural marketing efforts (largely in Spanish). Half a century later, that paradigm is in desperate need of another shift.  This millennium, serious marketers cannot afford to continue out dated practices and policies – not in a cultural landscape that is constantly changing.  This past year, for the first time in U.S. history, Hispanics were not the fastest-growing ethnic minority.  The dramatic drop off in Hispanic immigration, paired with the exponential growth of inter-racial marriages have resulted in, for the first time, Hispanics making up less than 50% of the multicultural USA.  However, the multicultural marketing industry which has always prided itself on being on the absolute cutting edge of these matters, is seriously behind the curve in reacting to these changes. Can we really call a campaign multi-cultural if it is 100% Hispanic?  Are agencies really serving their clients’ best interests when they continue to ignore emerging ethnic market segments in favor of the status quo?   For example, South Asian Americans are the highest-educated, most-affluent and fastest-growing ethnic segment in the U.S. today, yet they are being virtually ignored by the U.S. advertising community – even by the so-called multicultural agencies.   Asian Indians have $212 billion in purchasing power.  Nearly 70 percent of Indian Americans have careers in management, business, and science.  Median household income for Asian Indian Americans is over $100 thousand, almost double the national median of $51 thousand (2 ½ times the median income of Hispanic households). And South Asians aren’t the only ethnic segment to boast such prolific consumer profiles. Similar untapped opportunities can be found in other Asian segments including Filipino and Chinese as well as the Middle Eastern market. Cultural specificity does not begin and end with the US Hispanic market.  The same rules and tools are available and applicable.  Emerging Networks has grown exponentially in the last 5 years by speaking directly to clients who are looking to expand their reach with exclusive, affluent audiences that are not consuming mainstream media.  Agencies that play wait and see will be left behind.  Agencies that say “my client has not asked about this market” are simply not doing their jobs. The times are changing fast and in 2018 the potential for multicultural growth is in desperate need of new blood.  The savvy marketers will be riding that wave and reaping its’ benefits.  The rest will be standing on the sidelines – if they continue to exist at all. By Thomas Marsillo, President/CEO, Emerging Networks LLC, tom@emergingnets.com, 732-492-8559.

Want to add your POV to one of our next newsletters ? View calendar with themes and deadlines here. Or email editor/publisher Lisa Skriloff at Lisa@multicultural.com for more information.

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Multicultural Marketing News (MMRNews), is published by Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc. (MMR). For a free subscription, sign up here.