Multicultural marketing ain't what it used to be

Cross-posted from The Buzz Bin

How would you describe the typical American?

It is becoming harder and harder to do – and this has implications for marketers.

According to research from communications firm GlobalHue, the mixture in the American melting pot is becoming gradually richer and more complex. As cultural lines continue to blur, marketers will find that understanding consumers requires more than a single cultural lens.

Case in point: A recent Bendixen & Amandi poll shows that young Hispanics define being American in their own terms. For many, that means proudly speaking “Spanglish” and straddling two cultures – honoring their Hispanic roots while defending American values and pursuing the American dream.

Trends like these are proof that the old rules of multicultural marketing no longer apply. Today’s marketers need to understand the new cultural landscape and communicate to their target audiences in a way that acknowledges cross-cultural similarities over differences.

So how can marketers acquire a taste for what’s cooking in the new melting pot? Here are a few suggestions:

1) Expand your familiarity with other cultures

• When you travel, go out on a limb and try a homestay with a foreign family. Or, if that’s not your cup of tea, take advantage of local tour guides to ask questions about cultural attitudes and norms.
• Volunteer as a conversation partner for someone new to the U.S. Most universities have language partner programs, and organizations like theInternational Rescue Committee can pair you with a family or individual acclimating to a new way of life in the states. You’ll be amazed at what you learn as you work to communicate and find common interests with people from varying cultures and ethnicities.
• Look to your peers for insight. If you have friends from backgrounds different from your own, talk to them about the similarities and differences they perceive among cultural groups.
• At the very least, make a point to explore other cultures through books, movies and news media. New America Now is a great place to start. Check out its Ethnoblog and poll series.

2) Leverage social networks for research and experimentation

• Peruse blogs, Twitter hashtags and Facebook groups targeting specific cultural audiences. Below are just a few examples:
  • Sandip Roy – a blogger and radio show host who frequently covers issues pertaining to Indian-Americans
  • #LATISM – the Twitter hashtag for Latinos in Social Media
  • Cuentame – a Facebook group geared toward Latinos
  • CitySaheli – an online community for the “savvy South Asian woman”
  • The Grio –a video-centric news community covering perspectives that affect the African-American community
• Social media channels are well-suited for today’s multicultural marketers because they make it easier to adjust or revise strategies and appropriately micro-target within diverse communities.

3) Embrace culture in your campaigns

• State Farm took this approach with its BollyStar Competition celebrating India’s Bollywood culture, and Pepsi has had great success with itsYoSumo campaign aimed at second- and third-generation youth and young-adult Latinos. See Jessica Faye Carter’s recent post on Mashable for more examples.

4) Make an effort to connect emotionally with your target audience

• The NBA is doing this with Énebéa, a website geared toward Hispanic and Latino fans that have a strong emotional connection with Latino NBA players. The site has a special focus on Latino players and included more interviews, online chats, statistics and photo galleries than the general NBA site.
• If your company is committed and/or involved with the community it’s trying to reach, be sure to highlight related activities so your audience knows you’re genuinely invested in it. Wells Fargo is an example of a company that does this well. See Bill Imada’s recent Ad Age article on the topic.

5) Always test assumptions in focus groups before incorporating them into your marketing campaign. You won’t know if your messages strike a valid chord with consumers – regardless of their cultural identity – unless you solicit honest, objective feedback.

Studying, observing and interacting with a culture outside your own will enable you to identify and leverage similarities and differences among various consumer segments. And being culturally aware won’t just help you develop a better multicultural marketing campaign, it will also enhance your ability to engage with (and have fun with!) people across the globe.

So grab a spoon and start sipping while the soup is still hot.

Photo courtesy: chewonthat blog

Tidbits from Tuscany - More Musings on Olives

After discovering that not all olive oil tastes good, I decided to do some research on the olives of Tuscany. Here's what I learned:

• Olive trees are evergreen (who would've thunk?). It usually takes about four years before they begin to bear fruit, but the trees can live for hundreds of years. They are incredibly resilient, sprouting back easily even if chopped to the ground, and fire-resistant.
• In most Mediterranean areas, olives are harvested in November, December and January, but in Tuscany the harvest can start as early as late September. This early harvest means that Tuscan olives are generally less ripe and therefore produce less oil than others. So Tuscan olive oil is also rarer than its olive oil peers.
• In Tuscany, olives are always picked by hand and the entire family is usually called on to pitch in during the harvest. (Sounds fun, doesn't it?) Olives are picked while they are still green and must be rushed to the press as soon as they come off the tree so they don't spoil.
• In their natural state, olives are very bitter, so they are soaked in brine before beingeaten or packaged for consumers. The potent little fruits are about 20 percent oil, so it takes about 200 of them to produce a liter of olive oil.

• In Tuscany, olives are pressed at a communal mill called a Frantoio. Growers traditionally bring their olives to the mill and stay to observe the official pressing. Granite wheels are used to crush the olives whole -- skin, pits and all -- making a paste which is further filtered and processed to extract all liquid from the fruit. This involves running the liquid through woven mats placed in a hydraulic press. A centrifuge separates the watery olive mass from the oil, and the oil is then stored in large jugs or steel tanks to "age" for a least a month. It then undergoes one more filtration process before it isfinally sold to consumers.

Check out the following sites for more fun facts, travel tips and recipe ideas related to the Tuscan olive harvest:

Matching Food and Wine with Fiona Beckett

WanderingItaly

Florence Villas

Food Network - Michael Chiarello

Photo courtesies: siciliasud.it, Wikimedia commons

Tidbits from Tuscany - Insight No. 3

Another thing I learned in Italy: Not all olive oil tastes good.

Yep, you heard me right. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say some of it is downright nasty. And keep in mind that this is coming from an admitted olive oil addict. At home in the states, I buy the stuff by the liter and add it to just about everything I eat -- salads, hummus, pasta, seafood, sauteed veggies, pizza, chicken, dipping sauce for bread and so on. At my last physical, I learned that my LDL (or "good") cholesterol was off the charts high, and my doctor told me that probably had much to do with my extreme penchant for olive oil.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, at the Cantine de Greve (referenced in a previous post), I dunked a fresh piece of bread into a dish of Tuscany's finest, popped the dripping morsel into my mouth...and nearly spat it out on the tasting table. The flavor was awful -- like it had been aged in a corroding lead pipe.

"Must've gotten the dud," I thought, and moved on to the next oil spout. Thinking perhaps the bitter taste in my mouth had something to do with the bread I'd used for dipping, this time I ran my finger through the shiny, golden liquid and licked it in hopeful anticipation. But once again, what I experienced was a tongue-curling, pungent flavor.

After a third unsuccessful tasting, I finally gave up. Maybe my tastebuds were off that day or maybe my palate just isn't sophisticated enough to appreciate authentic Italian olive oil. But either way, it brings me to Tuscan Tidbit No. 3 - All olive oils aren't created equal

Photo Courtesy of rd.com

Mantra of the month

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common -- this is my symphony.

- William Henry Channing

Tidbits from Tuscany - Insight No. 2

No trip to Italy would be complete without a good dose of wine tasting. And since our home base for the week was a cottage in the heart of Chianti, we challenged ourselves to taste a wide variety of Chianti's best. And I must say we performed pretty well against our goal.

By the end of the week, we had tried everything from a (delicious) carafe of the house wine at our local ristorante, to Il Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Barone Ricasoli's Chianti Classico.

On our last day, we even made a stop at Le Cantine di Greve, a be old wine cellar with cool stone walls, tile floors and a smorgasbord

of tasting options. We went hog wild hopping from one sample station to the next, sipping reds, whites and vin santo, then dipping tiny

cubes of bread in an array of olive oils.

Anyway, my point is that we consumed our fair share of Chianti during our time in Chianti. And I'm embarrassed to say I very nearly left the region without even knowing what it is that makes a Chianti Classico a Chianti Classico.

Fortunately, a charming Italian man saved me from my ignorance. Giuseppe Mirossi -- better known as Beppe -- is a friendly and accommodating gentleman who runs a car service in Tuscany and was kind enough to drive Granville and me from Castellina to the Pisa airport for our Saturday departure. I can truthfully say I learned just as much from Beppe during our 70-minute commute that day than I had in the previous six combined. I'll try to share all that I learned from him in future posts, but for now, it's back to the topic of Chianti.

As many people know, Beppe said, in order to qualify as Chianti Classico, a wine must be made from at least 80 percent Sangiovese grapes. But what most do not know is that the Sangiovese grape vine is indigenous to Chianti and therefore thrives in the region's soil, which is riddled with stones. These stones, said Beppe, leach minerals that provide nourishment to the grape vines through their roots. Plus, because the stones are very porous, they absorb moisture during the winter months and release it back into the soil during the hot summer months, making for a surprisingly stable environment for the roots all year round.

So, Beppe told us, Sangiovese grapes planted and grown in California, for example, will produce a wine very different from that made with Sangiovese grapes grown in Chianti. And only the latter will ever be considered Chianti Classico. The secret, he said, is in the soil.

Tidbits from Tuscany - Insight No. 1

I just returned to the states after six days in Tuscany with my family. Now, a week in Tuscany may sound idyllic, but, in all honesty, our trip was less reminiscent of "Under the Tuscan Sun" than it was of "Dumb and Dumber."

For example, within two hours of our arrival in Italy, we had driven in circles for 30 minutes in search of the leaning tower of Pisa, barrelled down a one-way street headed the wrong direction, and virtually burned through the clutch of our rental Peugeot. When we finally screeched into a sliver of a parking place in the center of town, we rolled out of the car feeling like a cluster of baby birds newly ejected from the nest. We squinted in the sunlight, gave our ruffled feathers a good shake and wobbled off to see the Leaning Tower.












Well, apparently our brains were as muddled as a baby bird's too. Either that or we had somehow left our good sense behind in the states, because not one of us second guessed the fact that we were leaving a car full of luggage parked on the street in a city known for its high incidence of theft.

So of course when we returned to the Peugeot an hour later, we found the front passenger window shattered into a million tiny pieces. And, sure enough, virtually everything of value was gone: laptop, iPod, Kindle, Blackberry, sunglasses and cash. The lucky bandit might as well have graffitied Dumb American F--ks on the side of our car... because we sure felt like them.









Granville realizing that with his iPod and laptop, the Italian thief had made of with thousands of dollars worth of iTunes.

A slew of four-letter words and several phone calls later, we made our way to Pisa's Carabinieri, or police station, to report the crime. And I know you'll be shocked to learn that the officer on duty could not have cared less. After making us wait a while in the designated waiting room -- for no apparent reason, as we were the only ones there --he had us to fill out two identical copies of a claim form (I guess a Xerox machine would be far too indulgent for the Pisan police station) and sent us on our way.









Granville and Rob contemplating the Italian justice system at Pisa's Carabinieri

So we proceeded back to the rental car office and traded in our battered Peugeot for a trusty Volkswagon. "I guess that's why they require you to buy rental car insurance," said my dad in a moment of brilliant hindsight.

Fortunately, the trip was all up hill from there. But I don't think any of us will forgive ourselves for that initial display of stupidity any time soon.


Tuscan Tidbit No. 1 - Don't forget to pack your street smarts

Finding Your Voice

I saw John Grisham at a wedding last weekend.

That probably doesn't sound that cool to you, but I have to admit I was a little starstruck.

And I discovered that, in addition to being remarkably handsome, Grisham also has a powerful presence. He does not seem overbearing or imperious ... but you can sense that he's there, observing the world with a keen eye and sharp mind.

Ironically enough, today a colleague brought to my attention Grisham's recent address to graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I found inspiration in his words and am posting them here as a reminder to myself to always strive for clarity, authenticity and truth in my writing.

Enjoy...


John Grisham’s Commencement Address, “Find a Voice”
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, May 9, 2010

A voice has three essential elements.

The first is clarity. When I was in high school, I discovered the novels of John Steinbeck. He was and is my favorite writer. The Grapes of Wrath is a book I’ve read more than all others. I admire his talent for telling a story, his compassion for the underdog, but what I really admire is his ability to write so clearly. His sentences are often rich in detail and complex, but they flow with a clarity that I still envy. His characters are flawed and tragic, often complicated, but you understand them because they have been so clearly presented.

In life, we tend to ignore those who talk in circles, saying much but saying nothing. We listen to and follow those whose words, and ideas and thoughts and intentions are clear.

The second element is authenticity. Few things I like better in life than getting lost in a good book written by an author who is in full command of his subject matter, either because he has lived the story, or so thoroughly researched it. I read a lot of books written by other lawyers – legal thrillers, as they are called – I read them because I enjoy them, also I have to keep an eye on the competition. I can usually tell by page 3 if the author has actually been in a fight in a courtroom, or whether he’s simply watched too much television.

In life, we tend to discredit those who claim to be what they are not. We respect those who know their subject matter. We long for, and respect credibility.

The third element is veracity. In the past few years, the publishing industry has been scandalized by a handful of writers who wrote very compelling stories of their real-life adventures. These were good stories, they were well written, the voices were clear and seemingly authentic. They sold for big money, they were marketed aggressively, they were reviewed favorably, and then they were exposed for being what they really were – frauds fabrications, lies. The real-life adventures never happened. The books were pulled from the shelves. The publishers were embarrassed. Lawsuits were filed to retrieve the advances. And the writers’ voices have been forever silenced.

In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth.