America is like Chicken Soup and Other Key Takeaways from ANA Multicultural

By The AOL Advertising Team
11/08/11

To get an idea of the atmosphere during the 2011 ANA Multicultural conference in Miami, just watch the video below.

This group of fútbol performers represents the new target audience for marketers, they're young and US-dominant, but they have ties to other cultures. They're also a part of the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. If marketers don't become multiculturally-savvy, they will miss out on a huge opportunity.

Check out some of our favorite takeaways from ANA Multicultural 2011:

America is Like Chicken Soup
America is no longer a melting pot, where attributes of different ethnicities are mixed and melted together. Rather, Ola Mobolade says America is like chicken soup, the general market is the broth and the different backgrounds and ethnicities provide are like the accoutrements, adding variety and flavor. Mobolade is the author of a book, "The New Majority," which focuses on the massive change in the "general" market.

Start with a Cultural Insight, then Create a Business Plan
In order to make your company relevant to multicultural audiences, you must begin with a cultural insight. The insight can come from research or personal experiences, then use that insight to build your business plan around it. One example of this was Tony Rogers from Walmart- they understood that purchasing items on layaway was an important option for them, so they created messaging and ads around that.

Companies Will Miss Out if They Don't Understand their Multicultural Consumer
As the United States becomes more and more multicultural, these audiences continue to gain buying power and economic status each year. In order for Post Foods to increase their ROI, they decided to target their messaging to the Hispanic audience. After initiating bilingual messaging and using a Latino musician as a spokesperson for their brand, Hispanics now make up 24% of Post's Honey Bunches of Oats purchases! Al Patel of MillerCoors LLC., found that once they began to invest and test multicultural media, they were able to find the right way to reach their audience. Making it easy to prove the importance of multicultural marketing.

If you have any questions about our multicultural strategy, email our team at MCSales@teamaol.com.

Keywords: Events

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