Though 84% of marketers agree that multicultural marketing is critical to their business, nearly 40% say they don’t know how much minority groups contribute to their companies’ revenues, according to a Brandiosity study conducted for Heidrick & Struggles, reports AdAge.??????
Asked what type of agencies they use to reach Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians, 58% of marketers said they use general-market-research firms; 51% cited multicultural agencies; 42% said general-market agencies; and 35% cited multicultural-research firms.
Among the findings cited by AdAge:
- Nearly half of the top 20 challenges that?executives cited had to do with convincing management and their peers?of the value of multicultural marketing.
- Asked which minority segment was most important to their company, 65% selected Hispanics, 30% said African-Americans, 24% cited Asians.
- Asked whether it “takes a Latino to market to a Latino,” 35% said yes – but 39% disagreed.
- Despite increased efforts in multicultural marketing, its perceived effectiveness in companies remains low. One reason may be systemic – that is, multicultural marketing is not an integral part of the organization – as 44% of executives say companies are not structured? to efficiently conduct multicultural marketing.
About the data: More than two-thirds of the 60 survey respondents were chief marketing officers or senior VPs of marketing; 14% were VPs, managers or directors. Respondents represented a variety of industries, including retail, CPG, telecom, financial services, fast food and apparel.
