Meet the Expert
Clayton Banks
Executive Producer, Ember Media Corp.
- More than 20 years experience consulting with clients seeking to engage multicultural audiences through digital technology and social media.
- Clients have included MTV, Discovery Networks, Scholastic, United Technologies, Denny's, The Employment Channel, the Greater Talent Network.
- A leader of efforts to transform Harlem into a center for technology innovation as a way to bring tech companies and startups to upper Manhattan.
- 10 years experience as a cable network executive with Showtime Networks, the Sega Channel and Comedy Central.
Meeting Packages from $400
Your Meeting Package Includes:
- All 8 Best Practices
- Pre-Meeting Discovery Process
- One-on-One Call with Expert
- Meeting Summary Report
- Post-Meeting Engagement
Multicultural Marketing and Communications
Executive Producer, Ember Media Corp.
Key Trends
- The multicultural market has become mainstream.
- The multicultural community has tremendous buying power and this is only going to expand in the future. Predicted shifts in the U.S. population are taking place much faster than originally anticipated:
- The African-American population, which is currently 44.5 million, is expected to grow beyond 60 million by 2060.
- The Asian-American population, which is now at 15 million, is expected to more than double to 34.5 million by 2060.
- The Hispanic population, which is now 53 million, will double beyond 100 million by 2060.*
* Source: Pew Research - The African-American population, which is currently 44.5 million, is expected to grow beyond 60 million by 2060.
- The multicultural market is highly segmented.
- The multicultural community is incredibly diverse. There is no one Hispanic community, no one African-American community, no one Asian-American community. Region, age, gender, and lifestyle all play a key role. A 20-year-old African-American New Yorker may have more in common with a 20-year-old Puerto Rican New Yorker than he does with a 20-year-old African-American who lives in a small town in Mississippi.
To shape and deliver a meaningful message, companies must invest in strategies that allow them better identify and understand the various subsets within the multicultural community.
- The proliferation of devices has created new habits.
- Consumers now make most of their buying decisions based on social media. It's become more powerful than traditional advertising. The use of devices has exploded, and varies tremendously based on age, gender and region.
An 18-year-old may use a smart phone to text friends, tweet, watch Youtube, post on Instagram, while his baby boomer parents will text on a smartphone, but check Facebook on their laptop and watch a YouTube video by linking to their smart TV. Ethnography can reveal how the various devices are used by the different subsets within the different communities. This is an increasingly important research tool because it reveals the best way to distribute the message across a variety of platforms. - Effective communication is shifting from demographics to highly-targeted psychographics.
- Every company now has the ability to make its customers feel valued as individuals, and consumers are coming to expect this. There's been a shift from the concept of "total market" that uses broad demographic models, to one of increasing segmentation, using psychographic studies and social graphs that go far deeper into the psychology of an individual or group.
- Multicultural customers want to be engaged in a two-way communication.
- Creating a two-way conversation is possible now. If you let them, your customers can help you shape the right message. They can provide instant feedback on a campaign while it's still in the development stages. They can even suggest new products that will succeed, and smart companies are tapping into this.
Frito Lay recently asked it's customers to suggest ideas for a new potato chip and got a great new one as a result. MTV credits the success of their Spring Break feature to the fact that they routinely ask their college audience to suggest the next location for it.
When it comes to winning the multicultural market, where there has been a legacy of mistrust towards the traditional dominant culture and its institutions, it's all the more important to start a dialogue and then really listen to the feedback. - Public opinion can go viral in minutes.
- Not long ago, dissatisfied customers might share their negative opinions with 10 other people. In the digital age, one negative experience can go viral in minutes and be shared with millions. A company's reputation is no longer based only on its products and services. What that company stands for is now equally important.
When some racist remarks made their way into the media, Coors saw their sales plummet. When Denny's got sued for racist policies, their business fell off dramatically. Most recently, we've seen this again with the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. If a company's owners or top managers are not respectful to others, the entire company can find itself on the wrong end of public opinion with no easy way back. A proactive, informed multicultural strategy is essential. - The digital world is increasingly enormous, and it’s very difficult to cut through the clutter.
In the twentieth century, knowledge was power. There were a few "gatekeepers" who owned or controlled most of the information. The internet has changed all that. Access to information has become more democratized. The power paradigm has shifted from the distributor to the consumer, and all about sharing. It's how many "users" you have, how many "likes" you get. But the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming.
To break out of the pack, companies must do the research, make sense of the data, and craft a smart and meaningful message. Content without data is clutter.
Multicultural Marketing and Communications:
Key Trends
Expert Topic