July 27, 2012 at 8:50 am
Multicultural Advertising Favorably Works Its Way Into Latino Market But Not Asian Market
It’s a new revolution in advertising that, in a year or two, a multicultural focus will be mainstream in all advertising. Advertising professionals knew it was coming—the need to appeal to the rapidly changing cultural demographics in the United States. With ever-growing Latino, Asian and Indian populations in the U.S., advertising needs to grow with them, not only culturally, but also socially.
So far, the Spanish dominant Hispanics are most pleased with advertisers’ efforts to include them. According to the Horowitz Associates’ 13th annual State of Cable and Digital Media: Multicultural Edition study, Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, and Asian urban consumers were asked how well TV represents racial and ethnic groups in terms of quality (accuracy in comparison with reality) and quantity (proportionate with reality). One-third (32%) said TV does a good job with quality, but a comparable number (27%) gave unfavorable ratings; two in five (40%) gave favorable ratings for quantity and one-quarter (23%) gave unfavorable ratings. Across total multicultural consumers, neutral ratings fell between 37% (quantity) and 41% (quality).
The study also showed there is much work to be done in appealing to the Asian market. According to the study, Asians are the least satisfied with multicultural representation, giving the lowest favorable ratings for quantity (24%; 31% unfavorable) and quality (22%; 27% unfavorable). Asians are the only segment that gave higher unfavorable ratings than favorable ratings for both quantity and quality.
“Multicultural audiences have always been the best customers for television and entertainment. Tokenism and stereotypical representation of ethnicities in the media will not pass muster among this new general market for media,” notes Adriana Waterston, Horowitz’s VP of Marketing and Business Development. “Our findings, particularly the dramatic differences between key segments of the Hispanic market, help underscore the value viewers place in seeing themselves represented in the stories, voices, and faces they watch on TV.”
No longer can an advertiser bombard an audience with smiling Caucasian families eating around a dinner table with a view of a white picket fence outside of the window. Times have changed and so has the family dinner. People want to look into a mirror when being advertised to. They want the ads to relate to them as a person mentally, physically and emotionally. With that said, advertising needs to be more lifestyle focused. Targeting groups of individuals with commonalities across activities, income level, values and interests is now more important than ethnicity alone. A more holistic approach in connecting with your audience will help drive successful campaigns.
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Represent these different segments the way the see themselves, not the way they have historically been seen and you will win them. Of course, that takes a lot more examination and work than common simplifications or stereotypes. That’s where the challenge is.