Howard Buford, president and CEO of Prime Access Inc. (www.primeaccess.net), a company that develops multicultural market- ing and advertising campaigns aimed at urban audiences, suggests that companies partner with experts who know how to reach their target audience:
“One of the big mistakes that is almost always done by mainstream advertis- ing agencies is to treat talking to African Americans as a casting issue, keeping everything else in the advertising the same, such as the dialogue, wardrobe, and the product benefits. Huge mistake. Not only can it not have a good result, but it can actually backfire and look phony and inau- thentic. It ends up making that brand look like they don’t really understand African Americans. African Americans are not a darker version of white Americans.”
The late Virgil Scott, former CEO of Anderson Communications (www.AnderCom.com), a company that provides programs focused on vital health issues affecting the African American community, reinforces the need to work with specialists:
“Many ad agencies are not truly multicul- tural experts. They’ve expanded their busi- ness because their current general market clients say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this Black thing going on. Do you guys want a shot at it?’
They don’t really have the history, the knowledge, or the savvy to really target Black folks because they don’t know them.
So how do you avoid stereotypes? You gotta make sure you’ve got a partner who knows Black people and that Black people aren’t a project but a way of life.”
These admonitions are true for marketing to any specialized target audience.
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Talking the talk in the target language
One of the first and most basic steps in adjusting your marketing materi- als for ethnic markets is to convert everything into the target language and create in-language ads (ads in the consumer’s native tongue). This effort alone shows you care. In the following sections, we assist you in gauging the importance of converting your materials into your customers’ native language and explain why you have to do more than simply change the words. We also give you pointers on how to hire a translator or interpreter.
Translating consists of converting the written words of one language to another; interpretation generally refers to converting the spoken word. Two different modes of interpretation exist:
Simultaneous interpretation is where the interpreter immediately speaks the message in the target language while listening to it in the source language. This is how verbal communication takes place at the United Nations.
Consecutive interpretation is where the interpreter says the message in the source language after the speaker pauses. This mode is most com- monly used in business. Always look at your customers, even when the interpreter is speaking.
In other words, you translate when you write; you interpret when you speak.
The importance of switching to your customers’ language
Customers’ language preference depends a great deal on their level of accul- turation (see the “Adjusting for different cultures and levels of acculturation”
section earlier in this chapter). Following are general guidelines on the rela- tive importance of translating your materials into the prospective customer’s target language for various ethnic groups and acculturation levels:
New immigrants who are highly “Americanized” tend to watch, listen to, and read mostly English media. You may still need to modify your message, but converting it into another language is unnecessary and probably ill-advised if you find yourself targeting this group.
Most businesses that are trying to attract Hispanics make the mistake of pursuing only the most acculturated groups and stick with English.
Make sure that your most likely prospects can respond to your offers in the language they’re most comfortable with.
South Asians can present a unique challenge to marketers. This market encompasses the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Nepalese cultures, which consist of more than 30 languages and more than 300 dialects. However, according to the 2000 census, about
Although most South Asians are fluent in English, you can’t simply aim ads to this group in English. In reaching these markets, some experts recommend advertising that features English dialogue interspersed with some South Asian words — what they call “Hinglish,” a mixture of Hindi and English.
In radio and television ads, be very careful about the interpretation. It’s not enough to know you have a large potential Chinese customer base, because that language has many different dialects. Find out which dialect your pro- spective customers use. For instance, most longtime Chinese Americans speak the Cantonese dialect, whereas newer immigrants are more likely to speak Mandarin. The only way to know which dialect is going to be most effective is to survey your customers; we explain in Chapter 2.
The message is more than just the words
Talking the talk means more than just saying the exact same thing in a differ- ent language. It means retooling your message in a way that makes your audi- ence more receptive to it. You must translate not only words but also culture.
Start from scratch to craft a message that’s likely to appeal to prospective customers on both an informational and emotional level.
If you’re marketing homes to Asians who are inclined to follow the guidelines of feng shui, for example, you may want to highlight features of the home that comply with those guidelines. You probably wouldn’t highlight the same fea- tures if you were selling homes to Americans for whom feng shui was not an issue.
A translator or interpreter who has experience with the culture can assist you in composing an appropriate and appealing message and avoiding any potentially offensive words or phrases. When you have a draft of your ad, ask your multicultural advisory board (see Chapter 2) to review it and provide feedback.
Make sure you know exactly which group you’re targeting. You don’t want to make the mistake of translating your marketing materials into Japanese for a Chinese market. You’re probably thinking, “Well, yeah, duh!” but this happens more often than you may think.
Picking a good translator or interpreter
Converting one language into another is a skill that few people in the United States have mastered, so finding the right person for the job is often a tre- mendous challenge.
When hiring a translator, look for someone whose first language is the one you don’t know — the language you need to convert to. If you’re converting English to Spanish, you usually want to hire a native Spanish speaker. Also look for someone who has experience in your industry or
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area of need, such as legal, business, or medical; this person is going to have a better grasp of special words and concepts. Translators usually get paid by the page or even by the word.
For best results, provide the translator with additional guidance, such as how you plan to use the translated document, how accurate the transla- tion needs to be, how much material you have to translate, and your deadline.
When hiring an interpreter, recognize that just being bilingual doesn’t qualify a person to interpret, especially if you’re in an industry that uses highly specialized vocabulary. If you’re selling houses or cars, most bilingual people can probably handle the interpretation. If you’re selling pharmaceuticals or computer networking equipment, however, look for an interpreter who has some experience in the field. Interpreters are compensated by the hour or the day.
If your needs are modest — you need someone to interpret very basic words and concepts — a child could do it, quite literally. If the customers are accompanied by their child who knows English, the child can assist in iden- tifying your customers’ needs and explaining your products or services. If, however, you’re involved in complex transactions involving legal documents, such as contracts and loan papers, hire a professional.
The American Translators Association has a free downloadable booklet called
“Find a Translator or Interpreter” at www.ATAnet.org.
Avoid hack jobs. If you’ve ever tried to assemble a bookcase or Ping-Pong table made in India, China, or Bulgaria, chances are pretty good that you’ve encountered bad translations of instructions to English. Sure, you get English words, but the meaning is entirely mangled. Translating your marketing materials like this is worse than not translating them at all.
Anticipating increased volume
Don’t invite people to a party if you don’t have enough food and refreshments to serve everyone. Although this may seem obvious, it’s exactly the mistake many businesses make when they begin marketing to ethnic communities.
They’re ill-prepared to serve the customers whom they’re marketing to.
Before you launch your marketing campaign, make sure you have everything in place to provide quality customer service. Here are a few items to consider:
Properly trained staff: If you’re going to advertise in a different language, have at least one person on staff who speaks that language (see Chapter 16). Here’s a cautionary tale: A large pizza chain in Los Angeles decided to
discount coupons to Hispanic-surnamed households. Unfortunately, the company had an insufficient number of Spanish-speaking employees to take orders. As a result, the company ended up causing more damage to its reputation in the Hispanic community than if it had never tried to reach out to it.
Foreign language signs: If you have signs around your business or store that customers commonly read, have them translated into the target lan- guage. (See Chapter 7 for details.)
Foreign language brochures, menus, forms, and documents: Get all of your printed materials that you hand out or show to customers trans- lated into the target language. This may include contracts, disclosure statements, and financial documents.
The Most Bang for Your Buck: Picking the Right Marketing Media
When marketing to prospective customers, you can have the best brochure, print advertising, and radio and TV ads on the planet, but if you don’t deliver them through media that reach your target consumer, your efforts are in vain. For multicultural customers, you must be even more focused in your efforts.
It’s like going fishing. If you want to catch a particular type of fish — bass, for instance — you have to get everything right; use the right bait, fish in the right spot at the right time of day, present your lure or bait in a way a typical bass is going to find appealing, and so on. If you overlook one item, you’re likely to fail. You can have the best bait or lure in the world, for example, but unless you toss it where the bass hang out, you’re not going to hook one.
One baffling tactic is to produce a radio, TV, or newspaper ad entirely in English and then tack on something at the end like “Hablamos español.” First of all, how would a customer even know what the ad is about if he doesn’t understand English? Second, it shows that you consider the customer’s language an afterthought. Ads must be targeted to specific groups. This is a common mistake for those who are new to multicultural marketing.
In the following sections, we assist you with your choice of media.
Selecting mainstream media
Whether the use of mainstream media (newspapers and television and radio stations) in marketing to multicultural consumers is effective can vary a great deal depending on whom you’re trying to reach and how you go about it.
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Generally speaking, the coverage by these outlets is too broad to effectively reach ethnic customers, so the return on investment can be rather disap- pointing (see the “Calculating your ROI (return on investment)” section earlier in this chapter).
However, a 2007–2008 Yankelovich multicultural marketing study (www.
Yankelovich.com) shows that some ethnic consumers are even more receptive to advertising than most Americans. About 60 percent of African Americans and Hispanics, for example, say they “enjoy looking at or listening to advertising” compared with only 30 percent of non-Hispanic Whites. This means that your ad can be up to twice as effective as expected when targeted to these groups. The study goes on to stress that ethnic consumers have dis- tinct preferences and respond to different emotional triggers than Whites do.
Every television and radio station has a rate card that lists the number of people it reaches at various times of the day. Some break these numbers down by age, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics. Newspapers have similar information about their readers. Check to see whether they’re a match for the audience you’re trying to reach. Certain TV and radio programs also attract specific groups of viewers or listeners. Don’t waste money on media that have little or no market penetration into the groups you’re trying to reach.
Advertising through ethnic media
The growth of ethnic media in the United States is brisk. In New York City alone, you can find more than 150 ethnic newspapers reaching every conceiv- able group. These are the outlets that really penetrate ethnic markets — the types of newspapers where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.
As revealed in the nearby sidebar “Tapping the emotional power of ethnic media,” ethnic media have much higher penetration into ethnic markets. You want to deliver a solid punch that focuses your marketing efforts exclusively on your target market. Ethnic media make this possible.
First, find out which media your customers access for information and enter- tainment. You can do this through your own market research, as discussed in Chapter 2, or by examining some of the publications that your customers are likely to read, as we suggest in Chapter 4.
When examining print advertising, look past mere circulation numbers and ask for pass-along figures — the number of people who actually read the paper (not the number of subscribers). The good news is that in ethnic households, three to five people are likely to be reading the same paper (a pass-along figure of three, four, or five for one subscription); this can significantly lower the cost of reaching customers.
Most major cities have newspapers, magazines, radio, and television stations that serve ethnic groups. Contact a local advertising agency that has experi- ence reaching the ethnic community.
Hispanics are especially fond of television and radio. Spanish-language televi- sion can be particularly effective in reaching Hispanic customers. Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, report- edly has a penetration rate of more than 97 percent of Latino households!
However, national outlets, such as Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America, and TeleFutura, may not be appropriate for local and regional businesses.
Check with your local media representative to see what she can do for you.
Another source of information is the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index (www.nielsenmedia.com/ethnicmeasure/hispanic-american/
indexHisp.html).
Harnessing the power of the Internet
In terms of how effective the Internet is at enabling you to reach ethnic groups, that really depends on the group: