The growing diversity of our population presents unique opportunities for businesses in marketing.
The need for your product or service may transcend many demographics and cultural boundaries. And crafting multiple messages to reach a multicultural audience can be highly intimidating—especially if you are relatively unfamiliar with some of them. How can you possibly become an expert on multiple cultures to the point of marketing effectively to them all?
The good news is that you don’t have to. Although it’s crucial to segment your messaging for multicultural marketing (and an agency like Wicked Bionic can help with that), you can still make meaningful cross-cultural connections without earning a degree in anthropology or diversity studies. Let’s talk about how to do that.
Make It Personal
One of our mentors used to tell us, “What’s most personal is also most general.” That statement seems paradoxical, but it simply means that personal feelings are universal. Pain, joy, success, failure, hope, fear—these are all part of our shared human experience, regardless of cultural background or even language barriers. So don’t be afraid to get personal. Speak from the heart. Draw from your pain points, problems, and successes to interweave your story into your marketing. You’ll find in doing so that your message will resonate with people from all walks of life.
Need a Strategic Partner?
Speak with Your Audience’s Best Interests in Mind
If what’s personal is also the most general, others feel your joy and pain. Use this truth to take an empathetic approach in your marketing. Instead of focusing on why your product or service is the best, focus on what your audience needs most, and craft your messaging with their best interests in mind. Imagine that you specifically created your product or service to solve the pain point of someone you love. How would you educate that loved one about the solution you’ve made? Speaking directly to your audience’s pain points is an excellent way to overcome cross-cultural barriers without becoming an expert.
While taking this intuitive approach to your marketing will help you connect with a more diverse audience, fine-tuning that message toward specific audiences will make your marketing efforts more effective. Fortunately, that’s where we come in. Wicked Bionic specializes in making your messaging culturally appropriate across a wide range of demographic markets. Reach out to us to learn more.
—————
About the Author
Dana C. Arnett, Founder and CEO of Wicked Bionic, spent 30 years in the entertainment business before starting the agency in 2015. The Los Angeles-based multicultural communications and advertising agency works with government and private-sector clients on strategic marketing and engaging media campaigns. Dana has always loved learning from other cultures, and that curiosity became the foundation for how Wicked Bionic approaches culturally responsive marketing – building authentic connections between organizations and the communities they serve.
