Ethnic Marketing? Turning Obstacles into Opportunities

In the past, appealing to minorities was not a major concern to marketers in most industries.  Ethnic groups in America were expected to assimilate into the mainstream over time, making it a case of Mohammed coming to the mountain.

But time has proven this reasoning faulty.  As a result of many economic and social factors, people are beginning to discover that America is no longer the melting pot it once was.  Instead of looking to assimilate, certain ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics have fought to maintain their own cultural integrity.

“The most recent census made it clear that the United States is fast becoming more ethnically diverse,” says Wendy Liebmann, principal of WSL Marketing, a New York-based consultancy.  “The melting pot concept that has typified American society for the last century is rapidly being displaced by a multiethnic mosaic.”
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Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Find Me a Job

It’s no coincidence that Sanjeev Agrawal, the co-founder and chief executive of Collegefeed, compares finding a job with dating. Finding The One (or at least The One That’s Good Enough) in both jobs and love is difficult under the best of circumstances, and it’s even harder if you don’t know where or how to start your search.

Collegefeed, a one-year-old start-up in Mountain View, Calif., is applying science and a bit of human matchmaking to the process of helping college students and recent graduates connect with employers looking for their particular skills. This week, the company plans to announce a broader rollout of its products for employers and is promoting the addition of prominent companies like eBay and Cisco Systems to its roster.

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Are We Really Monolingual?

Americans are often told that in today’s globalized world, we are at a competitive disadvantage because of our lazy monolingualism. “For too long, Americans have relied on other countries to speak our language,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the Foreign Language Summit in 2010. “But we won’t be able to do that in the increasingly complex and interconnected world.”

The widespread assumption is that few Americans speak more than one language, compared with citizens of other nations — and that we have little interest in learning to speak another. But is this true?

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Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Your Language

In its recent survey on global consumer preferences on the web, “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy,” Common Sense Advisory found that three-quarters of 3,002 respondents in 10 non-English-speaking countries are more likely to buy a product if the post-sales support is in their language. That customer care may be delivered through FAQs or chat at the company’s website – or by a call to a contact center. But the likelihood of a customer from Indonesia calling a U.S. number and reaching someone who speaks his language is very remote.

The same holds true inside a single country where multiple languages are spoken. Based on our research on foreign-language inquiries, we found that Spanish-speaking Americans might not easily get a customer service representative (CSR) who speaks their language. That creates a disconnect for companies, public institutions, and government agencies in the United States that market their “hablamos español” capability, signage, and bilingual packaging or brochures, but can’t satisfy the post-sales or follow-up expectations in spoken interactions.
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