Download Facing the challenges in ethnic marketing

Facing the challenges in ethnic
marketing
Interviews with pracitioners and consumers in
Flanders
Joyce Koeman, Kirsten Jaubin & Andrea Stesmans
EFCCE Conference, Vienna
16 May 2009
Joyce Koeman (KULeuven, Belgium)
Centre for Media Culture & Communication Technology
Background
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Growing ethnic diversity
Need for ethnic (marketing) communication
in Flanders

Empirical research is limited
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Comparisons of different countries

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(American) literature cannot be that easily
translated to the Flemish context
Opportunities for ethnic marketing?
Cold feet…
Reluctancy among practitioners
“I doubt we can speak of homogeneous ethnic groups, so we should not look at
them as separate groups…the main disadvantage is that we are reducing them
by a limited set of dimensions. Human beings are far more complex than just their
skin colour or their religion. Categorizing them is ‘a priori’ wrong and kind of
patronizing…”
Yves Van Landeghem (Saatchi & Saatchi)
“If ethnic marketing campaigns are really well developed and you link to their
experiences and worldviews, than I assume they will appreciate it. But if small
mistakes are made I believe you can just forget it…”
Jonas de Wit (JWT)
In-depth interviews
Flanders and Brussels
Practitioners:

16 experts
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Advertising + media agencies
Ethnic minority consumers:
 20 young adults
 18-31 years old
 Different ethnic backgrounds
Where do we come from?
Promotion in ‘etnomarketing’

(VisibIy) increase ethnic minority personnel within the
organization
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Adjust your advertisements
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Regular (mainstream) advertising should be more multicultural
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Develop multilingual communications
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Adjust the distribution of advertising material
 Level of adjustment?
Source: M.J.P. Hofstede (1998)
Different levels of adjustment
3 approaches within ethnic marketing
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‘Etnomarketing’:
 Specifically targeted at ethnic minorities
 Develop tailored communications
Diversity marketing:
 Inclusive approach
 General and targeted at diverse groups
 Pre-test with various groups
Urban marketing:
 Appeals to lifestyles / goals that transcend ethnic
origin: ‘urban feeling’
 Involve targets in the creation of campaigns
Source: R. Romer (TransCity)
Evalutation of strategies
Preferences for an inclusive approach

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Recognition:
“Even though the Belgian nationality is written on my passport, I feel
more like a Turkish boy. Yes, we are rather proud of our country and
culture, and yes we would feel more appealed by our own ads”
Stigmatization:
“If they focus too much on the differences of a specific target group,
they also start to stigmatize. The boundary is hard to define”
”I prefer pointing out similarities, because blending in actually is the
most important thing we are trying to achieve. Integration is very
important as well as maintaining our own personalities. Diversity
marketing might contribute to this”
Identification
Ethnic models

Ethnic models have stronger appeals to ethnic minorities
“I believe it [the use of ethnic minority models] is important:
finding yourself in it, the feeling of being represented”

Risk of stereotypical imagery
“You will never see a black boy portrayed as a math nerd or
somehting like that, he will always be typecast for sports…”
Lost in translation?
Language
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Attention:
“Yes, it is always funny, when you are in Belgium and you read something
in Turkish… I immediately notice those things…because it is the connection
to my home country…”
Extra translation costs:
“We believe migrants should be open to our culture and that they should
learn our language over time. We also know that many of them find this
difficult…therefore we also provide print media in their language…”
Recuitment of ethnic personnel:
“A person who knows the language inside-out should be involved…”
Segmentation by ethnic lines
Acculturation and religion

Generational differences:
“we are dealing with generations which are not assimilated and which are
assimilated, speak the language, know the local culture…So, that’s why it is so
hard to find proper segmentation criteria”
“I would not say that I would go to a store because it is run by a Moroccan. I
would rather go there because it offers some personal advantages”

Religion as an ethnic marker:
“Depending by which religion you live, there are differences...if I look at Muslims
who need to nourish them by halal food, marketing strategies should be adjusted
to that”
 THE ethnic consumer does not exist
Challenges within ethnic marketing
Practitioners:
 Lack of knowledge
 Advertisers are not interested
(yet)
 Heterogeneity is problematic
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Language
Ethnic origins
Religion
Level of acculturation
Consumers:
 Need for recognition
 Adjustment is not always
necessary
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No translation for 2nd + 3rd
generation migrants
Ethnic models => stereotypes
Preference for an inclusive
approach
 Translate consumer needs into opportunities
 Look for similarities rather than differences
 Expand our knowledge and create tools
Future research
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Consumer needs
 Media uses
 Consumer behaviour (ethnic products)
Advertising perception by consumers
 Advertising beliefs & attitudes
 Evaluation of advertising strategies
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Humour
Erotic imagery
Use of stereotypes and advertising models
Advertising practice (content analyses)
Advertising effects (experiments)
Questions?
Thank you for your attention!
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E-mail: [email protected]
WWW: http://koemanjoyce.googlepages.com