Multicultural Market Research: Eight Make-or-Break Rules

David R. Morse, president of New American Dimensions, discussed his new book Multicultural Intelligence: Eight Make-or-Break Rules for Marketing to Race, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation at the MRA First Outlook Conference. He argued that all U.S. researchers need to develop competency in multicultural research, given shifts such as these in American demographics: 

• The percentage of foreign-born population in the United States has increased to 14%, a level not seen since 1910.
• Hispanic immigration is at an all-time high, and Hispanics will make up 20% of Americans by 2050.
• By 2044, white Americans will be a minority according to projections from the U.S. Census department.

Here are David's eight rules:

1. Boost your multicultural competency. The U.S. Census is very detailed and useful for developing a detailed demographic understanding (though it lacks demographics by sexual orientation). When doing focus groups or qualitative research, make sure to have a moderator or interviewer of the race or sexual orientation being studied.
2. Divide and conquer. Don't accept the stereotypes ("Hispanics are brand loyal") but segment this population to truly understand how it relates to your market. The Current Population Survey is one of the few resources that lets you segment population by generation. Foreign born (or first-generation Americans) are very different from second-generation Americans, who generally speak English as well as their parents' native language; second-generation Americans are different again from the third-generation Americans, who typically speak only English.
3. Don't trust the experts. The accepted wisdom is often full of persistent and incorrect "truths" and urban legends, especially relating to translation. Do your homework.
4. Don't let the joke be on you. Tread carefully when doing multicultural marketing with humor; what is funny differs dramatically by culture.
5. Don't get lost in the translation. Given the prevalence of translation errors, make certain to backtranslate the questionnaire. David once was surprised to see in a survey that 100% of Spanish-speaking Hispanics disagreed that "the Internet is color blind". Rechecking the Spanish translation, he found that it has been translated to mean "the Internet has red-blue-green color blindness".
6. Push their buttons. Find the cultural cues that people resonate with; use your research to determine what those are for your market.
7. Market on a wink and a prayer. In a mainstream ad, insert a subtle cultural reference. The mainstream will miss it, but the targeted culture will appreciate it.
8. Make up; don't cover up. Watch the watchdogs. Many segments have advocacy and anti-discrimination  groups; if your marketing runs afoul of them, stop the campaign at once and apologize.

America is not one culture, and savvy researchers realize this. "We are not a color-blind society," said David. "We live in different worlds. We talk differently. We listen to different kinds of music. We worship differently." Follow David's eight rules to improve your organization's marketing and market research.