Professor of Marketing from Manchester Business School briefs TECOM business partners on multicultural marketing strategies

Professor Kang was this week at a seminar on multicultural marketing, organized exclusively for TECOM business partners by Manchester Business School Worldwide MBSW), which has just opened a Middle East regional centre at Dubai Knowledge Village.

"Multicultural marketing - targeting groups of consumers who share a common ethnicity or group identity, such as language or religion - is becoming increasingly important for many organisations for the simple reason that these are rapidly growing markets, especially in the US, which is the world's most advanced consumer market," said Professor Kang, herself a Korean national who worked in the US for 18 years before moving to Manchester Business School six years ago. "In fact, the ethnic market alone in the US would rank sixth in the world, in terms of value."

Professor Kang cited a number of case studies illustrating the strategic options for multicultural marketing but cautioned that high quality information was the key to success: "Superficial demographics will only take you so far," she explained. "Psychographics will help marketers really understand the values and attitudes of their target groups, and then the organisation has to decide how to respond to these insights, in order to connect with these groups effectively."

One advantage that marketers in the US benefit from is the wealth of data available: "For example, if I wanted statistics on the eye colour, height and weight of adults in Wisconsin, I could get this information from drivers' licences. This kind of information can be much harder to obtain in other countries," said Professor Kang.

Professor Kang also cautioned against a one-solution-fits-all marketing approach: "We may define a set of common values and attitudes across Asian Americans, for example, but there may well be behavioural differences in the way Indian Americans consume media - they tend to watch mainstream English language TV but also use media in their own languages - compared to other Asian Americans. So, connecting with these groups may require very different marketing communication strategies."

Even before deciding on an appropriate multicultural marketing strategy, an organisation must decide whether these groups need a differentiated marketing approach. "The bottom line is that if an ethnic group can be identified as a market, and effectively reached by an organisation, then it probably warrants a multicultural marketing approach. There are then a number of strategic marketing options available but the golden rules are to research your audience and test everything but also to start with your own organisation - hire people who reflect the multicultural groups you are targeting to ensure you can really understand your consumers."

More than 30 people attended the seminar on 'marketing in a multicultural environment', which was part of a series of activities linked to the opening of MBSW's new Middle East regional centre at Dubai Knowledge Village.

Randa Bessiso, MBSW Middle East Director, commented: "Dubai is MBSW's third international centre, joining existing centres in Hong Kong and Singapore. The new centre at Dubai Knowledge Village will provide support and coordination for more than 100 distance-learning MBA students in the region, who are already following MBA programmes with the School."