{"id":4065,"date":"2011-03-09T09:07:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T17:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=4065"},"modified":"2023-05-04T11:57:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T11:57:19","slug":"multicultural-marketing-is-more-than-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/multicultural-marketing-is-more-than-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Multicultural Marketing is More Than Translation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4071 size-medium\" title=\"international\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/international-300x155.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"300\" height=\"155\" \/>When Thomas Friedman, author of <em>The <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/World-Flat-History-Globalized-Twenty-first\/dp\/0713998784%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dwwwthirdforcn-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0713998784\" rel=\"amazon\">World is Flat<\/a><\/em> wrote his book. \u00a0It was a whack on the side of the head moment. \u00a0In the past, we used words like international to describe anything that was outside our own country &#8211; but was still separate. \u00a0Then we migrated into worlds like global, which had this connotation that an organization was unified &#8211; even though they had operations all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>What Friedman showed us was that neither of these was an accurate representation of the world we live in. \u00a0We are an extremely mobile population where people will often move from one country to another just for the experience.<\/p>\n<p>This means that as marketers, we are selling to a multicultural population. \u00a0Some countries are more multicultural than others, but with so much marketing happening online, you might as well assume that you&#8217;re talking to everyone in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Primer on How Multicultural We Are<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While cruising my blog feeds, I ran across this outstanding article by Jeff Henning at Vovici blog. \u00a0In it he outlines a presentation by David Morse, author of Multicultural Intelligence. \u00a0I&#8217;ve paraphrased from the article here.<\/p>\n<p>American demographics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The percentage of foreign-born population in the United States has increased to 14%, a level not seen since 1910.<\/li>\n<li>Hispanic immigration is at an all-time high, and Hispanics will make up 20% of Americans by 2050.<\/li>\n<li>By 2044, white Americans will be a minority according to projections from the U.S. Census department.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4067 size-full\" title=\"multicultural\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/multicultural.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"107\" height=\"160\" \/>In his book, Multicultural Intelligence, David Morse talks about the eight rules that you should follow when you&#8217;re marketing to a multicultural population. \u00a0 I&#8217;m giving you a short summary here:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Boost your multicultural competency. \u00a0When doing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/communities\/focus-group\/\">focus groups<\/a>, be sure to match the moderator&#8217;s race to that of the respondents. \u00a0You can do the same thing with surveys. \u00a0Make sure that they are reviewed by a representative of the race that you are studying.<\/li>\n<li>Divide and conquer. \u00a0Don&#8217;t accept old stereotypes as true. \u00a0Segment your audience not just by race, but by their generation of being in your country.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t trust experts. \u00a0Again, don&#8217;t make assumptions, do your own research- you may discover something new.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t let the joke be on you. \u00a0Watch out when using humor. \u00a0We&#8217;ve all heard horror stories or most embarrassing stories when someone tried to be funny and failed.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t get lost in translation. \u00a0Don&#8217;t skip the step of reviewing your survey, your discussion guide or any marketing materials that you have with a NATIVE speaker. \u00a0There is a difference between speaking a language and KNOWING a language.<\/li>\n<li>Find and understand cultural cues. \u00a0Use your research with natives to find the emotions and words that resonate with your audience. \u00a0This is hard enough in your own language, let alone a foreign one.<\/li>\n<li>Use a wink and a prayer. \u00a0Using your research and consultation with natives of the country, insert a subtle cultural reference. \u00a0This goes a long way toward building relationship with your customer.<\/li>\n<li>Make up, don&#8217;t cover up. \u00a0If your marketing runs up against an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/employee-advocacy\/\">employee advocacy<\/a> group &#8211; stop immediately. \u00a0Don&#8217;t get defensive, rather learn from the experience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>How Can You Start Thinking\u00a0Multi-culturally<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chances are you&#8217;ve already started thinking\u00a0multi culturally. \u00a0And Google Translate makes that even easier by translating web sites and blogs instantly into any language you&#8217;d like to see. \u00a0But there is more to it than that.<\/p>\n<p>David Morse recommends researching your audience fully and not defaulting to old truths or stereotypes. \u00a0This means that it&#8217;s a good idea to run a thorough profile update of your customers and your overall audience.<\/p>\n<p>You can do this by creating a series of Micro-Polls or recruit a panel of customers, readers or general market population to participate in an ongoing survey. \u00a0Be sure to have rewards ready for them. \u00a0These might include free product or sharing the results, gift cards, etc.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald&#8217;s does 40% of its U.S. business with ethnic minorities, and half that group is younger than 13. In response,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu\/article.cfm?articleid=2438\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">McDonald&#8217;s runs focus groups<\/a> with disproportionate numbers of minority participants. The company has also introduced performance standards for its advertising agencies, requiring them to measure how well their work addresses ethnic &#8220;insights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A small business wanting to get more international clients might progressively test small changes in writing more specifically for a wide multicultural readership.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget, not all English speakers are the same. \u00a0A website written for a multicultural audience will always be at least slightly different than a website specifically targeting an all American audience, or an all British audience, or an all Australian audience.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t assume that you&#8217;re\u00a0multi culturally\u00a0aware just because you do business with people all over the world. \u00a0It&#8217;s time to start segmenting and understanding the subtle differences in our audiences so that our targeted marketing can do its job.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat wrote his book. \u00a0It was a whack on the side of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[599,868,428,869,870,871],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Multicultural Marketing is More Than Translation | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat wrote his book. \u00a0It was a whack on the side of the head moment. \u00a0In the past, we used words like\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/multicultural-marketing-is-more-than-translation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Multicultural Marketing is More Than Translation | QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat wrote his book. \u00a0It was a whack on the side of the head moment. \u00a0In the past, we used words like\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/multicultural-marketing-is-more-than-translation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\" 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