Why Multicultural Marketing Is Indispensable In Canada

Written by Sameer Mittal. Photo credit: Helena Lopes

So what’s Multicultural Marketing?

It refers to the marketing practice of honing their advertising message to reach out to different ethical groups. While it is a beneficial practice, it requires specialized insights and actions to avoid stereotypes and cultural appropriations. Research on perceptions of advertising reveals that Canadian consumers respond positively to advertisements with ethnic cues.

The consumer behaviour of the multicultural population of Canada needs urgent addressing by marketers and businesses to reach diverse audiences.

Recent surveys also showed that three fourth of the population consider their ethnic identity to be important. However, Canada, known for promoting diverse cultural expression, does far less ethnicity-centred marketing than the United States. Many potential Canadian marketers are yet to invest more in understanding and targeting the ethnicity of consumer behaviours, especially in food, fashion and lifestyle.

In a period of post-pandemic recovery, it is essential for brands to focus on key insights that drive the community.

Mostly, advertisers focus on celebrating key festivals to appease and include key ethnic groups such as South Asians and Chinese Canadians. However, during the pandemic, we have observed variations in consumer trends with a significant shift in the buying pattern of gadgets and electronics, automobiles, groceries, investing and insurance-buying among the diverse communities.

AVC Communications, Balmoral Multicultural, Barrett and Welsh and Ethnicity Matters are some of the leading advertising agencies in Canada that are focusing on multicultural marketing and communications for driving sales and growth for clients. These agencies help brands to reach out to the flourishing ethnic and migrant communities in the country.

Ethnicity is a multidimensional factor that influences the behaviour and attitude of the consumer.

The right addressing of ethnicity can help marketers prevent risks of narrow targeting of the market sectors. An effective ethnic marketing strategy should involve a deep understanding of the categories within ethnic groups.

Ethnic identification factors like language, culture and lifestyle are gaining momentum just like other factors such as age, gender, income and purchasing preference.

It is time for Canadian advertising to identify the similarities and differences in consumer behaviours and attitudes among various multicultural groups. Sadly, due to a lack of statics, ethnic-based marketing to multicultural consumers can be complicated.

To optimize the cost of multicultural advertising, brands should focus on newspapers, TV, radio or digital channels with more subscribers/audiences from specific ethnic groups.

Ethnic marketing is a complex topic, but it is becoming crucial for Canadian businesses to persuade their ethnically diverse audiences. The current unprecedented scenario made many futuristic entrepreneurs realize the need of the hour to acknowledge the efforts of colleagues belonging to minority groups as a welcoming gesture to more people.

Originally published at http://byvi.co on July 10, 2020.