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With over 9.1 million individuals living in the United Kingdom and hailing from an ethnic minority, it is glaringly obvious that businesses need to be embracing ethnic marketing as part of their strategy. Recent global events are also evidence that the world is changing and waking up to the systematic racism that plagues society. Yet only one in five businesses have done so.
Multicultural marketing, also known as ethnic marketing, is one way that businesses can achieve new customer acquisition whilst also enriching the business, thus achieving a number of goals simultaneously. It must be noted, however, that simply working ethnic marketing into your business’ strategy should not be done to appear inclusive, you need to be doing it because you genuinely have interest in and want to generate business within these ethnic minorities. This is what has led us to pen this post. Below, you will find five reasons as to how ethnic marketing can improve your business.
Customer acquisition
As mentioned above, by including multicultural marketing into your business’ marketing strategy, you are opening yourself up to over 9.1 million new customers with a combined spending power of £300 billion. Again, you are not an inclusive company simply by implementing multicultural marketing into your marketing strategy. You have to open your business up to learning about and embracing different cultures and backgrounds. This embracing of ethnic minorities will be how you sow the seeds and establish a relationship with the ethnic minorities you are looking to reach and engage with.
Reputation
By correctly implementing multicultural marketing into your business’ marketing strategy and embracing new ethnic groups into your customer base, you will begin to see a reputation developing. You may have been known as a great brand for your line of cosmetics but now that you are embracing the diversity that exists – even just here in UK alone – you will begin to notice that customers respect that and particularly in today’s world, many consumers shop with companies that are inclusive and support minority groups.
Brand image
This links to the previous point in that customers are aware of the ethics, morals and values that your business, allowing them to identify you as a caring and inclusive brand. In today’s world, consumers are incredibly influenced by the image that a business holds and whether that image aligns with the beliefs of said consumer. By reaching out to these communities you are not only diversifying your brand image, but also strengthening it. Moral codes mean so much for than they used to do to consumers and now that the blinkers are off, people are aware of the mistreatment that can go on behind closed doors with some brands.
Representation
It is genuinely astonishing that in a time where the United Kingdom is so diversely populated that we still see predominantly white, cisgendered, able-bodied individuals in the vast majority of advertising. Despite the 9.1 million residents of the UK being from ethnic minorities, they are still communicated to by brands using people that they do not bear any similar physical attributes but also people whom haven’t the slightest idea on what it is to be from a minority group. Without even realising you are assisting in the representation of ethnic minorities with the use of multicultural marketing. This in itself can act as a selling point for many customers as they will want to shop with brands that acknowledges and represents their presence here in the United Kingdom.
Customer retention
With the customers now acquired you have tapped into the new markets that you were hoping to reach. It’s now time to ensure that you are retaining them through regular engagement. This could be through a series of promotions or campaigns centred around different ethnic holidays and events that take place throughout the year. As it happens, we have recently shared a resource on this – please head over to this page to find out more. By respecting the customs of ethnic minorities, you will find that they are not only more likely to become customers of yours but that they will probably become loyal customers due to the engagement with their heritage and religion and the catering to their cultural differences.
