Multicultural PR: Five Tips for Connecting Authentically with Multicultural Audiences
As customers and news consumers grow more and more diverse, organizations are learning how to authentically connect with multicultural audiences.
In our recent webinar, Bernadette Morris, CEO of Black PR Wire Inc.; Ivan Adaime, CEO of ImpreMedia; LaTricia Harper Woods, Founder/President of Mahogany Xan Communications; and Lilia Arroyo Flores, EVP and Head of Strategic Planning at Edelman Chicago, shared their best practices for building authentic relationships with diverse audiences.
1. Research thoroughly and listen well
As with any demographic, you must know the needs of your customers and how those needs intersect with your brand’s objectives. Organizations need to uncover the nuances of their audiences to find what resonates and engages.
2. Go beyond translation
Automated translations of textual and visual content, idioms and memes from one language to another are a recipe for disaster. To resonate with different audiences, you must focus on different parts of your message to emphasize what matters most to each segment.
3. Understand biases
Everyone has biases based on their own culture, values, and history. These biases can create unintended barriers when it comes to understanding differing cultures or backgrounds. Being able to take a step back and reflect on different aspects of how the created message may appear in a multicultural environment is a critical part of the process.
4. Don’t just come by when you need something
It is time for companies to stop thinking of multicultural marketing as seasonal. To build sustainable results, dollars and focus should be year-round, allowing you to participate in an ongoing conversation with your audiences.
5. Start today
As more diverse generations enter the workforce, brands are expected to recognize and respect that buying power and to communicate in a way that reflects the fact that we live in a multicultural society.
For agencies or brands ready to focus on the multicultural nature of their audiences, now is the best time to get started. The organizations that build authentic connections with their multicultural audiences will invest the time and the money into enabling authentic, ongoing, and culturally-appropriate communication.
