Cultural Identity: From Music Concert to Music Festival.

By Juan C. Mantilla, Strategic Planning Director – LatinWorks

As an avid concertgoer, I can say that the difference between a good show and an awesome performance depends on the conversation between the fans and the stage. The closer you are to your idols, the more personal and intense the show gets. Similarly, a brand’s ability to deliver compelling messaging and achieve rock-star status depends on the conversation between the consumer and the brand. However, in today’s multicultural marketplace, proximity and volume alone no longer guarantee that everyone will hear a brand’s message.

Given the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, multicultural consumers are transforming the “mainstream” as fast as it is transforming them. Multicultural influences are showing up everywhere, especially in music. You don’t have to look hard to find a Mariachi Punk show or an Electro Tropical rave. Today’s American society is no longer a one-band show, so the notion of multicultural marketing needs to evolve from the idea of a music concert (a linear approach) to a music festival (a multipronged approach). The essentials of music concerts have remained pretty much the same over the years – typically one or two smaller opening acts latch onto a big headliner, bounding them all with a similar music genre. The idea is to keep the sound consistent, so it plays throughout the fan base.

The traditional approach to Hispanic marketing is similar to this conversation. This approach assumes that Hispanics are moving on a linear path to the mainstream, and as they do, they lose their cultural attachment. In other words, the closer Hispanics get to the main stage, the more they will sound like the headliner (the general U.S. population). So marketers end up doing one of two things: either they lump Hispanics with the mainstream and hope the message will resonate with everyone, or they resort to a more “ethnic beat” to tap into cultural identity.

What this approach fails to recognize is that there is no longer one main stage. Instead, what if there are multiple stages, each with its own show and genre? Most importantly, what if the audience was in the middle of it all, listening for what they like, and choosing which shows they want to see and how close they want to get to each one of them? Well, this is what a music festival is all about. And what the present day ethnic market is looking like. Now more than ever, most Hispanics are truly multicultural. They place high value on their own culture, but are equally interested in other cultures. For them, “identity is multifaceted, fluid and situational.”1 They can navigate across different cultural groups, and absorb the cultural elements that work within their preferred lifestyle, while still remaining attached to their cultural identity.

So if the market place is evolving from music concert to music festival, we must consider evolving with it. This doesn’t mean multicultural marketing should brush off individual heritage. Merging everything into one block assumes people are tone deaf. However, most people have a fantastic ear for music and enjoy listening for different messages. Let’s make sure that our message doesn’t get lost in the white noise.

1 The Futures Company & Cheskin Added Value. Multicultural Monitor 2011.