Are Cultural Competency Gaps Driving Shortsighted Decisions [INSIGHT]

By Terry Soto is President and CEO of About Marketing Solutions, Inc.

Much talk has surfaced lately about the whether it makes sense to have a total market strategy. Some contend that the intent of a “total market” strategy, which is to recognize target consumers’ needs, culture and behavioral characteristics in the formulation of a company’s marketing strategy is more often misunderstood or not understood at all. This has resulted in “total market” strategies which homogenize how organizations communicate with consumers and which under emphasize and even ignore cultural nuances that work to powerfully connect consumers and brands.

This is occurring in part as a result of agency work consolidation.  Marketers are naively taking work from specialty agencies with multicultural market expertise, and under the guise of a “total market” strategy, are re-assigning the work to general market agencies which are inexperienced and even indifferent to the country’s diverse cultural differences.

I contend these decisions are driven by two dynamics: 1) Marketers’ lack of a comprehensive understanding of all their consumer targets which intuitively, I find very hard to believe. After all, isn’t marketing fundamentally about knowing our target consumers whatever origin, ethnic heritage or generation and leveraging the right tools and resources to effectively market to them? 2) Marketers are looking for efficiencies by streamlining processes, vendors and budgets. But one has to ask, at what cost?

Under any circumstances, the fact these two dynamics co-exists should cause immediate concern in any organization. At the heart of this conundrum is that building capabilities and cultural competence to effectively address today’s consumer market are not yet a focal point within organizations.

To be fair, more than ever in our country’s history marketers are being challenged to “step up” their capabilities and competence in many different ways. They are at once having to contend with an environment that is, 1) ever more multicultural or multiculturally influenced, 2) ever more digitally driven and 3) strongly driven by big data usage and analysis. This is a tall order. So it begs the question: Why are marketers dissolving the very relationships with multicultural partners they can leverage for much needed expertise and which can help accelerate their success?

I would contend that our focus as marketers is to optimize our companies’ growth platforms by implementing marketing strategies that will drive growth across all our target segments. Doing so effectively has always meant leading with competence AND hiring the right expertise for the job.

Terry Soto is President and CEO of About Marketing Solutions, Inc., a Burbank, California – based strategy consulting firm specializing in helping her clients to dramatically improve overall business performance by optimizing their strategies to also succeed in today’s diverse U.S. market. Terry is the author of Marketing to Hispanics and Strategic Approach to Planning and Implementing Your Initiative and co-author of Grow With America Best Practices in Ethnic Marketing and Merchandising. She is a contributor to a variety of trade publications and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Terry can be reached at te*******@ab*********************.com or 818-842-9688.