Marketers need to evolve beyond the “multicultural” brief

By Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel

By lumping distinctly diverse audiences together under one umbrella and isolating entire cultural communities into a “niche,” the industry persists in sending a clear message: historically underrepresented consumers are still not seen as part of the cultural mainstream in marketing. Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel asks, when will marketing’s approach to cultural diversity align with the realities of today and the demands of tomorrow?

The growth of so-called ‘multicultural’ advertising in the U.S. slowed from 9% in 2022 to 5.7% in 2023. Reasons cited by experts vary from fears of economic recession to ongoing backlash against inclusion. It has been expected to rebound to $45.8 billion (8% growth) this year, owing to rising ad spend in the light of significant cultural events, like the U.S. presidential election and the World Cup.

Despite these projections, historically excluded consumer groups still receive just 5% of overall media spend, while accounting for around 44 % of the total U.S. population. This stark discrepancy persists even as the U.S. society becomes increasingly multicultural and multiracial at its core, with mixed-race individuals projected to be the fastest-growing demographic over the next several decades.

When will marketing’s approach to cultural diversity align with the realities of today and the demands of tomorrow? For marketers committed to evolving the profession along with changing times, this is an invitation to confront some uncomfortable questions that have been ignored for far too long.

Moving past empty buzzwords

Despite the projected growth in multicultural ad spend, the ongoing disparity reveals deeper structural issues at play. Beyond budget allocations, there is a palpable resistance to evolving traditional audience strategies. This reluctance is reflected in the industry’s discourse and institutional practices, which continue to frame historically overlooked audiences in outdated, limiting ways.

For one, marketing discourse continues to simplify a wide range of historically underrepresented identities – cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and sexual – into broad labels, namely “multicultural” or “diverse.” Both on social media and across reputable business publications, it is still all too common to see terms like “diverse consumers” being used to describe any group that is not white, heterosexual, or cisgender, effectively rendering these audiences as the “other” and, therefore, opposite of the norm.

By lumping distinctly diverse audiences together under one umbrella and isolating entire cultural communities into a “niche,” the industry persists in sending a clear message: historically underrepresented consumers are still not seen as part of the cultural mainstream in marketing.

This approach reinforces the aforementioned cycle of underfunding and the perception that marketing to these specific cultural communities remains a subspecialty in business. Worse, this approach ultimately perpetuates the very systemic exclusion it claims to address and resolve.

Confronting the illusion of inclusion

It may be tempting to dismiss concerns about buzzwords as mere semantics. And yet, the language we use shapes perceptions and influences priorities and expectations in both professional and public discourse. While buzzwords can be useful for making complex issues accessible to more people, they can also quickly be reduced to empty vessels that dilute meaning where it matters most. The result is optics over real, sustainable change.

This issue has even been taken up in academic literature on advertising. In a journal article in American Anthropologist, Northwestern’s sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist Professor Shalini Shankar notes that in the advertising industry, the term “culture” itself has come to encompass not only racial groups, such as Black, Latino, or Asian American consumers, but also any other historically overlooked and underrepresented community, including LGBTQ individuals and even people with disabilities.

This broad categorization implicitly acknowledges the existence of these audiences, Shankar argues, but does so in “unspecific and nonthreatening ways.” As a result, “diversity advertising,” as Shankar calls it, signals an awareness of marketplace diversity but ultimately shifts focus back to the mainstream that is conceptualized and thought of as white, straight, and cisgender. Even if data suggest otherwise.

Despite good intentions, this mindset essentially enforces segregation similar to past patterns of institutional exclusion by normalizing marketing approaches that consider marginalized groups as separate – and, therefore, secondary. Paradoxically, this approach sustains an illusion of cultural homogeneity that simply no longer exists. In light of select brands caving to neo-segregationist forces, normalizing human diversity as a present-day reality is more critical than ever. Anything else inevitably perpetuates historical inequities that continue to privilege historically dominant groups over everyone else.

Embracing the vision of a multifaceted future

Over the past decade, 100% of the U.S. population growth has come from increases in Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native, Indigenous, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic groups, with buying power now exceeding $5 trillion. Furthermore, the topic of diversity in marketing and business can no longer be treated as a niche specialty as it is an essential element of driving business growth today:

• Today, 57% of all US consumers, 72% of Millennials, and 81% of Gen Z already say that historically excluded cultural communities (Black, Hispanic, Latino, and LGTBQ communities) have a significant influence on their own brand preferences.
• In a few years, experts predict that $1 out of every $5 of U.S. disposable income will belong to Black, Asian, multiracial, and Native American consumers, up from just 66 cents in 2000.
• Unstereotype Alliance’s industry-first study has also shown that progressive advertising drives a 3.46% improvement in the short-term and a 16.26% increase in long-term sales results.

Moreover, continuing to treat cultural diversity as a distinct and secondary niche is not reflective of the long-term future ahead of us either.

• Generation Alpha, already accounting for 13% of the U.S. population, will come of age by 2030 and is projected to be the first generation to be minority white.
• Today, 56% of 13-year-olds in the United States already view racial and ethnic diversity positively, with no observable differences among racial and ethnic groups.
• By 2029, this multicultural, multiracial generation is expected to have a global economic footprint of more than $5.46 trillion; that’s more than Millennials and Gen Z combined.

Conventional approaches to “multicultural marketing,” as we know it today, are obsolete. We need new ways of engaging with contemporary audiences that reflect the multicultural society we live in.
Laying a new foundation for audience strategy

An ongoing debate in the industry is whether every brand needs to embrace cultural progressivism. In the past year or so, industry leaders have argued that some brands are there to just sell the product; they don’t need to necessarily “save the world.” And yet, brands not typically associated with progressive, inclusive advertising – such as Lysol, Home Depot, and Tide – have reportedly seen noteworthy success by making a definite, strategic choice to embrace customer-centric inclusivity, despite any potential backlash, driving ad effectiveness, commercial gains, and the brand’s cultural impact.

Evolving audience strategies in tandem with cultural shifts will position culture-forward brands to connect more effectively with consumers who are becoming a dominant force in the marketplace. The future will require us to evolve beyond the constraints of the all-too-familiar “multicultural” brief:

• Move beyond seeing diversity and inclusivity as exclusively a matter of brand activism or social purpose. Instead, integrate overlooked perspectives of historically marginalized communities into every stage, from product design to market research and creative storytelling.
• Demographic personas often just reinforce stereotypes, especially for underrepresented groups. We must go beyond surface-level insights to enrich consumer intelligence with deeper learnings that reflect the richness of their lived experiences that otherwise go unnoticed.
• To truly connect and resonate with audiences in a diverse society, avoid one-dimensional portrayals that oversimplify cultural communities. Dig deeper into passions, interests, rituals, artifacts, and contexts that shape people’s everyday lives and experiences with your category.
• Ditch the “multicultural” brief that ostracizes and devalues historically marginalized audiences and start seeing human diversity as a default feature of present-day consumer culture.

The industry’s reluctance to evolve “multicultural marketing” might still hold for a while longer, but one thing is certain: this transformation is inevitable, and change is already underway.