Reaching out to ethnic audiences




		Reaching out to ethnic audiences How to hit a target you can't afford to miss by Paul Paquet WITH ONE CANADIAN in three claiming an ethnocultural background, ethnic Canadians represent Canada's fastest-growing market segment. By 2001, the purchasing power of visible minorities alone will have risen from $76 billion to $300 billion. This population will be too large and too wealthy to risk missing with conventional marketing and public relations strategies. Too often, the PR/marketing response to ethnocultural diversity is simply to translate existing materials or to put a visible minority face in photographs. While these methods are somewhat effective, remember that your approach here should be as well-targetted as your other campaigns are. Not only are ethnocultural communities different from French and English communities, but they are vastly different from one another. A recent study by the Conference Board of Canada identified some of the successful strategies being used to woo ethnocultural Canadians. These include the following: using multilingual copy; developing ethnoculturally distinct print advertising; advertising on multicultural TV and radio stations; putting point-of-purchase displays in ethnic stores; and developing a more diverse and more culturally sensitive workforce. This last item is especially important. Diversity isn't just an equity issue; it's an important step towards achieving an organization's goals. This is especially true for organizations that have international ties. Another Conference Board study showed that only 60 per cent of Canadian exporters took advantage of Canada's diversity when trying to break into foreign markets. Perhaps that explains some of the classic mistakes that even big corporations have made. In China, Kentucky Fried Chicken discovered that they had translated "finger lickin' good" to "eat your fingers off." In Brazil, Ford renamed the Pinto when they realized that their brand name was slang for tiny male genitals. In Italy, Schweppes Tonic Water was accidentally advertised as Schweppes Toilet Water. Again in China, Coca-Cola was once known as Ke-kou-ke-la, which unfortunately also means "bite the wax tadpole." So while it is important to reach out to the ethnocultural portion of your target audience, it is even more important to do so carefully. Ask Cornerstone about Canadian Scene, a news service for ethnic media, translates your message into 11 languages and sends it to 400 ethnic newspapers and 160 broadcast outlets. Canadian Scene moves you out of the news release "slush pile" and onto the top of editors' desks. Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses marketing and PR principles to create "words you can build your business on." Call us from anywhere in the world for rush work. Click here to exit .