16 May 2009 Facing the challenges in ethnic marketing Interviews with pracitioners and consumers in Flanders Joyce Koeman, Kirsten Jaubin & Andrea Stesmans EFCCE Conference, Vienna Joyce Koeman (KULeuven, Belgium) Centre for Media Culture & Communication Technology

Background  Growing ethnic diversity  Need for ethnic (marketing) communication in Flanders  Empirical research is limited  Comparisons of different countries  (American) literature cannot be that easily translated to the Flemish context  Opportunities for ethnic marketing?

Cold feet… Reluctancy among practitioners “I doubt we can speak of homogeneous ethnic groups, so we should not look at them as separate groups…the main disadvantage is that we are reducing them by a limited set of dimensions. Human beings are far more complex than just their skin colour or their religion. Categorizing them is ‘a priori’ wrong and kind of patronizing…” Yves Van Landeghem (Saatchi & Saatchi) “If ethnic marketing campaigns are really well developed and you link to their experiences and worldviews, than I assume they will appreciate it. But if small mistakes are made I believe you can just forget it…” Jonas de Wit (JWT)

In-depth interviews Flanders and Brussels Practitioners:  16 experts  Advertising + media agencies Ethnic minority consumers:  20 young adults  years old  Different ethnic backgrounds

Where do we come from? Promotion in ‘etnomarketing’ (VisibIy) increase ethnic minority personnel within the organization Adjust your advertisements Regular (mainstream) advertising should be more multicultural Develop multilingual communications Adjust the distribution of advertising material  Level of adjustment? Source: M.J.P. Hofstede (1998)

Different levels of adjustment 3 approaches within ethnic marketing  ‘Etnomarketing’:  Specifically targeted at ethnic minorities  Develop tailored communications  Diversity marketing:  Inclusive approach  General and targeted at diverse groups  Pre-test with various groups  Urban marketing:  Appeals to lifestyles / goals that transcend ethnic origin: ‘urban feeling’  Involve targets in the creation of campaigns Source: R. Romer (TransCity)

Evalutation of strategies Preferences for an inclusive approach  Recognition: “Even though the Belgian nationality is written on my passport, I feel more like a Turkish boy. Yes, we are rather proud of our country and culture, and yes we would feel more appealed by our own ads”  Stigmatization: “If they focus too much on the differences of a specific target group, they also start to stigmatize. The boundary is hard to define” ”I prefer pointing out similarities, because blending in actually is the most important thing we are trying to achieve. Integration is very important as well as maintaining our own personalities. Diversity marketing might contribute to this”

Identification Ethnic models  Ethnic models have stronger appeals to ethnic minorities “I believe it [the use of ethnic minority models] is important: finding yourself in it, the feeling of being represented”  Risk of stereotypical imagery “You will never see a black boy portrayed as a math nerd or somehting like that, he will always be typecast for sports…”

Lost in translation? Language  Attention: “Yes, it is always funny, when you are in Belgium and you read something in Turkish… I immediately notice those things…because it is the connection to my home country…”  Extra translation costs: “We believe migrants should be open to our culture and that they should learn our language over time. We also know that many of them find this difficult…therefore we also provide print media in their language…”  Recuitment of ethnic personnel: “A person who knows the language inside-out should be involved…”

Segmentation by ethnic lines Acculturation and religion  Generational differences: “we are dealing with generations which are not assimilated and which are assimilated, speak the language, know the local culture…So, that’s why it is so hard to find proper segmentation criteria” “I would not say that I would go to a store because it is run by a Moroccan. I would rather go there because it offers some personal advantages”  Religion as an ethnic marker: “Depending by which religion you live, there are differences...if I look at Muslims who need to nourish them by halal food, marketing strategies should be adjusted to that”  THE ethnic consumer does not exist

Challenges within ethnic marketing Practitioners:  Lack of knowledge  Advertisers are not interested (yet)  Heterogeneity is problematic  Language  Ethnic origins  Religion  Level of acculturation Consumers:  Need for recognition  Adjustment is not always necessary  No translation for 2nd + 3rd generation migrants  Ethnic models => stereotypes  Preference for an inclusive approach  Translate consumer needs into opportunities  Look for similarities rather than differences  Expand our knowledge and create tools

Future research  Consumer needs  Media uses  Consumer behaviour (ethnic products)  Advertising perception by consumers  Advertising beliefs & attitudes  Evaluation of advertising strategies Humour Erotic imagery Use of stereotypes and advertising models  Advertising practice (content analyses)  Advertising effects (experiments)

Questions? Thank you for your attention!   WWW: