4 Keys to Unlocking Your Multicultural Strategy

Recently I shared with a colleague why I believe there’s never been a more exciting time to work in the multicultural space. Many professionals who’ve long carried this torch will say there have been times they wanted to drop that torch well before the finish line. Not because they didn’t care, or because there wasn’t opportunity. But because not enough colleagues cared about that opportunity, which meant more time was spent making the case for change than actually making change.

The good news is, for many companies operating in the U.S., being relevant to a multicultural America is moving up the list of imperatives. In recent years we’ve witnessed a dramatic shift in the American consciousness relative to culture and its influence on how we live, work, and buy. For example, according to Pew Research, the percentage of Americans who support gay marriage increased from 37% to 54% in just 5 years. Step and blended families are now the most common form of family. And according to Ethnifacts’ IPI (Interethnic Proximity Index), which calculates dynamic factors beyond discreet ethnicity such as mixed couples and residence location, we will hit a multicultural tipping point in August, 2014.

Beyond the data, big brands have made courageous strides to represent the new American reality from products to programming, refusing to allow the few preservationists (read: haters) to deter them. In a few short years, we find ourselves living in a fundamentally changed America, and thankfully, many U.S. companies have stopped asking why. They now want to know how to go about authentically engaging today’s consumers, and they want to know yesterday.

Your company may be all over this. (Some of you should be writing this article instead of me!) But if you find yourself knocking on the door of multiculturalism, desperately trying to get “in”, here are 4 keys you can use to unlock your strategy:

1. SEE

What role do multicultural consumers play in your company vision? You have to go beyond inclusion as “the right thing to do”. Multiculturals represent 92% of population growth in this country. They are engaged, connected, digitally savvy, younger by the numbers, and they will shape our future economy. The business opportunity is tremendous. They’re brand loyal, will spend for a good value, are eager to share positive brand experiences with their circles—which are far-reaching—and they’re still vastly underserved on many fronts. This is not just about advertising. Inclusion should be embedded in everything you do. One way to ensure your company “sees” the opportunity more clearly is to promote cultural diversity within your decision-making body. Informed intuition plus healthy tension created by diverse points of view helps you avoid blind spots.

ACTION: Comb through your vision, mission statement, and beliefs and values. Then your strategies. Are diverse consumers meaningfully represented? If not, why? If so, are you thinking broadly enough? Does the size of your vision match the size of the opportunity?

2. FEEL

How will you get your executive leadership on board? Who are your champions? Your agitators, even? The people who will hold others accountable to the intent and the strategy? How will you communicate the imperative to the organization as a whole, so that people understand the merits of a multicultural strategy and begin to own it as part of their core responsibilities? How will you keep it top of mind? This doesn’t happen by accident. Brands spend millions of dollars creating compelling stories that people can believe in…that motivate consumers to spend hard-earned dollars with them instead of the next guy. If you want your employees to fully embrace this opportunity, they need a compelling story, too.

ACTION: Name 3 “agitators” at the highest levels of your organization. Invite them to ask “what about multicultural?” in every decision-making forum until they don’t have to ask anymore. When other leaders start bringing it up unprompted, you’ll know you’re breaking through.

3. KNOW

What is your path to insight development and activation? Knowing how multicultural consumers currently experience your brand is critical, and gaining insight as to how you can help them experience it differently by tapping into their values and motivations is golden. But you can’t stop there. How will you enable employees to become culturally curious and use what they discover to challenge their assumptions? How will you increase your overall “insightfulness” quotient? How will they learn to translate? Many companies have shied away from multicultural centers of excellence in favor of embedding multicultural growth goals into businesses. If a company is mature in this space and the macro mindset has truly been transformed, this might seem like a good idea. But research shows that many organizations still need “personal trainers” to help them cross the bridge to fundamentally different thinking. I may have cognitive awareness that fruit + veggies + exercise = a healthier me, but I’ll get there faster and more effectively with someone guiding me.

ACTION: Consider how you might build a bridge to greater knowledge and translation competence in your company. Then do something. You don’t have to build the Taj Mahal. That said, you must act with intention, focus, and prioritization. Meeting the needs of today’s America is everyone’s job, but unless this is already a way of life in your company, “everyone” needs help.

4. DO

Where will you start or expand? How can you experiment your way to confidence in a new space? If you’re a CPG company, will you start with a specific brand? If you’re a retailer, will you start with a category, a time of year, a select store base? All of the above? Is there a specific consumer target that provides the most opportunity for you based on region or brand alignment or some other affinity? Meeting the needs of today’s evolved consumer can feel like swallowing the ocean. Scoping the opportunity and identifying a practical “learn and grow” approach helps you achieve small wins that build on each other, preparing the soil for more significant growth. Once you start, do what you can to pull the thread all the way through. Make sure your good intentions show up in your consumer-facing proof points.

ACTION: Don’t wait until you have every answer to every facet of the opportunity. Find an experienced partner, or an informed consultant, or even passionate disciples in your company, and chart your practical course forward—one step at a time.

As is true with many business challenges, there is no one playbook to winning with multicultural consumers. And while it’s important to move forward thoughtfully, it doesn’t have to feel like a mystery. There is a practical path to becoming a brand that today’s Americans want in their everyday lives. And it starts with deciding it matters, getting to know people beneath the surface, and aligning your goals and actions with your intent.

Interested in your thoughts!

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