Marketing Diversity: Leveraging the Power of Local Communities

Does marketing today adequately reflect North America’s diverse demographics? Has the shift to internet marketing and customer-driven interactions changed anything about how we market to the different audiences on our virtual doorstep? After meeting one of the co-founders of Schema Magazine, Alden Habacon, I started looking inwardly at how diversity is reflected within the marketing industry. The short answer is, yes, we’ve gone far since a few decades ago. However, just like other aspects of marketing, there are always ways to improve on our current strategies and thinking. Working together with grassroots community organizations, I believe, is the best step forward for diversity initiatives in current marketing practices.

Where is Diversity Marketing?

There’s no doubt that we’ve come a long way from the original source which sparked the debate on diversity marketing – namely, the 1983 article “The Globalization of Markets.” While not the author’s original aim, Levitt’s article got people talking about the hard questions which had been previously ignored or sidelined. Suddenly, everyone had an opinion about whether advertising, and marketing in general, required special tailoring to different cultures. Did all of those big advertising campaigns really need to waste time catering to ‘ethnic’ demographics? Levitt, and the conventional marketing wisdom at the time, certainly didn’t seem to think so.

From that point on, however, diversity marketing has really started to take off in the minds of academics and professionals alike. People said, yes, of course, we need to be sensitive to cultural differences – not only to successfully market our products and services, but also to create bridges across local communities and fully represent actual population demographics. (This paper summarizes some of these developments and also breaks down Levitt’s original argument into digestible terms.)

Where Are We Now?

This is all well and good, but apart from that big “ah-hah!” moment of the early eighties, there’s been arguably little development in the field of diversity marketing. Although we’ve successfully refuted the model of a standardized form of marketing, applicable across a wide spectrum of factors, we haven’t really found a replacement which emphasizes inclusion. I’m not saying that efforts haven’t been made; some of the campaigns out there today would have been unforeseeable more than thirty years ago. Progressive companies and organizations have taken it onto themselves to become more representative and welcoming to the local communities that they serve.

However, there’s still a long way to go before we see the answers to true diversity in marketing. Instead of solely reacting to the latest public outcry of inherent racism in this ad or that campaign, marketing strategy needs to evolve to anticipate and integrate diversity during its planning and creative stages. Pockets of “the Canadian public,” as we’re fond of short-handing, are providing valuable feedback into what’s wrong with the current system. It’s up to us, as advisers of a company’s public image and messaging, to ask these tough questions about diversity. They aren’t necessarily the easiest ones to ask your clients, but they are crucial for maintaining a good connection with their customer base.

In some ways, the questions Kiwano has been asking about green marketing are similar to the ones posed by diversity marketing. Companies may be overwhelmed with how to begin including more diversity into their marketing programs. With so many voices and directions, how does one decide where to spend the effort? In my opinion, the most effective strategy would be to start connecting with and learning from culture-driven organizations within your local community. For years, they’ve noticed how companies have stereotyped, marginalized, and outright excluded diversity from their marketing strategies. Instead of trying to come up with ways to ‘appease’ the cultural differences in your customers, I suggest you tuning in to what these grassroots organizations are advocating.

Perhaps out of fear of losing corporate accounts, marketing has largely taken a backseat to including diversity in their every day work. It’s time to begin leveraging the hard work and dedication of those who have already taken diversity thinking beyond the reactionary stage. What organizations in your local community will challenge your current marketing ideologies on diversity and inclusion?