Multicultural Millennial Marketing - OnCampus Advertising

Millennials are statistically the most racially diverse demographic to date. According to a Pew Research Report, 43% of millennials identify themselves as nonwhite, and that number is growing still today. This diverse generation of consumers posses a whole new set of behaviors and attitudes with the way they interact with brands. They place a higher priority and value on their diversity than older demographics. Here are four aspects businesses should keep in mind when looking to market to multicultural millennials:

Extending your reach.

The first step is to assess whether or not your brand is being advertised and sold to the ethnic groups you want to advertise to. Has your brand sought out international groups to sponsor your product? Have you considered targeting certain ethnicities in the planning of marketing strategies and campaigns?

Change your display strategy.

Compare ethnic markets to non-ethnic markets and see if the data can be broken down to research into what better suits your product. For example, 80% of a brand’s products may sell better in highly Hispanic stores and markets. These stores would not be considered under the bestseller, brand name stores. Making changes to the display strategy could dramatically increases sales, simply by branching out from one specific large retailer to smaller, more ethnic and cultural stores.

Don’t forget to personalize.

One of the largest mistakes in ethnically targeted programs is that brands only think of them in terms of marketing communication. Businesses can address the needs of multicultural consumers while still delivering a personalization package for them. Customers can easily receive personalized programs from Big Data trackers – it is just a matter if personalization would equally suit both multicultural and non-cultural markets.

Social media is key.

Millennials still heavily rely on friend and peer recommendations in order to try a new product. However, these friend networks are quite segregated – with 28% of Americans aging 18-39 having no very close friends of another ethnicity. Therefore, it is essential to remain interactive and deliver consistent material on social media in order to engage with a mix of ethnicity groups. Customer reviews, tagging photos, locations, and sharing posts are all important aspects to engage many ethnic groups under one common product.