The central theme of the Cross-Cultural Marketing module yesterday at the '14 2014 CSE Sports Marketing Symposium was that the whole notion of cross-cultural marketing is a thing of the past. “Multicultural marketing or diverse marketing or cross marketing, whatever you want to call it, is just Marketing 101, ladies and gentlemen,” said Diageo VP/Multicultural Marketing Marc Strachan,. “Let’s get rid of the titles. Let’s get rid of the silos. If you are a marketer, there’s money in them there hills and you’d better go after it.” NASCAR Managing Dir of Brand & Consumer Marketing Kenny Mitchell cited the change in broad demographics as a reason to reject marketing specifically to individual ethnicities. Mitchell: “If you look at a world where one out of two babies that are born are (people) of color. If you look at marketing to millennials, 40 percent of them are of color. If you are doing that in a silo you are doing yourself a disservice. We are marketing to the sports world. We are marketing to fans. We are marketing to the U.S., and the U.S. is diverse.” “What is important is that you are inclusive and that you think about multicultural consumers from the get-go,” said Univision Communications Senior VP/Strategy & Insights Roberto Ruiz. “You do this holistically. You think about this as a comprehensive package, not as an afterthought.”
SWIMMING UPSTREAM? AT&T VP/Diverse Markets Jennifer Jones said that a diverse audience will inevitably be included when marketers tap into the things consumers care about. “Everyone has passions, and sports is a passion,” she said. “Look at millennials now, in particular,” said Mitchell. “If something doesn’t look the way that they’re used to the world being shown, they’re going to feel uncomfortable. You’re actually disinviting them by showing a world that doesn’t reflect who they are, who their friends are and what their world looks like.” While there is progress in this area, said Jones, it is still a challenge to create top-down, company-wide support. “It remains a journey,” she said. “It’s a journey against the inertia of how we’ve always done things.”
