Over 250 ethnic origins or ancestries are now reported by the Canadian population which is the highest ever recorded. Canada is widely known as the most multicultural country in the world. Fully, over 10 million citizens identify as a member of a racialized community. With such a significant presence, some might say it’s incredible that we even need to have a focus on multicultural marketing. Put another way, that multicultural marketing should actually be the mainstream.
The number of foreign-born Canadians is equivalent to the size of the population of Quebec. You have a Quebec strategy, right? Multicultural Canadians present new opportunities for your business.
To uncover the latest reality of multicultural marketing in Canada, In Partnership With reached out to a leading expert. Howard Lichtman is a Partner of Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing + Advertising. Ethnicity comprises four divisions that provide end-to-end solutions for Canadian marketers targeting a multicultural audience. Working with a variety of industries, Ethnicity’s current clients include Rogers, Kruger Products, GoDaddy, Toronto Ford Dealers, Danone, Food Basics, Reitmans, Canada Dry and BC Dairy, amongst others.
No Shortcuts in Multicultural Marketing
Many marketers act like they can take shortcuts when it comes to multicultural marketing. Howard observes that this could mean including various faces into ads to “solve the problem.” Actors in the ads may look more like the ethnic communities in Canada – which is progress – versus many of the homogenous images we see too often.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work effectively because many people often can’t relate to the advertising from their own cultural perspective. Howard reminds us that different languages, cultures, buyer behaviours and attitudes all impact decision-making. It’s not about simply seeing your skin tone on TV. For many brands, that’s as far as they go to “be multicultural.”
Cosmetic, visual efforts are not enough, because there’s a significant opportunity to speak directly to a target community with culture-specific relevancy.
Howard recalls that his team was conducting an ethnographical focus group with a group of Chinese consumers. The client asked Ethnicity to share a mainstream ad that they had translated into Cantonese and Mandarin the year previously. At that earlier time, Ethnicity was not yet working with them. It was in viewing that ad – which was spoken in perfect Cantonese and Mandarin dialect – that the participants stated that they had absolutely no idea what the ad was all about. The ad had used an allegory that would make sense to mainstream consumers but the focus group didn’t have the cultural context to understand what the advertiser was trying to convey.
It’s more important to be “in culture” than it is to be “in language.”
As a result of the experience that Howard and his team have built up, it has become a truism that Ethnicity shares with its clients. Google Translate is not a multicultural strategy, despite the shortcut it may seem to provide.
Business Opportunities with Multicultural Marketing
If you do something that’s culturally relevant for target consumers, Howard has seen research indicating some powerful results:
- 3.0x more likely to find the ad relevant
- 2.6x more likely to find the brand relevant
- 1.5x more likely to learn additional information for the brand
- 2.7x more likely to buy the brand for the first time
- 50% more likely to repurchase a brand and
- 2.8x more likely to recommend the brand.
That’s impressive. Plus, if your brand is Millennial or Gen Z focused, it’s worth noting that 30% and 26%, respectively, of such cohorts are of ethnic origin.
More Deeply Understanding Cultural Communities
Howard is reminded that people who have come to Canada still have cultural influences from home. This has created false certainty by some marketers. Once immigrants are in the country for five or 10 years, many marketers believe they’ve acculturated to the point that they’re being reached by mainstream advertising. That’s simply a myth. For Chinese-origin consumers, 19% of Chinese Canadian consumers don’t speak English. We live in a multicultural mosaic where many ethnic groups thrive in their own communities and they don’t need to learn English. As a result, Howard shares that you have effectively removed 20% of the affluent Chinese audience from your potential business if you’re only marketing in English.
Howard encourages us to dig deeper. Yes, members of the Chinese Canadian community are on Facebook. Yes, they are on Instagram. But guess what. They’re spending 50% of their time on Chinese social media online. Remember, WeChat is the fifth largest social media network on the globe.
More than a million Chinese Canadian consumers are on WeChat. If your brand is not, you’re missing 50% share voice for this community.
Of course, if your competitor is there and you’re not, you’re simply asking to lose share.
Changing Immigration Dynamics
For South Asians in Canada, this group is already the largest cultural community. Howard notes that it’s likely, once the new census comes comes out, there will be over 2 million members of this community in Canada. Since they were part of the British Commonwealth, most speak English.
Even if English is not a barrier for new communities, does that mean you’re reaching them just because your ads are in mainstream English? Don’t be so sure.
Howard is concerned that what governments failed to do during the pandemic is communicate with South Asian consumers both in-language (for those not speaking English) and also on ethnic media. And in a culturally relevant way. The results – in part – are that the biggest hotspot for the pandemic in this province is Brampton.
Cultural Considerations During COVID
People naturally ask why Brampton is a COVID hotspot. Howard shares that Ethnicity Marketing did a market research survey on how pandemic-related news was reaching Chinese and South Asian consumers. What Howard’s team learned is they were consuming more ethnic media than ever before. The challenge his team found is that every mainstream TV show or radio station had a different message from a different level of government …that was changing on a daily basis. So citizens didn’t know who to trust.
There are other reasons for the situations in communities like Brampton, such as the fact that many South Asians are frontline workers. Recent articles from Australia, which also has a large South Asian community, reflect the fact that South Asians are best reached with culturally relevant messaging. Influencers are a 10% factor in Canada and a 12% factor in the United States, but they are a 30% factor in India.
Radio and TV hosts, as well as community leaders, are influencers. They should be an integral part of the Government’s outreach program.
Howard continues that many Asians, by their very nature, are more group-focused and social than mainstream consumers. If you go to a movie theatre – and Howard has worked in this business – he knows the best customer is a South Asian businessman. As opposed to couples going to the movies for many Canadians, many South Asians will attend in groups of 8, 12 or 14 family members. Bringing it back to COVID, Howard asks us to empathize with that deeply-held cultural concept and the resulting need to socially distance within a multi-generational household.
Multicultural Marketing By The Numbers
The reason why brands are more seriously considering the Canadian multicultural consumer opportunity today is because of the numbers. One in five Canadians are foreign born. With the 2020 Census still being tabulated, the reality is that unfortunately the census is taken only every 5 years. What this means is we won’t have new numbers for another year or two as we will likely see the 2021 census numbers in 2022. Noting that, these numbers are the latest available figures:
The largest group of ethnic consumers in the country is South Asians with 1.9 million. Chinese Canadians are 1.6 million, the Black community is 1.2 million and Filipinos 700,000.
Just to give you an example of how understated the numbers are, the government says – because they have old Census data – there’s 700,000 Filipinos in the country. If you speak to the Consulate General of the Philippines – who actually have the numbers – it’s 900,000. So when Howard says one in five Canadians are foreign born, thats’s going to move to one in three very quickly.
Focusing in on the Opportunity
Again, this presents a significant business opportunity. Howard shares that when you look at ethnic consumers, it’s helpful to focus in on the two most important groups. These include those with permanent residence status and international students. Combined, you’re looking at a million newcomers arriving on our shores.
If you’re saying, “hey, we need to generate more revenue in 2021,” where are you going to find a million new potential customers? With new Canadians.
Not only is one in five Canadians foreign-born – equivalent to the size of the population of Quebec – the number of immigrants is growing dramatically on an annual basis. For the next three years, the Canadian Government will be welcoming over 400,000 Permanent Residents to the country. That means there will be 1.2 million newcomers who have never heard of your brand.
You can add to that the approximately 640,000 International Students who arrive in our country every year. Not only is that number likely to increase to 750,000, a greater number are likely to stay in the country upon graduation. Currently, on average, approximately 60% of students stay in the country. If you delve deeper and you look at Chinese and South Asians, the number climbs to over 85% to 90%. Plus, the Government is introducing legislation to make it even easier for International Students to become Canadian citizens.
If you’re a global brand, they know you from back home. That’s great. Howard’s advice is to capitalize on it all now because your competitors are also looking at those million new customers. If they don’t know your brand, there’s opportunity. Newcomers anticipate there’s going to be new categories they haven’t tried. So it’s a refreshed pool of opportunity every year.
Overcoming the Fear of Sensitivities
It’s known that some marketers – and there is still an over-representation of white marketers in Canada – are fearful of offending ethnic consumers. This may be by accidentally being culturally insensitive or inadvertently appropriating cultural norms or reinforcing outdated sterotypes. Howard can relate to the fear as he runs a multicultural agency and he is the visible minority amongst his team. Whether it’s around culture, LGBTQ or people with disabilities, everyone deserves respect.
The answer to overcoming sensitivity fears is to ensure there is a diverse, representative group at the table when making strategic decisions.
It’s an education, Howard advises, in most cases with new clients. But he’s discovered that there can be a unique approach leveraged to ‘flip the plan’ from most approaches today. Currently, that typically means shooting “mainstream” ads first and then do voiceovers to reach multiple communities.
Instead of creating an ad while including some culturally-representative faces, try a new approach this year. Howard suggests to start by delivering an ad that resonates first with ethnic communities. Nine out of 10 times, there is an insight leveraged that is a universal truth. Therefore, it works for mainstream consumers as well. Talk about efficiency and opportunity to expand your business in 2021 to over 250 new communities and millions of Canadians.
In Partnership With
Howard Lichtman is a Partner of Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing + Advertising. As a co-founder, this game-changing multicultural agency is redefining the way clients engage today’s ethnic consumers. Howard is also the CEO of The Lightning Group, which provides paths to new revenue strategies and virtual CMO services. In addition, Howard is a marketing education instructor, angel investor and visionary change agent.
Tim Bishop, CM is a multi-disciplined executive with a proven record of optimizing strategic efforts to expand the influence of leading organizations, such as the Canadian Marketing Association, Cineplex Entertainment, Lavalife.com, IMI International and Northstar Research Partners. In Partnership With is his latest focus to curate Canadian marketing experts to celebrate the power of strategic partnerships in a perspective-based content series.