As the marketplace becomes more diverse, multicultural initiatives have become increasingly crucial for all categories of business. About 77% survey participants have multicultural marketing initiatives, while 66% indicate that their company’s efforts have increased over the past few years.

Despite the continued growth and strategic emphasis, frustration among marketers remains high. Only 45% expressed satisfaction with the results of their MCM initiatives, with 26% somewhat or very dissatisfied.

Conducted by the ANA in partnership with marketing services firm ‘mktg,’ the 2008 multicultural marketing survey is the third edition of the study, following earlier versions in 2002 and 2003. Seventy-four marketers from member companies responded to this August’s survey.

A focused multicultural marketing strategy is vital to building brands and driving business growth in multicultural markets. Multicultural programs are growing and will continue to do so in the future. However, marketers are frustrated and concerned about program quality, with less than half expressing satisfaction with their firms (some are Gen Mkt Agencies) efforts to date. There is substantial upside opportunity that can be tapped with the right investment strategies and with well- structured integrated marketing and accountability programs.

Multicultural marketing barriers and issues:

• 22% of survey respondents said their firm had a high degree of knowledge and disciplined best practices. This includes the inability to consistently integrate MCM programs into the overall marketing mix.
• 58% cited lack of adequate funding
• 45% pointed to insufficient internal support
• 34% noted inconsistent top management support
• 45% of respondents cited a lack of relevant metrics to measure performance
  

In executing MCM campaigns, most respondents (55%) said they preferred a multicultural specific agency for creative development, with about one quarter of firms relying on their general agency of record. However, using a specialized agency was considered the “best practice” based on satisfaction scores.

There are wide ranges of metrics employed for measuring MCM effectiveness. Brand tracking studies (55%) and sales growth/volume (54%) are used most often. Other measures include market share (41%), advertising research (38%) and brand equity measures (38%). Only one-in-four firms analyze ROI.