Culture Club: Ethnic Marketing at the Point-of-Sale

Remember the Chevy Nova? Ever wonder why its appeal was completely lost on Spanish-speaking consumers? While prospective car buyers of the English-speaking persuasion associated the model with the type of star after which it was named, those who speak Spanish had a completely different interpretation. "No va" translates to "no go" in Spanish -- not exactly an enticement to purchase a car.So goes the classic story of a marketing faux pas, which is held up by college advertising and marketing professors as an example of what happens when you don't know your audience. As America moves swiftly toward becoming a majority of minorities, many major brand marketers are competing for the attention of a variety of ethnic groups in stores.Big brand names like Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, AT&T and others are forming departments dedicated to ethnic marketing programs. Competition is heating up for the attention of the largest and fastest-growing ethnic populations -- African Americans and Hispanics, respectively -- whose purchasing power and cultural influence appears to grow daily. Asian consumers are also garnering attention as their population expands.These companies are recognizing that P-O-P that speaks to a specific ethnic group requires more than a mere translation of a tagline or swapping out a photo of a Caucasian consumer for an African American or Hispanic one."Our ethnic marketing effort began in the 1970s, but it was more tactical than strategic," says Giuseppe D'Alessandro, senior marketing manager, Latino markets for Pepsi-Cola Co., headquartered in Purchase, N.Y. "Especially for the Latino market, we simply offered Spanish language point-of-purchase materials. Today, we recognize that of the U.S. population under 20 years of age, 35% are considered 'ethnic.' Young consumers are our target and our future, so we're much more strategic in approaching those markets today."The Gillette Co., based in Boston, has marketed aggressively to African American and Hispanic consumers for the last decade. "Most major consumer products companies recognize the importance of these two groups," says Nicola Pugliese, director of communications. "If a company isn't speaking to these consumers and their needs, it would be out of the norm today."For most companies, the approach to ethnic marketing and ethnic P-O-P is similar to the development of general market campaigns, but the outcome typically differs greatly. "Our basic marketing premise is to understand the intersection of the consumer, the brand and the role of the category," says Jill Rahman, director of ethnic marketing at Kraft Foods, who heads an 11-member team focused on co-marketing, publicity and sales planning that targets ethnic consumers. "If the consumer insight is different -- which it certainly is for African American and Hispanic consumers -- then it calls for a different communication and execution, right down to the store level."In-store programs play a key role in most ethnic marketing campaigns, primarily because they represent a crucial opportunity to communicate one-on-one with the consumer. At the point-of-purchase, marketers can effectively use language, messages and images that specifically speak to the values and interests of these consumers. Understanding those cues requires research, and most marketers conduct that investigation in much the same way they study a specific age group or other population segment -- through surveys, focus groups and various data sources.Kraft has found that Hispanic and African American consumers are likely to have large households. "Hispanics average 2.8 people per household and African Americans average 3.7 people, as compared to 2.5 in the general market," says Rahman. "In the Hispanic market, 43% of households have four or more people in the family, compared to 22% in the general market. What we've also learned is that both of these groups spend a larger percentage of their income on food at home -- items purchased in the supermarket -- than the general market. That makes what we do in the store significant."African American consumers, Kraft has learned, have a higher tendency to be from-scratch cooks than typical consumers. The company will launch a program this summer featuring African American chefs offering their favorite recipes involving Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in advertising and on displays. The company also reported that African American consumers eat more pork than the general population. "When we're going to promote Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in-store to those consumers, what will we picture as the meat accompaniment -- a skinless, boneless chicken breast or a pork chop?" says Rahman. "These understandings of how people live and eat influence the messages and images we communicate to them."Kraft's research also revealed that African American consumers are very interested in celebrating their heritage and their heroes. At the same time, value and immediate gratification are also highly prized. Armed with that knowledge, the company launched a comprehensive supermarket P-O-P program that coincided with Black History Month in February. The program proved to have both consumer and retailer appeal.A prepacked shipper featured 50 videos of the HBO program titled, "The Journey of the African American Athlete." With the purchase of three Kraft products, consumers could also purchase the video for $2.99. An eye-catching header card showcased the video cover, as well as images of the athletes profiled in the program, along with the tagline, "Make this extraordinary video part of your collection." Kraft products could be merchandised with the video display, and retailers who created mass displays were offered a nine-inch television/VCR unit that showed highlights from the video. The retailer could later raffle off the television."The goal was to deliver a purchase incentive and to provide value to our retail partners," says Rahman, who noted that retailer participation doubled from the prior year when Kraft offered a calendar in celebration of Black History Month. "The retailer kept a profit from the sale of the video and also increased sales of Kraft products. The consumers got an immediate value that spoke to their cultural interest."Kraft is not alone in tapping the unique values of the ethnic groups it targets. McDonald's Corp., Oak Brook, Ill., is celebrating Hispanic contributions to society at large with its year-long "Points of Pride" program, which launched in January. The program involves the company's first-ever bilingual Web site, LoMcXimo.com; a television special that featured Latin music artists; sponsorship of the first night of the annual Hispanic music festival in Miami; and a national Hispanic music talent search contest. A series of television commercials highlighting Hispanic contributions to the world are also being aired on Spanish-language broadcast stations."This is a major initiative that taps into the life experiences, everyday heroes, role models and other cultural icons that Latin consumers hold dear," says Marta Gerdes, senior director of U.S. marketing who oversees all ethnic marketing for McDonald's. The fastfood giant has long offered all of its P-O-P materials in both English and Spanish, a tradition continued with the comprehensive "Points of Pride" program. McDonald's is also applying its knowledge of how Hispanic consumers behave in its 12,500 U.S. restaurants."Twenty-two million customers walk into our restaurants every day, so the store is in the forefront of our media mix," says Gerdes. "We are quite sophisticated in our understanding of how our customers use our stores, and know which elements of a marketing program will resonate the strongest with Hispanic consumers."For example, with the recent Monopoly program, bilingual register toppers are a featured in-store display item because McDonald's research shows that they are a key medium for Hispanic consumers. These customers also have a higher incidence of dining in the restaurant than the general customer base, so further opportunities exist to provide more copy-heavy bilingual merchandising materials on the tabletops, according to Gerdes."We've also studied how consumers like to see information presented in Spanish -- what the flow should be on the display," says Gerdes. "It's so important that you speak to their specific preferences and behaviors."Understanding Latin consumer behavior also figures heavily into Pepsi's in-store marketing initiatives, influencing display placement, product size and messages, according to D'Alessandro."Latinos shop differently than the general market, and different consumption occasions are important to them," he says. "The meat and produce departments in the supermarket are more frequently shopped by Latinos, who tend to be from-scratch cooks and dine regularly as a family. Brand loyalty is another issue. We've found Latinos are not so much brand loyal as they are risk adverse. They're reluctant to try new products and brands, to take that chance. Because we compete in an arena of known brand names, we have to be extremely relevant to that consumer."Their product preferences are also different," D'Alessandro says. "Sugar colas are more popular than diet ones. The in-store merchandising has to speak to all these issues. When we're working to reach the Latino market, we're likely to feature a two-liter sugar cola product in a family dinner setting photo with a bilingual message located in the path to the meat or produce departments."Creating bilingual displays is another crucial element in communicating with Hispanics. "The aspirational model for Latinos is to speak both Spanish and English and navigate both cultures," says D'Alessandro. "You have to acknowledge that."At the same time, Spanish-speaking consumers hail from many countries and cultures, so creating messages in Spanish that have universal appeal to Hispanic consumers is a challenge. At Pepsi, one of D'Alessandro's duties is to develop messages that all Latin consumers will relate to and appreciate. The company uses an advertising agency that specializes in Latin marketing.While marketing initiatives that target Latin consumers are consistent with the general marketing campaign, straight translations are rarely used. The current Pepsi tagline, "The Joy of Flavor," becomes "Goza el Sabor." "Goza is a more youthful term and communicates more liveliness than the strict translation of the word joy, which we felt was too staid," says D'Alessandro. "It's important to make sure the language appeals to all Latinos and also speaks to their passion for life." Adding to the passion appeal are images of pop star Ricky Martin, a spokesperson for the brand since last fall, when Pepsi sponsored the first leg of his concert tour.That appeal is particularly important as Pepsi reaches out more intensely for the youth market with products like Mountain Dew. The company recently debuted its third Spanish-language television commercial on behalf of the brand, an ad that was specifically developed for Latin teens. Again, understanding their lifestyle and cultural cues was crucial.In focus groups, Pepsi learned that the extreme sports activities portrayed in the general market advertising for Mountain Dew were deemed too risky by Latin teens. "They told us they loved the high-action ads, but said the ads showed 'crazy gringos doing crazy gringo things' like jumping from airplanes, which they would not attempt," says D'Alessandro. "We looked at their lifestyle and developed an ad with the high-action motif that speaks to their interests."The spot features a young motorcycle fan who is in for a surprise when an animated arcade character takes a detour to grab a Mountain Dew. The imagery and message are carried out in convenience stores and other outlets favored by youths, where the arcade character appears on displays that carries both the "Do the Dew" and "Toma this" taglines.The Gillette Co. also conducts focus group and survey research to ensure that it uses appropriate images and messages when communicating with specific ethnic groups. An initiative on behalf of its flagship Mach3 razor is tailored to appeal to African American men at the point-of-sale."Clinical studies show that African American men have a unique skin condition called PSB that makes their skin very sensitive to shaving," says Gillette's Pugliese. "In marketing to them in-store, we have to make sure the message that our product is good for their skin type is correctly conveyed."Displays feature African American models, along with the general market tagline, "Closest Shave in Fewer Strokes with Less Irritation." Specially developed copy and diagrams relate Gillette's clinical research into the particular benefits of Mach3 to the African American skin type. "We want the same fundamental message to go out -- it's important that we don't exclude any particular group from the general market initiative that they'll also be exposed to -- but recognize we need certain aspects to be different. In-store is a great place to have that tailored communication," says Pugliese."The challenge is to entice a portion of the customer base to buy, without disenfranchising the remainder of the customer base," says David Ellis, coo of The Buxbaum Group, a marketing and retail consulting firm based in Los Angeles. "And that goes both ways. Messages need to be consistent from the general effort to the ethnic-specific."Communicating with ethnic consumers is certainly rife with challenges, and brand marketers often go to great lengths to ensure they don't offend or look foolish. Ralph Sloan, executive vice president of the New York-based retail design and consulting firm, CDI Group, considers ethnic-specific communications full of potential minefields. "There are a lot of aspects you might not even think about, so you have to bring in people with different perspectives to ensure you don't offend or look silly," he says. The company enlists its own diverse workforce to ensure that all Spanish-language messages have universal appeal. "Our last line of defense is consulting with a language education company, which looks at everything to make sure it won't offend in a particular dialect. You can't be too careful."Aside from language faux pas, marketers have to be careful about less-than-flattering representations of ethnic groups. At Kraft, Rahman's team strives to avoid stereotypes or being gratuitous in the images it presents. "You really need to employ the same process you do on the general market side -- use the research, determine the drivers and the emotional attachments. Once you step off that path, you get into big problems, especially on the ethnic side," she cautions.That bit of wisdom will surely become more important as marketers go beyond marketing to particular ethnic groups and pursue cultures stemming from societal trends. Mistic Brands Inc., a division of the Triarc Beverage Group, White Plains, N.Y., introduced a line of drinks specifically designed to appeal to the hip-hop culture in February. The herbally-enhanced, fruit-flavored natural energy drinks feature two of hip-hop music's leading artists -- Redman and Method Man -- on the labels of four collectible bottles."Hip-hop is the number-one selling music category today and has an incredibly broad appeal," says Neal Larkin, group director, promotions for Mistic and Snapple. "Our entire business is about fashion -- we're constantly coming out with new flavors, colors, looks and labels to be relevant to consumers' lifestyles. Hooking up with the most popular style of music and artists relevant to a youthful consumer base makes sense for us."While hip-hop culture grew out of a largely African American music style, its appeal now crosses ethnic and demographic lines. Time magazine recently reported that white consumers make 70% of hip-hop music purchases. "In approaching this market, we're reaching out in the same way we would to a traditional ethnic group," says Larkin. "We learned their lifestyle, their culture, their language and what's important to them."Mistic looked to Def Jam Recordings, its partner in the launch of the Redman/Method Man fruit drinks, for that education. All copy, taglines, images and designs were reviewed with Def Jam executives to ensure the message was on target. According to Larkin, the communication style had to be subtle and natural, and delivered in the vernacular of the hip-hop culture. "It couldn't be too contrived," he says. "The bottom line was that the product and the merchandising around it had to be perceived as first-class, high-quality and inspirational without being over the top."Window posters feature the artists and product. "Rather than the typical 'Sold here' line, we use 'Yeah, we got it,' which has more edge and attitude," says Larkin. Cooler static clings also feature the products and the tagline, "Taste the energy."A special floor display rack was also designed for the hip-hop line. The black wire rack holds five cases of product and features an urban motif, with diamond plate steel, brick or iron grate backgrounds for the bottle graphics. "This is an impulse-driven consumer, and also a very discerning one," says Larkin. "In-store is the most important place to reach this consumer with the images, language and product quality that will appeal to him."Creating such market-specific materials is also challenging on the cost-efficiency front. Mistic intends to utilize its Redman/Method Man floor rack for line extensions or other product promotions by developing additional header cards to fit the piece. The company is not alone in looking to control costs. Kraft, McDonald's and Gillette each require all marketing efforts to include appropriate ethnic executions from the get-go.Brand managers are being directed to take a more synergistic approach to program development at Kraft, and are encouraged to think of the ethnic extension when conceiving all campaigns, according to Rahman. Efficiency is a high priority, and minimizing the cost of separate production runs for ethnic efforts is crucial.A similar approach is taken at McDonald's. "The production work for all in-store messages is done at the same time, so everyone is looking at the layouts for the register toppers, banners and other materials in both English and Spanish simultaneously," says Gerdes. "All materials are available to the operators at the same time, and it's up to them to determine which is most appropriate for their particular customer base."At Gillette, all marketing materials are also developed at the same time, and ethnic pieces are designed to fit standard displays."Brand managers have to make sure there is an ethnic component to all initiatives. We ensure efficient creative production by developing everything at once and in standard formats," says Pugliese.Retailers apparently welcome the opportunity to communicate more directly with their particular customer base, according to most marketers. "They clearly want to make sure they're reaching their specific audience and are very receptive to these pieces," Pugliese says.As the U.S. population continues to diversify, efforts targeting specific groups will certainly proliferate and campaigns addressing cultures rather than demographics are becoming the norm. P-O-P will undoubtedly continue to grow in importance as a prime opportunity to communicate to these groups."There will definitely be an increase in these types of efforts here at Kraft," says Rahman. "That's a specific direction given from the top level. Ethnic marketing is the future. It's the reality of brand marketing. The age of mass marketing is ending, if it's not already over. Anyone who doesn't see that will be run over."

Culture Club: Ethnic Marketing at the Point-of-Sale

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