The Boom in Bicultural Marketing

American business has gone bilingual. The signs - Spanish language signs, that is - are everywhere. Large retailers like Sears, WalMart, and Home Depot have added bilingual signage in stores. Banks are touting the services of their bilingual tellers. And mortgage companies are translating their applications into Spanish to attract Hispanic customers.

With Latinos representing 14 percent of the U.S. population and $686 billion in purchasing power, it is important for businesses to communicate in their native language. But does marketing to a multicultural audience go beyond translation to involve the development of new products?

Not as often as one would think. "The one-sizefits-all approach with customers is still the preferred way for corporations to do business," says professor Marilyn Halter of Boston University and author of Shopping for Identity. Ultimately, the same washing machine sells to customers from very different backgrounds, although a manufacturer might, through targeted advertising, reach that first-time immigrant customer to establish brand loyalty.

Still, some businesses have successfully developed and marketed new services to reach immigrant populations. One example is the way the financial sector is reaching out to the Hispanic market. One third of U.S born Hispanics and more than half of all Mexican immigrants lack bank accounts, according to U.S. Census figures. This population is called the "unbanked," and for a long time they were ignored because they were low-income, low-asset customers. Bank of America decided two years ago to win over this market segment by offering SafeSend, a free remittance program with a personal checking account that responds to a genuine need in the Latino community to send money to family members in their home countries without paying high transfer fees.

An exception to the one-size-fits-all mentality can be found in companies experienced in niche marketing. Cable provider Comcast is offering several channels in New England for different immigrant groups. "We have just added a Portuguese language channel, TV Globo from Brazil," says Amy Kelley, assistant manager for marketing strategy. “We launched it right before Carnival and just in time for the soccer season."

Kelley emphasizes that Comcast responded to customer demand with this newest service. On the telephone side of the business, Comcast added Puerto Rico to its unlimited call plan because so many customers in New England have family on the island. "Marketing to a multicultural audience is more than just translating services and content," explains Kelley. "We have a Latino version of comcast.net, but it has its own content. We want to make it relevant for our Latino customers. Be 'in culture,' rather than just 'in language.'"

Not all products purposely created or altered for a multicultural audience are successful. Although the international food aisles in local supermarkets are growing, there are many products, like a Latino wine or a shampoo for Asian-American women, that fail because the product does not respond to a real customer need. That has led Marilyn Halter to conclude that the best products marketed to the ethnic and immigrant consumers come from immigrant business people.

"I have just been to an African tropical food store in Houston where I am doing fieldwork on Nigerian immigrants," she says. "And I was struck by how successful it seemed, with aisles divided into African, Caribbean, and Mexican products. The owners are from Ghana. It is a classic ethnic business and because the owners know their shoppers, they know exactly what products to market."