A great strategy should bleed just a little bit.

Most strategies treat consumers like targets to hit, codes to crack, data to synthesize. In short, they’re heartless. Data from multiple sources are critical to assess and cross-tab in whichever way the data indicates to uncover that need, gap, opportunity or 'aha'. The key is to filter the findings with 'humanity'. Great strategy has to care—not just about why, but about who. That’s where the insights are. That’s where the success is found. After all, these are still people we’re trying to connect with.

ON STRATEGY

ON INFLUENCERS

Influencers, whether celebrities, mid-tier or micro, will continue to win for one reason: They thank their audience for rocking with them. The first thing they do—after getting your attention—is reward you with something you care about: a feeling, reaction, story, 'cookie' or piece of cool content that feeds your interest, heart, mind or soul. Big or small, they ‘thank you.’ And they thank you every time you return. THEN they try to sell you s in a way that works. Marketers would do well to be more polite.

Say ‘thank you’ first.

ON SCREENS

Everybody is on a screen. Don’t forget just because you got onto theirs doesn’t mean you’re invited. Speak to them in their language (literally or metaphorically), within their content, their context, their experiences and what matters most to them and their community. That's the only way to do meaningful effective work. And to be asked to tango.

Screens are both nouns and verbs. Act accordingly.

On Culture in Marketing

The majority of all Americans under 45 are Multicultural, and they account for 100% of all future growth. Question is, How ‘cultural’ are we willing to be? Cultural specificity wins. Culture matters more than ever only strengthened by Digital access.  A person’s cultural lens affects category needs, behavior, preferences, purchase triggers, how they view and process everything around them, and how and where they respond to brands. But cultural authenticity is a subtle very nuanced art, so work with true Multicultural experts.

All marketing
is multicultural.

ON CULTURE IN MARKETING

The wide gap between the Multicultural population vs. ad spend continues (42% vs. 7%). Half of the Fortune 500 still do not engage and others apply marginalized strategies and box-checking efforts. We constantly educate on the Multicultural opportunity, its value and ROI, and why cultural targeting works…like a film called ‘Mad Men meets Groundhog Day.’ America’s heterogeneous consumer base has a much broader and varied set of unique demands and needs which requires Multiculturals to have a seat at the table, as partners and customers worthy of equitable investment at every level.  Yet we continue to justify and fight for Multicultural marketing budgets, even showing results way above our fair share… And it’s very poignant, because white ‘mainstream’ marketing budgets are rarely challenged.

‘Why do we need marketing for Whites?’ – said no one ever.

The cultures that advertisers spend the least to reach impact the cultures those advertisers spend the most to reach. Put in peanuts, you get peanut butter. You want cream? Value? Success? Spend. Dedicate resources. Boost your budget like it matters. Because it does to your ROI. This not a moral, feel-good case or PR move. This is business. Multiculturals respond to money and perceived effort. You want their engagement, their connections, their loyalty? Spend. Listen. Learn. Move. Act like it.

You can sooner extract milk from a latte than take culture out of marketing.

On Culture in Marketing

On EFFECTIVE MARKETING

To succeed in our increasingly ethnically-diverse America, companies and marketers need a broader, more knowledgeable and diverse cultural playbook with evolved strategies in marketing, media, digital, and first-party data to be able to meet consumers’ unique needs. Multicultural experts like INFUSION are the missing link and fill the gap that’s much needed of that depth of cultural knowledge, as a complement to the broader agency team. Representing Multiculturals as equitable consumers is crucial and a change for the better, it increases bottom lines, and underscores consumers rich diversity. Diversity is quintessentially American. We are all one, yet all separate and marvelously different.

Multicultural agencies are the missing link in today’s marketing playbook

Casting may be the first thing your audience sees in your message, but it’s not the first thing they notice in your messaging. In other words: They get it. They know that a Black face doesn’t make up for off-putting messaging. or invasive, off-the-mark media placement. Or erroneous clichéd insights. Young African Americans have a saying, “When you know you know.” …And so, for any brands that think casting is a fix, trust us, the audience knows.

Brown Casting is not multicultural marketing, nor the seed of that, or even inclusive marketing.

ON CASTING

Always see the people in the numbers—that’s where the insights and strategy are. If you can’t paint a picture, you might need better numbers. Or better Multicultural-savvy partners who can interpret the data effectively, have the depth of cultural fluency to identify the commonalities and differences, if and when it matters to consumers and thus sales, and how to dimensionalize them in marketing in a manner that's meaningful and authentic.

It’s a ‘demoGRAPHIC’ because the numbers should a paint picture.

ON DEMOGRAPHICS

Box-checking and ‘total market Benetton’ ads marginalize Multiculturals, risk backlash, and depict a society that is bland in its sameness at the cost of cultural diversity…and revenue.  Companies need the right internal paradigm with an expert Multicultural marketing center that works with cross-functional teams from metrics, operations and customer journey to segmentation. And a skilled Multicultural agency to help with all that and create authentic marketing that connects, prompts action and means ‘kaching’ to growth and profits.

In an era of “Culturenomics”, one size-fits-all and token efforts don’t work.

On culture in marketing

Multiculturals are companies’ 18-49 target sweet spot and their core growth customer to future-proof their business as half of the U. S. population by 2030, their impact rising with each generation. They lead all growth in pop, jobs and new HHs, drive trends, and decide which brands win. It’s time for businesses to step up and Multiculturals to have a seat at the table, as partners and customers worthy of equitable investment at every level.  The General Market glorified by Madison Ave is long gone, and multicultural is a business imperative.

The General market IS Multicultural.

ON MARKETING

On ROI

ROI must be about realizing Opportunities thru Investment.’ ‘Cheap’ always comes through. Whether it’s an ad, a partnership, packaging, endorser deal or a film script, Black audiences can smell cheap effort a mile away. And cheap always carries the same stench: disrespect. Once Black consumers think a brand doesn’t respect them, they look to alternate brands willing to do better. And if they find one, they’re out the door—often for good.

ROI can’t be, ‘How much can we get out of Black and Brown consumers for as little investment as possible.’

Brands begin and end with the relationships they create. All the research, planning, budgets and work has to be rooted in insights that lead to people wanting to bond with brands. Value is more than one-off transactions. We work to connect with consumers for the long haul. Repeat business. That’s always the goal. That’s the big win.

ROI is also Relationship Opportunities thru Insights.

On ROI pt 2

ON AUDIENCES

It’s a question GM agencies are rarely asked about creative or asked to quantify. Whiteness is as foundational and centered in advertising as water is in an ocean. And when it is questioned relative to marketing priorities, non-White consumers and agencies are rarely afforded the gravitas to judge the validity of the answer. Now replace “White” with “African American” or “Hispanic” and you’ll have a common conundrum that multicultural marketers have faced for decades. “How do we prove that we know how to talk to our own communities to people who are rarely part of our communities?” It’s a tough pill and a tricky dance we do. But, the beat is changing.

What’s ‘White’ about it?