Question 1

What is multicultural market research?

Accepted Answer

Multicultural market research deliberately includes people from multiple groups which have distinct cultures whose differences are likely to have implications for marketing, advertising, and/or product development for each group. Although this kind of research is often associated with ethnic groups or nationalities, the term “culture” applies much more broadly. It refers to the manifestations of human endeavor which are particular to a group of people. These manifestations include tangible products, such as art and architecture, as well as intangibles such as norms, laws, customs, habits, knowledge, and social institutions. Groups of people may be described by nationality, ancestry or ethnicity, faith or religion, or any other categorization that effectively captures their uniqueness. When you execute multicultural research, you collect data, conduct analyses, and draw insights from more than one of these kinds of groups, however you choose to define them. Once you choose which groups to include, you need to assemble your insights team according to your project requirements and standards while considering your current relationships and resources. You may need to make decisions between maximizing expertise versus other factors, such as cost and risk. For example, suppose you need to make a business decision that affects markets in Germany, France, Poland, and Italy, and you propose to conduct research in each country. You may need to decide between two types of suppliers: local research experts within each country versus a large research provider who may or may not have a local presence. The local research experts may understand the cultures much better than the larger provider, but it may require effort on your part to manage them versus the larger provider, and the larger provider may be able to provide a volume discount as well draw from a larger panel of potential respondents. The local experts may lack the communication skills in your language that would enable them to help develop reports, whereas the larger supplier may have such resources. Of course, these roles could be reversed in some cases, such as the local experts being less expensive and having better panels. You should research dimensions such as these and factor them into your project plan. Deciding on partners may also involve risk because the project specifications or preferences may require working with suppliers with whom you have no prior experience, if you have not researched those cultural groups before. It can be as difficult to identify, interview, and evaluate these specialists as it is to identify, interview, and analyze hard-to-reach market segments. It can be even harder to get a feel for the people who will actually conduct the work, such as moderators and translators when the work is in languages unfamiliar to you. Also, suppliers who are cultural experts may have biases that are difficult for a non-expert to separate from knowledge or insight. Of course, non-experts may have different kinds of biases that could be present not only in the reporting, but throughout the entire research process. Another issue to resolve in the project planning is whether the primary purpose of your multicultural research is to understand cultural differences or to ensure that those cultures are represented in your sample. If it is the latter, then sample management and data quality may be your primary concerns and can be addressed within your team. However, if the primary purpose is culture-specific insights, you may need to manage the process differently. You may have stakeholders external to your team who will need to review and approve each step, such as country managers or segment leaders. You may also need to assign a different team to each cultural group to conduct the analyses and develop the reports. Further, you may need someone to oversee that process to ensure that important content and style elements are consistent across reports, especially if these teams are external. When the ultimate purpose is to develop culture-specific strategies and actions, expect more stakeholders to play strong roles in shaping the work.

Question 2

Why is multicultural research important?

Accepted Answer

Like other kinds of segment-focused research, multicultural research provides the data and insights that enable you to optimize marketing, advertising, and product development for different cultural groups. By understanding which behaviors and attitudes bind them together and set them apart from other groups, as well as what these mean for your marketing efforts, you can identify ways to increase your success within each cultural group. To the extent that established, recognized groupings, such as ethnicities, nationalities, or sexual orientations, are relevant to your marketing, you can benefit from existing knowledge bases, including lists or sources to identify potential research participants or experts, as well as resources for targeting them. On the other hand, cultural groupings that are more tailored to your market and business needs may be more efficient for your business, even if they are likely to be less efficient for your research. Although the opportunities for multicultural research and marketing are similar to other kinds of segmentation, the risks can be quite different. Ignoring groups in your market who have different needs or habits may lead to underperformance or, in more extreme cases, charges of discrimination, regardless of your intent, if this non-treatment denies them access to your product. Failure to understand cultural groups in your market can also lead to messaging that does not resonate with them or that actually insults or offends them. For example, in the early 1980s, a major consumer brand took out full-page newspaper ads on Martin Luther King Day in the United States which showed their new product beside their current product and declared them to be “Separate, But Equal.” Suffice to say, a product promotion on a day intended to celebrate civil rights featuring a phrase associated with suppression of civil rights could have benefited from multicultural research (or at least from monocultural research). History also has examples of product naming gone awry when a brand did not do sufficient (or any) research in target markets. Perhaps apocryphal, legend has it that a soft drink company entered China without rebranding, and their name, so well-known in the rest of the world, was sometimes translated as “Bite The Wax Tadpole.” A car manufacturer introduced one of its popular models in Brazil without testing the name, but ultimately learned that it translated as something that cannot be written in this FAQ. In another example from the early ‘80’s in the United States, the movie “Urban Cowboy” failed at the box office because too many Americans thought “urban” meant something else, something they did not want to see on the big screen. While this example may stretch the definition of “multicultural” a bit, it’s a reminder that if different people share a common belief not shared by most others, that group can be considered to have a different culture, however thinly defined. Failure to identify and account for such groups can have disastrous results.

Question 3

What are “multicultural consumers” and “multicultural individuals”?

Accepted Answer

“Multicultural consumers” is a demographic market segment made up of individuals who know and identify with one or more cultures, such as a second-generation child of a family that emigrated from one country to take up residence in another. “Multicultural individual” is a more general term which is not specific to marketing demographics. In recent years, marketers and businesses have paid increasing attentions to “multicultural” individuals. Experts suggest that “multicultural consumers” are an important market segment today and going forward. They are thought to be younger, growing in numbers, and more tech-oriented, all of which makes them attractive to marketers and a likely foundation for future success. Further, they are hypothesized to be trend-setters who are more likely to be early adopters who influence adoption within other segments. If this demographic seems appealing to you, you may want to validate it and its relevance to your business in your own research. Outside of this market demographic context, multicultural individuals may open doors to other opportunities. Workplace studies have supported the hypothesis that multicultural employees look at problems differently and can come up with innovative solutions that “monocultural” individuals are unlikely to find or not find as quickly. They can bring new and different insights into general problems, but particularly when the cultures they know and with which they identify are involved. To offer an obvious example, multicultural individuals can be great assets for multicultural research. If the marketer is from a different culture than its target market, an individual who is expert in both can facilitate the identification and communication of insights. If you do not have such people on your staff, you can find them via suppliers of insights research.

Question 4

What are the key market segments in multicultural research?

Accepted Answer

Realistically, any group with a distinct culture that you can describe can be a multicultural market segment if its distinctiveness is meaningful to your business. With enough experience and a deep knowledge base, you may come up with your own cultural groupings, but some common ways to segment include: Ethnicity or “race” (more on this below) Nationality Culture Religion or faith Sexual orientation or gender identification Socio-economic classification Urban/suburban/rural or other categories based on population density For many people, multicultural research or multiculturalism is immediately associated with ethnicity or “race.” Ethnicity references family and ancestry, and may function as a kind of shorthand for common social experiences, cultural heritage, and perhaps historical associations with certain regions or nations. “Race,” on the other hand, refers to a group of people with common sets of various physical characteristics who may or may not have common cultural characteristics. There is broad consensus in the biological and social sciences that race is a social construct projected onto people who are thought to look similar, and it may be reasonable to hypothesize that it has no use as a basis for multicultural segmentation because a) it is an unreliable identifier and b) it is not derived from common cultural characteristics or elements. Unfortunately, many people and organizations, such as the US Census Bureau, conflate race and ethnicity, diluting the effectiveness of ethnicity in multicultural understanding. Ethnicity may also be a social construct, but it is based on clusters of identifiable characteristics, including culture, rather than solely on someone’s perceived physical appearance. Nationality is a political designation because it refers to citizenship, and it suggests certain cultural characteristics. It is reasonable to expect certain commonalities across people who come from a particular geography, who are subject to the same laws, and who share a similar history. However, important cultural differences within a nation can vary by region, religion, socio-economic classification, and, yes, ethnicity. Also, consider whether “country of residence” is a better segmentation variable than “nationality” because that will have the greater influence on purchase decisions and is more inclusive of the people you want to understand. “Culture” is somewhat more abstract than nationality or ethnicity, and refers to a set of shared products, norms, beliefs, and practices within a group with the implication that these endure from generation to generation. In some ways, it seems similar to ethnicity but without the specific reference to ancestry or convenient, generally accepted names. Segmenting by culture applies to situations in which one or more important subcultures share relevant characteristics or to newly identified cultural groups which may or may not be specific to your marketing organization. Religions and faiths are aspects of culture but could also be considered cultures unto themselves as adherents share artifacts, norms, habits, and, most certainly, beliefs. They may represent distinct markets for particular kinds of products or services, and may have sensitivities that might not be shared with others in the broader market. It seems less common to consider socio-economic classifications and population densities as cultures, but they fit the definition. Within classifications or population areas, people share artifacts (objects made by people) and habits, and they often share attitudes and beliefs. If looking at these groups as cultures better informs your business activities, it could be prudent to apply that lens. There is no single, correct way to segment markets by culture. How you do it will depend on what best meets your business needs and what resources you can expend on identifying and managing them. Suppliers of research and insights can help guide you in these decisions.

Question 5

What are the 4 major challenges to multicultural or ethnic market research?

Accepted Answer

The four major challenges to multicultural or ethnic market research are communicating effectively with participants, aligning research materials with group norms, identifying and qualifying research participants, and managing the research when restrictions apply. Perhaps the most salient challenge in multicultural research is communication with research participants, which can include translation from one language to another, understanding and use of vernacular, and establishing a rapport. If you are researching groups who use different languages, you will need to translate your materials into those languages, whether they be written materials, such as surveys, or oral communications, such as focus group discussions. It may be obvious when you need to adapt to a different language, but there may be more subtle occasions where it is also necessary to adapt to different dialects as well. Expert researchers can help with these decisions. Choice of translator and specification of the translation process is also important. A translator who is an expert in local idioms may have little or no knowledge of the technical terms used in your industry, and you need to have a plan for how to integrate the two perspectives. Some researchers prefer to have the initial translation back translated into the original language so they can check whether the meanings are clearly expressed. This approach can catch some weaknesses in the translation, but may be worthless if the person doing the back translation has the same biases as the original translator. Sometimes research teams have a local employee check the translation, especially when industry terminology is important. This can be a useful step, but sometimes the internal resource will introduce biases that are counterproductive. When you speak to someone else in your own language, you know that meanings can sometimes be unclear because you haven’t expressed something the way the listener would. Similarly, the internal resource may have idiosyncratic ways of expressing themselves and lack the broader perspective of a trained translator who can choose which phrases and words are most commonly understood. There is no single, correct way to manage translations, and a research expert can help you think through which approach will work best in your situation. Even if the research is conducted in your language, there may be terminology that is meaningless and confusing within a particular cultural group. An obvious example is technical jargon that you might use continuously at work but has not been adopted by that group. There may be idioms that do not resonate within a group or other ways of expressing yourself that telegraph the fact that you are an outsider (possibly, using the term “telegraph”). You may speak the same national language as the research participant, but differences in vernacular and communication style may throw up barriers in both face-to-face and written communications. Further there may be terms that are acceptable when used by people within that cultural group that would be offensive if spoken by an outsider, and having an expert to guide or represent you could help you to bridge that gap. Another challenge is aligning measurement tools and stimuli with cultural idiosyncrasies and validating that you are measuring what you intend to measure. This challenge is related to translation, though with subtle differences. This problem is very prominent among studies that employ rating scales. In some cultures, people are very enthusiastic about using the most extreme scale point while people in other cultures will use it rarely, if at all. A “5” in one culture may equivalent to a “4” in another culture, and this will make it difficult to compare across cultures. One way to address this in the survey is to ask trade-offs instead of ratings so that the participant only has to choose between two items instead of having to decide among 5 or more scale points. This approach, however, does not work for all situations, and there are probably researchers who would object to its use as a substitute for ratings in any situation. A related challenge involves the wording of labelled rating scale points. Supposed you have a 5-point scale and each point is labelled, then you translate it literally into a different language. Labels that are developed from the perspective of a culture that places high value on individualism may elicit different responses when presented to people in a culture that values consensus more than individuality. One way to minimize this effect is to label only the end points, thereby decreasing the chances for misinterpretation. Again, there is no cookbook, and experts in multicultural research can guide you through these decisions. Another alignment challenge is localization. Suppose you are studying competitive brands or asking about shopping behavior in different cultures. Competitive brands sets are likely to differ from culture to culture, types and brands of retail stores are likely to differ, and even typical hours of operation can be different. Perceptions of distance will differ in cultures that are car-oriented versus transit-oriented or where biking or walking is the preferred mode. Internal experts who are close to the culture can be helpful in identifying these differences, recommending brand sets and so on. However, internal experts can be biased; for example, they might focus only on their direct competitors and overlook brands or preferred alternatives that the mass market or significant segments of it favor. An impartial expert in multicultural research can help you avoid these serious miscues. Identifying and recruiting members of a cultural group can also be challenging. Members of some groups may not want to identify themselves to a stranger or outsider, particularly in these times of phone, email, and text scamming. Some groups have historically kept a low profile because they have suffered discrimination or persecution and may be unwilling to answer certain questions honestly. Other cultural groups may be difficult to define accurately via screening questions, resulting in participants who are not qualified, even though they are well intentioned. A related concern is validation: it can be hard to verify that a potential participant actually belongs to the cultural group they claim to be from. In these situations, an external multicultural research expert may have more experience than members of your internal team. Another challenge, particularly for international work, is planning around restrictions. Local holidays or customary vacation periods may create unexpected periods of unavailability unless you identify them and plan for them. Within political boundaries, laws or regulations may restrict certain kinds of research activities, especially where privacy is concerned. Local norms may also prohibit certain research practices, and a local expert can help you avoid problems in these areas. Finally, it is worth mentioning another challenge: getting stakeholders to care about these issues. Stakeholders can easily identify when research goes over budget or misses deadlines, but they may have no way to tell if the results are worth anything. In these times, the premium placed on speed is greater than ever, and research automation ratchets this expectation higher without really compensating for the lack of empathy it can afford research participants. It takes time to address the challenges discussed here, and it takes empathy to conduct effective multicultural research, possibly more than for other types of research. If you are lucky enough to work directly with someone who has P&L responsibility for a cultural group, you will likely get greater support for maximizing the quality of the insights. However, if you work in an organizational culture that cares only about speed and cost, pleas for time and empathy may fall on deaf ears.

Top Firms for Market Research with Multicultural Audiences

What are general / multi-cultural market research companies?

Featured Experts in Top Firms for Market Research with Multicultural Audiences

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CASA Demographics

CASA Demographics

Touchstone Research, Inc.

Touchstone Research, Inc.

Multilingual Connections

Multilingual Connections

Think Group

Think Group