
Successful advertising that engages and persuades ethnic consumers
There are many tactics and strategies about targeting ethnic consumers, while some are successful and effective, many are built on myths that no longer work. It is easy to stereotype an audience and most marketers and agencies do that. But more than 21% of the ethnic consumers in the UK should not be stereotyped.
Many ethnic campaigns are built based on the following:
1.Ethnic communities respond best to ads that show family interactions – while family interactions can work; they work best when combined with a compelling storyline. But a story should ring true to the viewer – a mum and daughter shopping for gifts are relatable. To differentiate the brand, the story should be woven around the brand in a way that makes the brand the hero of the story.
2.When advertising to Eastern European, using pretty models works well and should be related to the product too.
3.Music is key to engaging and persuading some ethnic consumers, some music driven TV ads do well, but many don’t. Bollywood may be OK for some Indian families but it may fireback for Asian Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh. While using pop music and hip-hop may work for Black African and Eastern European audiences.
4.Due to language issues, using visual approach in video is a good route to target first generations as well as new arrivals to the UK. Above all you have to be telling a story through a combination of script, music, dialogue.
5.Don’t under-estimate the power of native language as the languages we spoke as children has a more direct connection to our emotions and when logic and emotions are pitted against each other, emotions has a built-in advantage. Our emotional centres are biased and react to stimuli in language and culture before the logic kicks in.
So the success factors to ethnic targeted campaigns are:
get to know your audience, who they are and what they care about- then build a story that speaks to them, and one that is woven around your band