The US is more diverse than ever. From 2020 to 2022, population growth was driven solely by racial and ethnic minorities, while non-English-speaking households have nearly tripled in three decades—from 23.1 million (1 in 10) in 1980 to 67.8 million (almost 1 in 5) by 2019. With similar trends around the world, there are countless opportunities to bridge gaps and celebrate this diversity.
Savvy businesses that want to reach diverse consumer groups often design multicultural marketing strategies. These are successful when they have cultural relevance and are executed with respect and intention. A well-crafted multicultural marketing strategy can take many forms, from advertising campaigns and street posters to sponsored events and social media posts.
Here’s what you need to know about multicultural marketing—how it’s changing, why it’s beneficial—as well as a few successful approaches and examples.
What is multicultural marketing?
Multicultural marketing is an approach that tailors campaigns to diverse cultural, ethnic, and demographic groups, either as part of a broad general market or within a specific niche. Multicultural marketing campaigns creatively engage diverse communities or specific groups by tapping into shared values and preferences. Marketing teams often use key cultural indicators like songs, language, taglines, memes, and visuals to convey their message to the intended audience.
For example, in this P&G ad for the 2016 Rio Olympics, mothers from all around the world guide their children through emotional moments on their journey to becoming Olympic medalists.
Multicultural marketing’s relevance today
The term “multicultural marketing” evolved out of earlier terms like “minority marketing” and “ethnic marketing” from the 1970s, when mainstream corporations began creating campaigns specifically tailored to Black consumers (with varying degrees of cynicism, in retrospect). Attitudes around race and representation in marketing have changed dramatically over the decades since.
While “multicultural marketing” is still widely used to describe efforts targeting diverse audiences, some marketing professionals—like Callia Hargrove, founder and CEO of Backstory, an inclusive marketing consultancy—prefer the term “inclusive marketing.” “It isn’t rooted in ‘othering’ people from historically minoritized communities,” Hargrove says.
Others simply use the term “marketing” because today’s shoppers are multicultural consumers. “As the mainstream consumer becomes more diverse, multicultural marketing is increasingly just a facet of good marketing practices,” Hargrove says. “There’s certainly a need to be more thoughtful when marketing products deeply rooted in specific cultures and communities, versus more universally recognized items.”
It’s worth noting that business owners also come from diverse backgrounds, with about 18% of US small businesses being immigrant-owned. Many offer products and services inspired by their cultural background and countries of origin. Many of these businesses are inherently multicultural—like Peepal People which makes hot sauce rooted in South Asian flavors. The brand’s marketing is designed to appeal to both a diaspora audience and a diverse range of consumers from other backgrounds.
Why use multicultural marketing?
- More sales
- Brand recognition and reputation
- Customer engagement, brand loyalty, and satisfaction
- Competitive advantage
If you have an incredible project, you naturally want as many people as possible to enjoy it—and this can be a motivating factor behind devising a marketing strategy that rings true for multicultural audiences. Beyond being a point of pride, a successful multicultural marketing campaign has benefits ranging from better brand recognition to customer engagement. Here are the key benefits:
More sales
Multicultural consumers represent a substantial economic force: According to a 2022 report from the University of Georgia's Selig Center, increased diversity in the US has led to increased buying power across a range of consumers from varied cultural backgrounds. “As the nation’s consumer market becomes more diverse, advertising, products and media must be tailored to each market segment,” the report’s author, Jeff Humphreys, said in a UGA Today article.
Multicultural marketing with an authentic message can help your brand reach more diverse groups, leading to increased sales. By tailoring your efforts to appeal to different cultural groups, you can attract consumers you may have previously overlooked or underserved.
Brand recognition and reputation
Consumers recognize brands that demonstrate cultural sensitivity and inclusivity when they consistently appear in their communities and online spaces. Graza Olive Oil, for example, sells in both mainstream supermarket chains and specialty markets. Graza also appears in scores of food posts on social media for all types of global dishes, from pork rib stew to “marry me” chicken and rice to creamy palak and chicken.
Customer engagement, brand loyalty, and satisfaction
Customers who feel represented, understood, and valued by your brand and its marketing are more likely to spread the gospel to friends, family, and colleagues. Feeling connected to a brand like Glossier or Supreme often leads to a sense of kinship among fellow brand fans, and these meaningful connections can drive higher engagement rates and stronger brand loyalty.
Competitive advantage
Investing in inclusive marketing strategies establishes systems to nimbly reach varied groups, unlocking a competitive advantage. When you engage with your multicultural consumers, you gain insight into trends and consumer needs, which can lead to product development, marketing initiatives, and strategic pivots.
Approaches to multicultural marketing
- Diverse marketing teams
- Research and data
- Partnerships and collabs
- Controversy and opinion
- Diverse media
- Larger mission
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to inclusive or multicultural marketing; it’s far more elaborate and thoughtful than adding a rainbow to a social media post during Pride month or an image of Rosie the Riveter on International Women’s Day. Strategies are often shaped by budgets, company mission, founders’ principles, the target consumer, whether products or services are niche or mainstream, and so on.
Still, there are some basic approaches you can follow. Honest discussions about multicultural or inclusive marketing strategies among colleagues and consultants can help you avoid campaigns that could appear to be performative or pandering. These conversations might feel like tip-toeing through a minefield at first, as terms like representation, cultural appropriation, and wokeness may come up. But regardless of which buzzwords of the day arise, the foundational principles of multicultural marketing remain largely unchanged. Start with the following tactics:
Diverse marketing teams
When marketing teams are diverse, valuable insights and ideas emerge, including cultural nuances in communication styles and varied perspectives on historic events and trends. For example, a diverse team with different life experiences can design a more authentic marketing strategy that speaks to specific consumer segments—and even consumers who speak different languages.
Research and data
Research and data are crucial for effective multicultural marketing to prevent campaigns from backfiring and appearing superficial or cliché. If you want to reach specific cultural groups, you may gain valuable insights through interviews, data collection, and reading history. This can help you identify media consumption habits, average disposable incomes, where your audience tends to shop, what languages they speak, and more. But remember: No culture is monolithic.
Partnerships and collabs
Brand partnerships and collaborations can be effective for introducing niche or unfamiliar products or services to a diverse consumer base or a targeted demographic, by leveraging each brand’s audience and credibility. For example, in 2024, Fly By Jing and Fishwife collaborated on tins of smoked salmon with Fly By Jing chili crisp, which attracted new customers to both companies.
Controversy and opinion
Marketing campaigns with strong political or social messages are risky, rallying some consumers behind your brand while perhaps alienating others. Nike exemplifies this with its bold social stances that align with its brand. A powerful example is the brand’s decision to feature controversial former football player Colin Kaepernick in the brand’s award-winning “Dream Crazy” ad in 2018. Similarly, Nike’s girl empowerment ad from Mexico, “Juntas Imparable, Just Do It,” is rebellious and goosebump-inducing, no matter where consumers live or what language they speak.
On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, MFMG Cosmetics founder Tomi Gbeleyi describes the racist reaction she witnessed when a major makeup company featured a Sudanese model. “This was before you could moderate comments on Instagram. So the model actually got a ton of racist comments about her lips,” She says. “So I just started this campaign that was called ‘I Love My Big Lips.’” From there, Tomi created a beauty blog geared toward women with darker skin tones, and she eventually launched her own cosmetics brand.
Diverse media
A deep understanding of placement is essential for reaching multicultural viewers, ensuring your messages reach and resonate with your target audience. For example, if your cosmetics brand wants to reach bilingual Latin American audiences, you might advertise during popular Spanish-language TV shows or collaborate with influential Latina beauty influencers on TikTok.
Larger mission
Some businesses have a larger social mission beyond profit, like donating a percentage of sales to particular causes or sourcing ingredients from female-owned small farms. Many incorporate their social mission into marketing materials, as it can often resonate with a cross-section of potential customers.
4 examples of successful multicultural marketing
You can find successful multicultural marketing examples in all sectors, from apparel to home goods. Here are four examples:
1. Eastside Golf
Eastside Golf, co-founded by Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper, is a golf apparel and accessories brand. Its social media and website predominantly showcase golfers of color, aligned with the tagline, “Everyone’s Game.” This highlights the founders’ larger mission to promote diversity and inclusivity in the golf community. “The term that we use is ‘culture,’ not necessarily ‘multicultural,’” Earl says, “The approach that we've taken has been to market outside of the traditional.”
2. Our Place
Our Place cookware specializes in pots and pans for global dishes, from Japanese chicken and egg Oyakodon bowls to Filipino Sinigang soup. Our Place celebrates diversity alongside its customers, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants. The brand’s warm, inviting message throughout its marketing materials welcomes guests with multicultural identities and diverse faces for a home-cooked meal where people talk over delicious, homemade food.
3. Kulfi
Makeup company Kulfi, founded by Priyanka Ganjoo, caters to the South Asian diaspora with classics like pigment-rich kajal eyeliners and concealers available in all skin tones. Kulfi’s website and social media feeds feature a diverse clientele, including members of the LGBTQ community, applying its products.
4. Loisa
Loisa makes healthy pantry staples like sazón seasoning and sofrito sauce, inspired by New York City’s Latin American population. Its marketing materials feature just the right touch of “Spanglish” to be humorous and familiar, appealing even to English-only speakers in Spanish-speaking communities.
Multicultural marketing FAQ
What is the difference between multicultural marketing, cross-cultural marketing, and inclusive marketing?
Many business owners and marketers use these terms interchangeably. They can describe marketing strategies designed to reach a broad group of ethnicities, races, and cultures, and they can also apply to targeted campaigns geared toward a particular community.
How can a business ensure its multicultural marketing is not perceived as superficial?
A diverse marketing team can bring alternate viewpoints, opinions, and lived experiences. Research consumer behavior, analyze data, and immerse yourself in consumers’ cultural values and identities. Engaging with target consumer groups—informally or through formal focus groups—can reveal their habits, cultural insights, and any challenges they face purchasing products or services.
Is multicultural marketing effective?
When approached respectfully and thoughtfully, diversity in advertising can help engage consumers. A joint Female Quotient/Google/Ipsos survey found that inclusive ads increase the likelihood of people considering or purchasing a product, and 69% of Black consumers, for instance, are more inclined to buy from brands that positively represent their race or ethnicity.
