September 2007
From the editor: More than a marketing buzzword
By Danica Tormohlen

I never think of myself as “multiracial,” but I am. In Hawaii, I’m known as a hapa haole, which means half white. To be exact, I’m half Hawaiian/Japanese/Chinese, and half Irish/German.

If you haven’t noticed already, multiculturalism is going mainstream. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that currently about one in three U.S. residents is multiethnic, multiracial or multicultural. Within 50 years, the bureau predicts 47 percent of the population will be nonwhite. This is a major departure from just a few years ago when white middle-aged men dominated most of our attendee databases.

Today, “multicultural marketing” is a hot agency buzzword, but we all need to see it as more than just a passing fad. We’re not talking about a new target audience to go after for next year. We’re talking about the long-term future of your show’s growth. This unprecedented population shift has already changed the consumer marketing landscape, and business-to-business won’t be far behind. But it’s not going to be cheap — or easy.

Multicultural marketing is not defined by the number of minority faces on your brochures — or even by the number of brochures you translate into different languages. It’s not even all about ethnicity. “Multicultural” includes multiple age groups, those with nontraditional sexual orientation, and those who are differently abled. Multicultural marketing is really a cultural competence that will help us understand the needs, wants and objectives of a variety of groups. It’s about learning how each group learns, does business, networks and socializes.

Some show organizers are already tracking the ethnic demographics of their attendees. Others are even further ahead, with promotion and advertising campaigns geared to various groups. Next we need to look at diversifying our own workforce, our show’s programming and speakers and our entertainment offerings. In this month’s cover story, “Marketing to Multicultural Audiences”, there are 10 excellent ideas for increasing your own cultural competence — with some real-life examples of how your peers are learning the hard lessons.

It’s easy to feel like the cultural shift is years away. “I’ll be retired by then,” you might be thinking. In reality, 50 years from now is when the shift will be finished. It’s starting right now.