Question

What challenges do marketer face when Marketing to ethnic sub-cultural group?

Answer 1

From a sociological and cultural perspective, sub-cultural groups can be considered as tributary groups within a main ethnic group or a parent cultural group. Subcultural groups can often have their own vernacular cultural practices, beliefs, convictions, and values which can be evidently different from those of the main or parent ethnic group or culture. Therefore, considering effective marketing of any particular product or service among the specific subculture/s, it is highly important for the marketing department of the concerned business organization to clearly identify which specific subcultural group/s the concerned product or service has been targeted towards and understand the objective behind choosing the particular group/s in this regard. It can often be seen that an organization misconstrue its target consumer group or audience for its product or service as it is practically difficult to adequately recognize and understand the specific consumer demands and needs within any cultural or ethnic subgroup/s and hence, it requires a rigorous and profound consumer or market research on behalf of the concerned organization and company. Therefore, coming up with an appropriate product or service idea and a suitable and effective marketing strategy often becomes difficult when targeting any niche market with an emphasis on market segmentation based on cultural subgrouping. Additionally, marketing strategies and tools are also important considerations while commercially promoting any product or service within any specific ethnic or cultural subgroup. In this context, the marketing strategies and promotional tools of the concerned product or service adopted by any company or organization must suitably and appropriately correspond to the cultural preferences, values, beliefs of the targeted consumer base which again might be different from the main or parent ethnic or cultural group that it belongs to as stated before. In this respect, it is again essential to conduct thorough and profound market research to understand and recognize the various cultural traits, principals, attitudes, and values within the concerned subgroup as inappropriate and unattractive advertising and marketing strategies and tools can generate a negative impression among the targeted consumer base or group. Furthermore, it might be difficult for especially international business organizations and MNCs to reach out to the niche markets and effectively exploit market segmentation based on cultural and ethnic divisions and sub-divisions due to their general unfamiliarity with the niche subcultural or ethnic groups. Many of the erstwhile promotional and marketing strategies implemented by these companies might not be effective or appealing to the targeted subcultural groups due to cultural differences and unfamiliarity. Hence, it reinforces the significance of developing a thorough understanding of the cultural preferences and attitudes of the targeted subcultural group/s through comprehensive market research and consumer survey and develop suitable marketing or promotional tools or strategies accordingly. Another practical difficulty associated with marketing to specific ethnic subgroup/s relates to various vernacular cultural and religious sentiments and values that these groups might have and the business organizations or companies have to be aware of this and in this context, any unintended wrong or erroneous message conveyed through any of their marketing and promotional strategies might result in undesirable consequences in terms of consumer inclination towards the concerned product or service. For example, halal food is an intrinsic part of the Muslim or Islamic religious culture or tradition and any international or domestic company selling non-vegetarian food products in Islamic countries must be aware of this phenomenon which implies that they might have to modify their existing non-halal food products to cater to the cultural and religious tastes and preferences of the local people in those countries and furthermore, adjust or change their marketing and promotional tools and strategies accordingly as well.