multicultural marketing
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The term multicultural is used to describe the variety of cultures, religions, languages, races, and ethnicities of marginalized groups within a dominant culture. It positions these aspects of diversity as non-dominant, absorbing them under the label of “culture,” despite having distinct meanings from one another.
Multicultural marketing is a marketing practice that celebrates a target market by acknowledging, respecting, including, valuing, and speaking to each person equally based on their cultural uniqueness. This uniqueness could include, but is not limited to, traditions, celebrations, language, and characteristics like age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, disability, and religion.
While the term is still frequently used to describe efforts, councils, and awards in advertising and marketing industries, it deserves to be scrutinized. It tends to define communities by their differences from and contributions to a “dominant” culture, rather than understanding that culture within a community can be varied and is only one form of diversity.
Using the term multicultural marketing risks alienating other historically underrepresented communities, like the LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent segments, among others, and may not sufficiently capture the breadth and depth of the consumer demographics that comprise the new mainstream. A more descriptive phrase may be “marketing, equity, and inclusion” (ME&I) when speaking of the intersection of marketing work and DEI.