Who is your audience?

Knowing your audience is to any marketing campaign. But what do we do when the audience is constantly changing?

A recent article titled Mosaic Marketing Takes a Fresh Look At Changing Society in the New York Times highlighted an agency that specializes in cross-cultural marketing. "As results from the 2010 census continue to be released, the changing demographic makeup of the American consumer market is increasingly a topic for discussion -- and action -- among advertisers and agencies. One trend to emerge is known as cross-cultural marketing, aimed at a general market that may be more of a mosaic than a melting pot."

This is a new approach to marketing because usually "traditional multicultural marketing is directed at specific demographics groups like Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, women or gay and lesbian consumers."

Many large companies such as British Airways and Ikea are starting to use this new approach in their advertising campaigns and it seems that many other companies are signing on. Instead of singling out specific demographic groups, they are looking for agencies to find common ground between people so that the advertising appeals to all groups and is more cohesive. They are looking for "cross-cultural nuances that could work cross-culturally."

I think this type of approach can be useful in every aspect of marketing including direct mail. The data, creative, and copy should "appeal to consumer similarities rather than differences."

What do you think about this new approach?

--L