How Marketing Across Canada’s Culturally Diverse Consumers Helps Brand’s Reputation

Canada is a multicultural country. Connecting with Canada’s culturally diverse consumers can help your brand’s reputation.

Canada’s Multicultural Landscape

According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 5 Canadians are born outside of Canada. Toronto and Vancouver, in particular, are the most culturally diverse cities, with 49% to 51% of their residents born outside of this country but call Canada home. Statistics Canada said the number of visible minorities in this country will only become bigger, with nearly one-third of the population will be a visible minority by 2031.

A study conducted from June 2017 to July 2017 by MediaCom showed that only 25% of people who self-identify as a visible minority feel that brands speak to people with different cultural backgrounds. More than a third of those who self-identify as visible minority feel that in cases where their ethnicity is represented, it’s frequently done in a stereotypical manner.

Finances and Spending Trends

The MediaCom study found that many of the first-generation visible minorities in Canada are professionals. While their household incomes aren’t higher than the average Canadian consumer, first-generation visible minorities have significant savings.

With their significant savings and the desire to live permanently in Canada, the study found that first-generation visible minorities tend to spend more on personal care to electronic gadgets to cars.

The study showed that first-generation visible minorities in Canada make up 34% of those who opened a bank account in the past 12 months in Canada, 43% of those who subscribed to an internet service provider, and 57% of those who bought a mobile phone.

Mobile-First Consumers

In the study "Marketing across Canada’s multicultural landscape? New research from MediaCom Canada reveals what you need to know", MediaCom surveyed these ethnic groups: Chinese, South Asian, Latin/Central/South American, Arab, and Southeast Asian (including Japanese and Korean).

These ethnic groups who now consider Canada as their home are mobile-first consumers. The reason why they’re considered as mobile-first consumers is because these ethnic groups came from countries that moved directly to mobile to access the internet, skipping the broadband internet connection phase.

Visible minorities in Canada reported spending 20% less time watching TV, 12% less time listening to the radio and 42% more time on mobile phones compared to the average Canadian consumer.

First-generation visible minorities reported they are exposed to 13 digital touchpoints (defined as any digital means a consumer interacts with a business) each week; second-generation visible minorities said they are exposed to 12 digital touchpoints each week; and the average Canadian consumers said they’re only exposed to 9 digital touchpoints each week.

Marketing in a Multicultural Society

Here are some takeaways on how to connect with Canada’s culturally diverse consumers and in the process help build your brand’s reputation:

1. Mobile-First Approach

If your company wants to connect with the first-generation and second-generation visible minorities, the right venue is the mobile platform. As mentioned, these visible minorities are mobile-savvy, taking into consideration that they’ve skipped the broadband internet connection phase.

2. Targeted Media Campaigns

As the Canadian marketplace is becoming more and more diverse, it’s important for businesses to balance the need to reach the masses with specific targeting. According to MediaCom, if you want your brand to connect with a particular ethnicity, it’s important to provide content for them in their native language.

Nearly two-thirds of the visible minorities surveyed by MediaCom reported that when brands communicate via advertising using their native language “they feel closer and it makes the brand appear more meaningful”.

3. Diversity in Media Campaigns

“Marketers can serve an ad in a native language, but that is just the first step,” MediaCom said. “They need to create content that accurately represents consumers of different cultural backgrounds. The longer-term goal would be to build culturally meaningful connections with these consumers that celebrates diversity.”

One approach in accurately representing Canada’s diverse cultural backgrounds is by using diverse imagery.

“Businesses and brands have been slow to move with the times as it relates to how they visually market their brand and products,” said Robyn Lange, Curator and photo Editor at Shutterstock. “However, the world is increasingly diverse and multicultural, meaning these businesses need to quickly catch up if they are to continue engaging their customers and growing their business.”

Lange added, “In a time where images and video content dominate our feeds, visual choices are critical considerations as a brand looks to stand out from the crowd and connect with their audience.”

Coca-Cola is an example of a company that promotes diversity and inclusion in its ad campaigns. In the late 1960s, following the Detroit race riots and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the company came up with an ad that featured African-Americans and whites together – something that the company had never done before.

The ad known simply as “Boys on a Bench” showed an iconic shot of a group of boys – African-Americans and whites – sitting shoulder to shoulder on a segregation bench, with their arms touching across the segregation bar looking relaxed and happy, sharing a lighthearted moment over a Coke.

Companies are beginning to take a stronger stance on diversity and inclusion. For instance, "CoverGirl” launched in late 2016 its diversity and inclusion campaign featuring a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

A study conducted by Shutterstock and Censuswide showed that UK marketers are increasingly using images that promote diversity and inclusion. Seventy-nine percent of the marketers surveyed by Shutterstock and Censuswide confirmed they are using more images of homosexual couples and 71% are choosing more racially diverse images.

The study showed that marketers are conscious of the need to be more inclusive in the images they choose for ad campaigns, not just for promoting a brand message (30%) but also to better reflect modern-day society (71%).

Nowadays, social media savvy consumers are quick to call out those brands that don’t promote diversity and inclusion in their campaigns. Employees, partners, stakeholders and investors are also becoming less tolerant of homogeneity and are turning to brands that better reflect culturally diverse society.

How Will GDPR Impact Your Organization’s Online Reputation

May 25, 2018 is the enforcement date of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Not many organizations, however, are aware of this implementation date nor are they aware of what the GDPR is all about and its effects to online reputation.

The HubSpot GDPR Survey conducted in the third quarter of 2017 showed that only 36% of business leaders and marketers surveyed heard of GDPR. Put it in a different way, less than half of the business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot are aware that GDPR exists.

As expected, when asked about their preparation for the implementation of GDPR, the answer wasn’t encouraging either, with 42% saying they're only "somewhat prepared" for the GDPR, while 23% saying they aren't sure if their company has started to prepare for the GDPR. 

Being compliant with GDPR is more than following the law. Being compliant with GDPR is a brand awareness issue. It sends a positive message to your customers that your organization values their privacy and security.

Recent exposure of high-profile data breaches that of Equifax and Uber showed the world the ill-effects of weak cyber security measures, mishandling of sensitive data and late reporting of data breaches.

What is GDPR?

GDPR is a European Union (EU) law that sets forth harsh penalties to organizations that fail to protect the personal data of EU residents. The law replaces EU’s former data protection legislation, the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.

The law is aimed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe. Unlike its predecessor the Data Protection Directive, the GDPR isn’t open to interpretation by national governments. It’ll surely send shockwaves, not only in Europe but in other countries as well.

If your organization or business isn’t based in the EU, it’s normal that you’d instinctively dismiss this law for its geographical inapplicability. GDPR, however, shouldn’t be dismissed as solely an EU law as this law has an “extra-territorial” applicability. This means that your organization or business, even though based outside the EU, will still be covered by this law if your organization or business processes personal data – offer goods or services online or monitor the online behavior of EU residents.

Key Provisions of GDPR

Here are the top 5 key provisions of the GDPR:

1. Consent Requirement

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to choose whether they want an organization or business to store their personal data. They also have the right to choose whether they want to be contacted or not. In the case of a minor, parental consent is required.

2. Right to be Forgotten

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to be forgotten, also known as the right to erasure. This requires organizations to delete the data of customers that no longer serve the original purpose or when customers choose to decide that their data shouldn’t anymore be processed or stored.

3. Transparency

Under GDPR, EU customers have the right to get information from organizations whether or not their personal data are processed, where and for what purpose. Organizations are required to supply customers the information by providing a copy of the personal data, free of charge and in an electronic format.

4. Cyber Security

Under GDPR, organizations are required to implement cyber security measures that ensure safety and privacy of personal data that are being processed or stored. Cyber security measures referred under this law are those that prevent data breaches, not reactionary measures.

5. Data Breach Notification

Under GDPR, organizations are required to report where a data breach is likely to “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals”. This breach notification must be done within 72 hours after the discovery of the data breach.

For violating the substantial provisions of the law like consent, the maximum fine that can be imposed is 4% of the annual global turnover or €20 Million, whichever is higher. For violating procedural provisions of the law like data breach notification, the penalty of 2% of the annual global turnover or €10 million, whichever is higher, can be imposed.

GDPR Preparation

Based on the HubSpot survey, the following marketing activities are expected to be impacted by the GDPR implementation: how data of customers are collected, security and privacy protocols, email opt ins, length of time personal data of customers are retained in the system, cold calling (sales outreach), how to renegotiate contract of marketing software vendors if they aren't compliant and lead enrichment.

If given the right to choose, EU consumers surveyed by HubSpot said they would:

• Opt out of receiving phone calls from companies (61%)
• Opt out of receiving emails from (60%)
• Ask a company to delete records completely (59%)
• Opt out of having information stored (55%)
• Request to see all the data a company has on me (55%)
• Opt out of receiving tracking cookies (54%)
• Opt out of seeing retargeting ads (49%)

While less than half of the business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot are unaware and unprepared of GDPR, about half of those represented by those surveyed have undergone or undergoing the following activities in preparation for the GDPR implementation:

• Update contracts and data protection policies (44%)
• Negotiate with vendors who process personal data to update contracts and data protection policies (32%)
• Implement/optimize IT security (31%)
• Review and make changes to products – if necessary for compliance (26%)
• Brainstorm new marketing strategies for EU-based prospects (22%)
• Educate customers on GDPR and plans to be compliant (20%)
• Change the selling/marketing approaches (15%)

With the implementation of GDPR next year, business leaders and marketers surveyed by HubSpot said they will focus on the following:

• Put more effort in social media marketing (44%)
• Put more effort in content that attracts customers (41%)
• Put more effort in SEO (37%)
• Use more audience targeting through object models (27%)
• Put more effort in big data and AI to target audience (27%)
• Use less retargeting ads (26%)
• Offer more services for logged-in customers only (25%)
• Put more effort in SEM (17%)

Online Advertising to Grow 70% by 2021, Forrester Says

Market research company Forrester projected that between 2017 and 2021 online advertising in the US will grow by nearly 70%.

According to Forrester, the growth of online advertising will be driven by the rapid expansion of social media advertising and mobile advertising. Here are some of the key findings of Forrester:

• Amazon will take a portion – specifically more than $2.5 billion in 2021 – of the market share of the online advertising business from Google and Facebook.

• Mobile advertising, in particular, in-app video ads will represent the majority of the online advertising investments, with in-app video ads increasing twofold over the next 5 years.

• Social media advertising, group together with mobile advertising, will reach $40 billion by 2021, with bulk of the growth accruing to Facebook.

Amazon’s Ad Business & What It Means for Your Business

Forrester forecasted that Amazon’s ad business will reach over $2.5 billion by 2021. The market research company may have undervalued Amazon’s ad business.

According to eMarketer, the total online advertising spending in the US is expected to grow from $72 billion in 2016 to $113 billion by 2020. In the US alone, eMarketer said Amazon is projected to generate $1.65 billion in ad revenue in 2017 and $2.35 billion in 2018.

The $2.35 billion estimated earnings of Amazon in the US market in 2018 is just a fraction of the $22 billion that Facebook and $40 billion that Google are estimated to earn in the US in 2018.

In the article "For Amazon, Online Advertising Can Drive Revenues" published by Forbes, Trefis Team wrote that if Amazon’s ad business is able to take hold of 20% share of this market by 2020, it could generate ad revenues of more than $20 billion.

“Amazon has a strong edge in this space given its relationship with brands and a huge data base of the shopping preferences of its customers,” Trefis Team wrote. “If Amazon focuses on online advertisements, this segment can become a profitable revenue stream for the company in the long term.”

Search Advertising for Amazon.ca Vendors

In October this year, Amazon launched Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) – the company’s search advertising solution for vendors on Amazon in the Canada marketplace.

Amazon reported that 76% of Amazon website visitors use the search bar to find an item. According to measurement and analytics company comScore, Amazon.ca alone attracts over 15 million unique visitors each month – equivalent to close to half of Canada’s total digital population.

Given that the search on Amazon.ca is predominantly used by shoppers to find products, advertising on Amazon is worth exploring today or in the near future. Similar to Google search, search advertising on Amazon can make your product stand out among the competition – driving consideration at a crucial time when a customer needs to decide.

Amazon currently offers the following 3 advertising solutions to Canadian sellers:

1. Sponsored Products

This advertising solution allows businesses to organically promote on top and within Amazon search results. Ads under the Sponsored Products are targeted using keywords to correspond to the search terms used by customers, giving exposure to your product and helping customers in their decision journey. Below is a sample of an ad under Sponsored Products.

2. Headline Search Ads

This ad solution uses targeted keywords to help drive brand awareness. It features 3 products and a brand logo within a prime spot which is at the top of search results. Below is an example of Amazon’s Headline Search Ad.

Using Amazon’s Headline Search Ads can direct shoppers to Amazon Store. An Amazon Store is a do-it-yourself solution that allows you to create your own business store within the Amazon.com platform, giving your customers an easy way to visualize your products. Amazon Store is free and completely self-service for any Amazon seller who is also a brand owner.

3. Product Display Ads

In Product Display Ads, Amazon sellers are allowed to advertise listings via surrounding media on product detail pages. This reaches shoppers when they’re about to buy – the time when they add an item to their shopping cart.

This ad solution is targeted to individual products, product categories or shopper interests. Below is an example of Amazon’s Product Display Ad.

You can manage your Amazon Marketing Services advertising budget in 3 ways:

1. Pay Per Click

In pay per click, you decide how much to bid on an ad click. You won’t be charged more than that amount per click.

2. Pay Per day

In pay per day, you decide how you’ll spend for a day. You won’t be charged more than your daily budget. Once your daily budget is reached, your ads will simply stop running for the day.

3. Pay Per Campaign

In pay per campaign, you have the option to set budget at a campaign level for Headline Search Ads and Product Display Ads. Once the campaign budget is reached, your ads will stop running.

What About Ads via Amazon Alexa Voice?

To date, Amazon doesn’t allow third-party developers to make money from their Alexa apps, through the use of VoiceLab’s “Sponsored Messages” – brief ads that were designed to be interactive.

VoiceLabs CEO Adam Marchick, in a blog post described interactive voice ad this way: "For example, a consumer would be asked if they were going to watch the NBA finals game airing that day. If the user said yes, it would let them know to tune in for the 6pm start time. If not, the Sponsored Message would let them which channel to tune into at 10pm for all the highlights.”

Amazon shut down VoiceLab’s Sponsored Messages project with its May 21st policy change. Amazon, however, allows the following ads in Alexa Voice:

1. Streaming music, streaming radio, podcast, and flash briefing skills may include audio advertisements as long as (a) the advertisements do not use Alexa’s voice or a similar voice, refer to Alexa, or imitate Alexa interactions and (b) the skill does not include more or materially different advertising than is included when the same or similar content is made available outside of Alexa.

2. Skills that allow customers to order products or services may include audio messaging promoting those products or services.

3. Skills may include audio messaging informing customers of promotional offers or deals in response to specific requests from customers.

4. Skills that are specifically designed to promote a product or service may include audio messaging promoting that product or service.