Understand Customer

• With any approach, the company needs to understand its customer. This involves getting to know who purchases from the company and why. The company should not assume it knows what customers want and how much they want to pay. For instance, a skin care company might sell an expensive cream to hide wrinkles. It assumes its customer base of older women is willing to pay anything to make themselves look younger. In fact, these customers may be living on a fixed income and unable to afford the cream. The company will not know whether looking younger or saving money is more important to its customers unless it learns more about them.
  
  

Conservative

• One approach in multicultural marketing is to ignore cultures outside of the company’s customer base. Some companies cater to a specific demographic, such as Asian women. These companies take a conservative approach and focus their marketing efforts on one group of people, Asian women. They eliminate any reference to other ethnic groups or genders. This approach works well if the product being marketed rarely crosses over to other cultures.
  
  

Minimal Inclusion

• Another approach in multicultural marketing uses a primary cultural demographic and includes a few nonprimary references. The base of this approach revolves around the original group the company markets to. For example, a company that sells synthetic hair might create a television ad featuring several African American women. The company might include a Caucasian woman to create an appearance of multiculturalism, but the ad remains predominantly African American. This approach works well when one culture represents the primary user of the product, and other cultures occasionally use the product.
  
  

Immersion

• Immersion represents a multicultural marketing approach that incorporates a variety of cultures. These marketing efforts include several languages, dress styles or physical appearances. A computer company might use this approach to reach customers from all cultures. This approach works well when no particular demographic represents a primary user of the product.