According to recent figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics almost 1 in 4 (24%) Australians were born overseas and of those born in Australia some 26% had at least one parent born overseas. Are you passing up the opportunity to market to this large section of the population?
There is little doubt that you will pick up many of these potential customers in your mainstream communications but Reach and Frequency aside, are you speaking to them with a cultural relevance that gets you noticed?
Products and People
Before you even consider promoting to this audience, make sure that your products are suited to them. I know of a Telecommunications carrier that heavily promoted its voicemail service to the Chinese community without first considering that the voice prompts for this service were in English only. Needless to say, take up wasn’t great
Likewise, is your company set up to provide customer service for non-English speakers? A bilingual customer service representative in your call centre is necessary if you are to have a telephone call to action on your ad, for example.
Lost In Translation
Like any segment, you need to understand the audience before you market to them. Simply translating your mainstream ads at best, may not get your message across and at worst, may not tell your customers what you really intended.
Some classic examples of this include Coca-Cola’s attempt to translate their then tagline “Coke adds life” for the Chinese market. The result “Coke will bring your ancestors back from the dead” proved something of an over promise.
Similarly, General Motors ran into problems launching their GM Nova into South America suggesting to the Spanish speaking audience that this was a car that won’t go (“no va” – literally in Spanish means “will not”).
Whilst not perfect, the best way to ensure that you are getting your message across is to have a different translator “back translate” your text into English. The wording is unlikely to exactly match the original English text but should give you a fair indication if your message is getting across.
Try to avoid puns or clever word-plays. They rarely translate so the joke is inevitably lost.
More than words
To effectively target a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) audience, it is best to understand as much about this community, their experiences and background as you can.
Are there any specific demographic features that are relevant? For example Greek and Italian immigration to Australia was largely post Second World War so native speakers are likely to be elderly.
Are there any relevant cultural or religious events? Chinese New Year is a time of gifting sweets. Diwali may be an opportunity to sell candles to the Indian community. Festivals may also provide an opportune season for promoting long distance calling or phone cards.
Are there any superstitions to avoid? To the Japanese chopsticks pointing upright in a bowl of rice is symbolic of death (it is part of the funeral ritual) – images such as this should be avoided.
The Media Is The Message – Except When It’s Not
There are around a dozen Arabic language newspapers in Australia but don’t assume that they are all speaking to the same audience. A culturally relevant ad related to the Islamic festival Eid al-Fitr (the end of the month of Ramadan) whilst relevant to Gulf state Arabs, would not talk appropriately to Lebanese Christians.
Traditional language media (generally press and radio) are not the only ways to target these communities. Be creative – why not in language outdoor in areas with large NESB communities? Direct marketing? Sponsorship of community events?
Australia is a multi-cultural country and for many companies this may provide great opportunities to find relevant new markets. It takes a little extra effort but good Marketing doesn’t?