Multicultural Research

The American society contains many different subcultures, driven by a wide diversity of racial, age, nationality, religious, cultural, and regional groups.

Historically, many companies have developed products and launched marketing campaigns based on the idea of a fictitious “average consumer” that doesn’t exist. The concept of an average consumer has excluded certain groups through intentional discrimination or unconscious biases, resulting in uncountable missed growth opportunities due to a lack of diversity in perspectives.

A subculture is a segment of the larger culture whose members share distinguishing patterns of behavior, which are based on the social history of the group and its current situation.

Today, the U.S. is better described as a salad bowl than a melting pot. In a salad, each ingredient preserves its unique identity while adding to the color and flavor of the whole salad, even if there is a salad dressing representing the core American culture that connects diverse groups at different intersections in their experience living in the U.S.

The push for more inclusion, diversity, equity, and access is currently driven by a renewed debate about past and present racial and social injustices and new perspectives about race, age, gender, nationality, work, family, and money growing in the most diverse generations in American history (Gen Z, Alpha).  

Diversity is here to stay. The value of doing multicultural research, with a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens has grown as companies have become aware of how the gap between their corporate practices and what their employees and customers expect will affect business sustainability in the long run.

Marketing to diverse segments is full of complexities. They are part of the general market and sometimes show similar attitudes and behaviors to those observed among other groups. However, they often think and behave differently, influenced by historical events, family traditions, country of origin (U.S. or abroad), cultural values and traditions from their home countries, language and dialect preference in different situations, generation order, and length of time living in the U.S.

Relevant Insights has experience in research with diverse groups that exist at the intersection of various socio- and demographic dimensions (e.g., race and cultural ethnicity, age, gender, geography, etc.) and is a founding member of the Multicultural Insights Collective, a coalition of predominantly women- and- minority-owned business founders with extensive experience in research, diversity, multiculturalism, and management.

As a collective, we have conducted research to identify best practices for speaking both internally and externally on racial justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation.

These best practices can be used to support revenue growth and operational savings through inclusivity in different areas:

• Marketing and advertising campaigns.
• New product development.
• Customer experience improvement initiatives.
• Employee experience, including hiring and retention.

MIC Founding Members