Many of us have heard or perhaps even live by the familiar adage, "what you don't know can't hurt you." But ignorance is not bliss. A lack of knowledge can be devastating. That's true in life and advertising. Just like a moth drawn to a flame, brands are attracted to things they don't fully understand. This "fatal attraction" often results in poor outcomes. A classic example of this is a botched approach to multicultural marketing. Culturally tone-deaf advertisements. Misplaced investments in well-meaning social impact campaigns. These are, however, just two common faux pas that sideline even the most beloved brands when trying to make connections with multicultural consumers in the U.S. Multicultural market researchers attribute many of these mistakes to the lack of multicultural research being conducted by companies and brands. But the evidence doesn't support that. Many of the companies getting it wrong are doing multicultural research. In fact, they are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to understand multicultural consumer preferences. So where is the disconnect? How do some brands fail so miserably despite investing heavily in multicultural research? It is a matter of selective sampling bias. Selective Sampling Creates Bias The fast-growing multicultural population in the U.S. has made it increasingly difficult for market researchers without multicultural expertise to create nationally representative sample plans. Look at the Hispanic population in the U.S. Despite having over 20 countries of origin, many market research companies create sample plans that include Hispanic sample but fail to account for the diversity in countries of origin. These countries may share a common language, but their traditions, values, food, music, and even linguistic variations of Spanish require sample plans that account for the U.S. Hispanic population's [...]The post Selective Sampling Is Hurting Your Client's Business appeared first on .
