No matter how sophisticated and well-funded your digital marketing strategy, an English-only approach in Canada overlooks over 7 million potential customers in diverse communities. Multicultural marketing can bridge that gap, delivering on-brand content across a range of target languages.
Reaching Newcomers
Newcomers to Canada want to use familiar online tools and social media channels with existing connections to their friends, interests, and favourite brands. Offering content on their preferred platforms, in their language of choice, is an effective way to connect with these audiences. This strategy is being recognized by the Canadian government think tank Policy Horizons:
Ultimately, the next major innovation for online retail is for Asian-based online marketplaces to feature foreign sellers. While large multinational corporations like eBay, Yahoo, and Amazon already allow Asian consumers access to internationally shipped goods, Asia’s online marketplaces have yet to capitalize on this. This would create an avenue for Canadian SMEs to gain access to a larger consumer base and sell their local products across the region. This is the final, integral step for Asia’s online marketplaces to make a challenge for global online retail dominance. (source: Policy Horizons).
“Companies work with us to implement marketing programs reaching lucrative demographics such as upscale consumers in the Chinese language market,” explains Xin Xu, LAT’s Manager, Chinese Marketing. “Whether it’s fine wines or luxury automobiles, we have the background and expertise to successfully translate their English branding and build trust with their target demographics.”
Canadian companies’ prior experience with bilingual French/English marketing and language laws offers a unique head start in leveraging multilingual marketing resources and tapping into this growing wave of economic growth and success. Other multicultural communities in Canada, from South Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America also offer potential to reach these communities through multicultural marketing that literally ‘speaks their language.’
Authentic Engagement
A recent report published by Google reiterates the need for an inclusive, culturally-sensitive approach for the Canadian market:
Newcomers and multicultural Canadians are growing segments with real buying power, and marketers should pay attention and use these actionable steps to reach them in an authentic way. (source: Google)
If you seek to engage with diverse communities in Canada, multicultural marketing can build authenticity and trust with the communities you wish to reach. If you are in the hospitality industry, LAT’s China-Ready guide is a great starting point, offering advice to help your business cater to Chinese customers. To learn more about LAT’s full range of multilingual services, including customized multicultural marketing programs, transcreation, localization, video subtitling and translation services, please contact us.
