CRC Chair, Stepan Kerkyasharian speaks at the 2009 Multicultural Marketing Conference at the Westin Sydney

Multicultural Marketing is Smart Marketing

26.08.09

The 2009 Multicultural Marketing Conference

Welcome participants and speakers.

Let me first pay my respects to the traditional owners of the  land where this conference is being held today, the Eora people of the Gadigal  Nation.

Having opened this conference for the past 11 years, I can  say that this occasion is special in that I am welcoming delegates who, for the  first time are attending this conference. I welcome and commend you for taking  this positive step in learning and sharing your ideas on multicultural  marketing.  I am also of course very  pleased to welcome back delegates who regularly attend this conference.  Your quest to continuously harness your expertise  strengthens the pillar of multiculturalism and makes Australia a truly lucky country.

I take this opportunity to thank the many agencies,  businesses and organisations, big and small, that have been generous in sharing  with us their experiences through this conference.  Through their participation, others can learn  from their experiences, both from their successes and challenges.

This conference could not have been more timely.

In this tough economic environment, many organisations are digging  deep to ensure they remain relevant and to maintain their market position.  Organisations are taking tough measures to  survive in these tough economic conditions.   Budget cuts are a constant occurrence, felt more in the marketing and advertising arena than anywhere .

While it may be tough times, I am encouraged to see that businesses are embracing multicultural  marketing as a response to the present economic challenges, as illustrated  by your attendance at this conference.

Many of you have gone back to basics, aligning your business,  people and marketing strategies.  Some of  you focus on flexibility and agility to ensure a quick and nimble response to  business and consumer needs.  Even the  most successful companies are adopting and leveraging on new media and  technology to get ahead.

In this process, one thing is common all compete for consumer attention.

However, I cant help but single out organisations that are  reaching out to the multicultural market organisations that recognise the  uniqueness of their consumers.  They are  brave to try something new, to listen and learn things they are not familiar  with, to connect with audiences theyve never dealt with before and to honestly  admit things can improve.

To me, that is smart  marketing.

Multicultural marketing is not rocket science.

Lets look at market-based marketing, customer centric marketing  and engagement metric marketing. Just like multicultural marketing, these are  aimed at achieving one thing - making the customer the centre of  everything.  Its a one-on-one approach!

It is not a new approach.   Many have done it and we dont have a shortage of organisations here in Australia that  lead in this field.  Allow me to cite  some examples.

Combined use of  mainstream and ethnic media - The inaugural winner of the Awards in 1990, the Opera House Trust  staged the Qantas National Folkloric Festival through a campaign strategy that  targeted the mainstream and ethnic media equally.  As a result, the Qantas National Folkloric  Festival attracted ten thousand people to the opening day parade and scored  near capacity houses for performances in the Concert Hall.

In awarding the first ever Multicultural Marketing Award  grand winner, Mr Nick Greiner, who was then Premier said From the governments  point of view, improving multicultural marketing is a very practical and  relevant example of putting people first by managing better.  It is in every sense a management issue.

Learning multicultural  consumer behaviour and purchasing patterns - Gateway Pharmaceuticals in 1994 developed an export  market in Vietnam,  selling pharmaceuticals.  The company  observed the buying habits of Australians of Vietnamese background and  discovered that large quantities of pharmaceuticals were being sent from Australia to Vietnam.  The company researched their market and employed  Vietnamese Australians to deal with their home government.  An export was established and within five  years, Gateways earnings rose from $2.6 million to $7.5 million.

Attracting a  multicultural workforce - The technology services giant Cisco Technical Services Asia Pacific  serves the needs of more than 60 other countries across the Asia Pacific  offering a multilingual IT support service.  The company chose to set up its offices in Sydney as it is Sydney that has the best  qualified work force in the Asia Pacific region due to its abundance of  linguistic and cultural talent.  The  cultural awareness provided by the staff at Cisco has been a key factor for the  company in effectively communicating with its clients.  External customer satisfaction surveys have  shown the global team to rate exceptionally high on client satisfaction.

Engaging the  multicultural market In 2006, the Australian Football League, more popularly known as AFL, achieved amazing results from a program that  aimed to boost multicultural participation in football as well as integrating  newly arrived immigrants and refugees into the Australian way of life. The  project operated on a grand scale involving 42 schools with a high percentage  of immigrant or refugee children, exposing 5,300 students to AFL.  As a  result, approximately 16 thousand people attended an AFL  game for the first time in their lives and some 450 students participated in  the AFL Multicultural Cup.

These businesses show multicultural  marketing pays off that it makes a difference to the bottom line.

Almost a quarter of Australias population represent a  multicultural market.

I cant think of any government service, business enterprise  or community service that does not cater to people of different cultural, linguistic  or religious backgrounds.  Whether you  are a retail shop, school, restaurant, telephone company, law firm, bank, car  company, recreation facility, news agency or sports club, you will have a  multicultural customer base.

This makes multicultural marketing a challenge not because  it is difficult, but because it is  unique. By this I mean, multicultural consumers exist across a market  segment and yet they represent a segment of their own.

There is no straight forward rule or magic formula in  multicultural marketing.  You all work in  the field and I am sure theres a lot of combined marketing experience in this  room.  The key to multicultural marketing  is knowing your multicultural market.   Who are they, what are their preferences, how will you be able to engage  them and why would they want to connect with you?  I guarantee that you will know what  innovative and creative marketing strategies to implement, once you find the  answers to these questions.

The NSW Government, through the Commission, works with agencies,  businesses and the community in engaging Australias multicultural market.

The Commission is the Governments  arm responsible for the development of multicultural policies.  It is tasked with consulting with the  multicultural community and providing multicultural services.  As such you can seek advice or use the  Commissions services and participate in its programs to assist with your  multicultural marketing activities.

The Commission holds a Community Leaders and Youth Symposium  which is attended by key community and youth leaders.  You can participate and dialogue with them  directly at this years symposium which will be held on 22-23 September at the Crown Plaza  in Parramatta.

As the NSW Governments primary provider of language services,  the Commission provides interpreting and translation services in more than 85  languages, including the more rare languages such as Swahili, Dinka and other  African languages and dialects.   Communicating your message in the language of your target audience  personalises the information and attracts attention.

The MediaLink service of the Commission informs you of the  content of non-English newspapers published in Australia.  You may not know it but there are more than  100 ethnic newspapers published in Australia.  Through MediaLink, you will know what matters  to a particular community just by looking at the headlines.  Their views can be found in the editorial or  commentaries, their events are published in the Notices and your competitors  advertisements are prominently displayed in Classified Ads.

This conference is an annual program that helps promote best  practice in marketing.  This conference  highlights the relevance of multicultural marketing and the importance of being  inclusive in marketing.  There is no  better example of this than our sponsors who, by the way, are not just making a  financial contribution.  Our sponsors are  supporting this conference because they want the public to know that they take  multicultural marketing seriously.  In  fact, one of the greatest achievements of multicultural marketing is garnering  the support of national and iconic Australian companies The Australian  Newspaper, AFL, The Commonwealth  Bank, Qantas, CMC Markets, Casella  Wines and this great hotel, the Westin Sydney.

In recognition of the success and leadership of organisations  that focus on the cultural diversity of Australia in their overall  marketing strategies, the Commission holds the annual National Multicultural  Marketing Awards.  This is the 20th year of the Awards and  I have no doubt we will again come across marketing initiatives that others can  emulate.  I take this opportunity to  invite you to nominate initiatives and join us on the 2nd of  November at the Awards Gala Dinner which will be held in this hotel.

And, it is with  pleasure that I announce the establishment of the Multicultural Marketing  Network.  This is a new initiative that will complement  the Commissions work in promoting the benefits of multiculturalism.

The Network will be open to marketing leaders and  practitioners who have responsibility for developing and  implementing marketing strategies for their organisations. It will provide networking opportunities  where multicultural marketing matters will be discussed and experiences shared in  an informal environment.  The Network  will host forums where resource speakers from government, business and  community sectors will be invited to address and discuss topical issues in  multicultural marketing.

I invite you to register and become  part of this great initiative so that, together, we can truly achieve and  benefit from multiculturalism.

Just to finish off, Id like to show  you a flash presentation on the Commissions EmailLink service that many of our  audiences find very useful.  I hope you  do too.

Thank you.