"You miss 100% of the opportunities you never take."
Australia has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world with more than 8 million Australians identifying with a multicultural background. As revealed in the 2002 SBS Report 'LIVING DIVERSITY: Australia"s Multicultural Future', we live in "a dynamic, evolving society where diversity is embraced as the new cultural mainstream of Australia."
Reaching multicultural communities requires a new way of thinking, as well as an openness to learning the cultural nuances that make each one unique.
This represents a paradigm shift from the current 'one size fits all' strategy of mainstream marketing. This approach increasingly fails to create meaningful connections with Australian consumers.
Multicultural marketing, both metaphorically and practically, is the new way to speak the language of your target market. Utilising multicultural media and below-the-line opportunities is the best way to communicate in the right place, at the right time.
Many companies are being pleasantly surprised to find multicultural campaigns outperforming their more traditional approaches when it comes to cost effectiveness and ROI.
The Multicultural market facts and figures
200 nationalities speak over 150 languages in Australia
20% of the population, approximately 3.1 million Australians, speak a Language Other Than English (LOTE) at home
43% of the population were born overseas or have one parent born overseas, over 8 million consumers in the domestic market (DIMIA 2005)
23% or 4.5 million Australians were born overseas (More than the combined population of SA, WA, TAS and ACT)
Over 29% of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are owned by Australians with a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB).
Education is Australia's third largest export with over 344,000 international students currently residing in Australia. They contributed $5.62 billion to the Australian economy in 2003-2004.
Over 140,000 new migrants settled in Australia in 2005-2006.
This continues to increase with 160,000 new migrants due to settle in Australia in 2007-2008.