NOVEMBER 10, 2015: Marketers may be able to identify their target audience, but new research suggests that reaching every key buyer requires a multicultural approach. Smartling published a report on Nov. 3 that found that while 49 percent of marketers’ customer base is outside of the U.S., 48 percent claimed that they do not have a budget set for international translation.

Just 15 percent of marketers said they were confident that their messages were resonating with international customers. And only 14 percent stated that their company generates original content and also hire local marketers where their business is expanding.

Budgeting for domestic audiences speaking languages outside of English was also uncommon. About 59 percent of marketers said that they have not created a separate budget for translations to reach US, non-English speakers. Approximately 42 percent rely on human translators to get their messages across to these buyers.

REACHING A MORE DIVERSE CONSUMER BASE

Earlier in 2015, a report titled “Activating the New Mainstream” from The CMO Council and Geoscape discovered that 80 percent of B2B marketers do not have a multicultural strategy in place. However, one-third of the U.S. population is Asian-American, African-American or Hispanic, according to the report.

“The numbers were not as good as we were hoping,” said Geoscape’s Cesar Melgoza. “The level of which [marketers] are embracing this were less than I was personally expecting. But in terms of the priorities in organizations, we could’ve predicted some of those. It confirmed much of what we already knew, and that work still needs to be done.”

By 2020, these three groups alone will total about 130 million people. That said, the report did indicate that about 66 percent of marketers indicated that they have the support of their CMO to create a multicultural marketing plan moving forward.

Source: http://www.komarketingassociates.com/