David R. Morse’s steps 2-8 from his book, Multicultural Intelligence, is eye opening and useful for every professional. Our world has a  current climate of racial divide and conflict. It is crucial to make sure we understand the people we want to reach. PR professionals should be well educated in racial, ethnic and even gender diversity and inclusion.

Rule 2 is called Divide and Conquer. In order to be successful with multicultural consumers, the key is to segment. You need to divide and conquer. When it comes to multicultural segments, we fall victim to stereotypes. The early obstacle faced was that Hispanics from different countries look different, speak with different accents, and use different words. This creates difficulty in finding a one size fits all, simple marketing strategy for Hispanics.  The hispanic consumer is successfully portrayed to corporate America as “ a family oriented, Catholic, traditional, conservative, and immigrant Spanish speaking individual.” The African American market is also commonly mistaken to be homogeneous. It is important to consider factors such as gender, geography and generation to segment African American consumers. The need for segmentation also applies to LGBTQ consumers. Lesbians and gays are two very disparate groups that need to be looked at separately. 

Rule 3, Don’t Trust the Experts, exposes the various consultants and research companies specializing in certain segments of the population. They can be so obsessed with selling to their segment, that they lose their sense of proportion and ignore statistics or manipulate research. It is important for marketers to do their own research, and to not rely on other companies and outside sources on information.

Rule 4, Don’t Let the Joke Be on You, explains how humor can go horribly wrong, especially humor regarding multicultural marketing. In 2013, PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew released a commercial portraying racial and misogynistic stereotypes. They attempted to push the limits of humor, but they did not succeed.  The commercial was bashed as “arguably the most racist commercial in history.” All across the country, major media outlets were talking about the racist ad. MontainDew apologized and removed the commercial. Burger King, Bud Light and Snickers all fell victim to the same issue. You cannot assume humor translates. If something controversial is funny to you, it is offensive to someone.

Rule 5, Don’t Get Lost in Translation, emphasizes that translating from one language to another is not easy. One way to avoid any translation mishaps is to back-translate, translating it, the back translating it to see if it remains what you want to say. So many things can be lost in translation. 

Rule 6, Push Their Buttons, explains that the secret to pushing multicultural buttons is to understand what it is that moves people. Kenneth Cole successfully did this in an add that showed two men holding each other’s hands. Hallmark also succeeded with this tactic in an ad of a supportive family reacting to their gay son. It is important to ask yourself, do my customers feel comfortable? Customization to the consumers needs is absolutely crucial. Smart supermarkets know their consumers and stock accordingly.  

Rule 7, Market on a Wink and a Prayer, teaches another secret to advertising to multicultural consumers;  the usage of a “wink,” in a mainstream ad that contains a culturally relevant message. Brands may choose to execute a wink to deliberately generate controversy. A wink is subtle, it devoids stereotypes, it challenges preconceptions, it gives an insider reference, it hits the audience’s sweetspot, and it gives off the impression that it was for you and you understand each other. 

Rule 8, the final rule, Make Up, Don’t Cover Up, teaches how to respond to backlash regarding multicultural controversy. A group can get offended by an ad, and can spin your creative attempts into monstrous wrongdoing. It is a matter of if, not when, which means you need to have a response strategy. The worst thing a company can do is shut down and run. A simple apology is sometimes the best response. In some cases, damage control is required. And in other cases, controversy can be PR gold like it was for Taco Bell in 1998.

All of these rules are practical and useful for the PR professional. This book holds the key to success for anyone in the communications field. I will bring these tips and cases with me into my career and share it and teach it to colleagues and peers. This book is a must read for anyone seeking success in this industry.