I recently just went on vacation to the coast of North Carolina for five days. Being a product of the tri-state area (New Jersey) and living in New England for the last five-plus years, it’s safe to say I am truly a Yankee. I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit in my young life: England, France, California, British Columbia, Canada, to name a few; yet I have not really been able to spend much time in the South. During my time there I was able to soak up some of the way of life below the Mason-Dixon. Although it wasn’t exactly a culture shock, it was interesting to see how different the lifestyle is a couple-hundred miles downwards.
Know Your Audience
My job consists of carefully choosing the right advertising outlets to reach my client’s targeted audience. In order to reach different targets in different ways I cannot stress to you how important it is to simply know your target audience’s demographics, lifestyle and psychographics. What may be deemed acceptable in one area of the country is not necessarily true elsewhere. Certain slang words and way of speech can be drastically different in the Northeastern part of the U.S. as opposed to the South or Midwest.
One of the major differences that I noticed between the Northeast and the area I was visiting in North Carolina was the speed of conversation. It’s a stereotype, I know, but the slower-talking friendliness of the South was very apparent as I conversed as a fast-talking Northerner from the New York City area. If your company is located in the North and the objective is to reach an audience in the south via a radio or television ad, this is just one of the many things to consider during the creative process.
Be Aware of the Culture
International scope can be an even bigger consideration in marketing and advertising. I work with a client who advertises globally and it is no easy task to choose the correct wording of the message you want to broadcast. Each country has its own distinct culture, many of which include quite a few subcultures. The example that comes to mind is the American-Japanese culture clash of a simple introduction (See: Culture Difference).
Do Your Research
Culture clash is a very sensitive issue and unfortunately it is all too commonly overlooked. The last thing you want to do as a marketer is to insult your buyers. The easiest way to avoid this is to simply do your homework. Go out in the communities and interact with your audience. The classic approach was to host a focus group session to find out the tendencies of your target — but reading their newspapers, watching their local news broadcasts online, and trying to find forums or streams where your demographic is heavily active are also very useful.
If you aren’t able to physically go out and do this in person, there are tools available online to help. For instance the CIA of America offers a library of public stats for demographics with the ability to drill down in multiple areas (See: CIA — The World Factbook). There are many websites dedicated solely to providing the information you seek, such as the Consumer Research Site.
The main line to drive home from this is to get dirty, do your research, get involved with the target you are trying to reach, and really understand how they live in order to understand your audience’s needs — a meet your client’s goals.
