But one thing’s for sure: The UK advertising market has entered a fascinating stage in its evolution. Advertisers of all shapes and sizes have recognised, quite rightly, that they need to reach ethnic communities; yet they’re not entirely confident they know the best way to go about it.

And if they’re not feeling anxious about this, they should be, because of course there’s a compelling and inescapable logic underpinning the raw numbers.

According to the IPA’s Multicultural Britain report, the purchasing power of the UK ethnic markets is over £300 billion. £300 billion. That’s a chunk of the consumer market that you just can’t afford to ignore.

Yet when many advertisers – some know this, others appear not to – attempt to speak to ethnic communities, they don’t always get it right. And some, of course, get it very wrong.

If you lack cultural competence, you’re going to struggle to muster the ability to communicate effectively – and you actually stand a very good chance of causing offence to countless prospective customers.

Advertisers need to be aware that brand values are hugely important to the purchasing choices of black consumers – and it’s not enough to treat this issue in a superficial manner. If you patronise people, they’ll soon call you out. Your commitment must be apparent and sincere. It must permeate through your organisation’s entire culture – your teams at all levels and the marketing agencies you use.

If your social integrity is above question, your brands will build trust and garner loyalty from the community, ultimately leading to profit.

Successful multicultural campaigns connect powerfully with their target audiences – and speak directly to lived experience. You have to have a deep and instinctive feel for your audience.

Black consumers are, like any other consumer, attracted to what makes them feel good about themselves. It’s a question of self-recognition. It’s a question, fundamentally, of culture, purpose, and community.

Unfortunately, many marketers make all the wrong assumptions – for instance they may reference skin colour, the texture of hair, music, dance, fashion, and accents… but tend to have very little grasp of cultural nuance.

At the other end of the spectrum, marketers sometimes often think that because most black consumers speak English, it is OK to market to them with ads produced for the white British audience. It rarely is. And in fact there may be several layers of nuance here, because it’s also important to note that the black market is not homogeneous.

But we often see many marketers pass the responsibility for advising on black cultural competency to their only black member of staff, instead of seeking external support from specialist cultural marketing agencies – but if you want to get this right you really do have to bring on board a team with lived and professional experience in black cultural competency.

So, what’s involved in this process? Before you engage an external consultant, here are five steps we recommend you consider when developing your strategy.

• Outline your mission

• Define your audience

• Set your tone

• Create a relevant cultural experience

• Identify your communication channels

And we believe it’s important, if you want the best shot at success, that you apply this framework both internally and externally.

At Eagle Eye, we help purpose-driven brands and marketers to understand and speak to the cultural needs of the black British consumer.

We combine the lived experience of our in-house creative and content strategy team with our external Eagle Eye communities, made up of black people from diverse backgrounds, to discuss and critique our client’s brief and to ensure it speaks to the black consumer.

We’re here to help you get this right.

So, to return to our opening salvo: Do all British brands need purpose-driven cultural marketing? The answer, in truth, is probably: no. Not all brands.

Only the confident and ambitious ones.

GET IN TOUCH TODAY

We are highly-skilled diversity consultants with an aptitude for helping brands develop black-British cultural competency and launch culturally tailored campaigns. To get in touch, contact chioma@theemhglobal.com today!!