Diversity marketing

Diversity marketing (or in-culture marketing) is a marketing paradigm which sees marketing (and especially marketing communications) as essentially an effort in communication with diverse publics. According to the paradigm, the main focus of marketing today should be to create effective communication methods and a communication mix appropriate to each of the diverse groups active in the market.

Diversity marketing recognizes the influence of cultural programming and acknowledges that different consumer groups have life experiences in different cultural and social settings. Because of this different cultural programming, the tastes, values, expectations, beliefs, ways of interaction, ways of entertainment, and lifestyle preferences of these groups tend to be different from others. These differences require the creation of customised marketing strategies.

An acknowledgement of the importance of diversity marketing is that AT&T Inc. has a post for this discipline at vice president level.

References

• Dahl, Stephan: Diversity Marketing, Thomson, 2002
• Dahl, Stephan, "Cross-Cultural Advertising Research: What Do We Know About the Influence of Culture on Advertising?" (January 2004). Middlesex University Discussion Paper No. 28. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=658221
• TransCity, European online platform on Diversity Marketing