By: Rochelle L. Ford, Ph.D., APR

Diversity will play a major role in the 2008 presidential election. This year's primaries, Republican and Democrat, have it all gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, socioeconomics, educational pedigree and more. The news coverage alone is forcing Americans and the world to discuss these dimensions of diversity. You should take this opportunity to discuss diversity as it applies to your organization's employees or volunteers and the external publics you serve.

At the 2007 Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Multicultural Marketing Conference, William Lamar, chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA, LLC, said great marketers need to think about the concept of panculturalism, the blurring of cultural lines and how various cultures influence each other. In a pancultural society, individuals adopt traits from a variety of sources. Lamar said this creates a greater challenge for communicators, who must lead with multicultural insights and not base decisions on demographics alone. Recognize that people will identify with multiple touch points based on their personal experiences.
Lamar emphasized that arrogant brands that try to force customers to come to them will not be profitable. Organizations must be customercentric, using culturally relevant research as their guide.

Watching trends

But what about crises, those issues that research didn't predict? This past year had its fair share of diversity crises. The high-profile case at Jena High School in Jena, La., this past fall, in which three nooses hung on trees by white students, inspired national outrage. Diversity Inc. established an interactive Web site (www.diversityinc.com) to track similar incidents nationwide and increase public awareness of this dangerous racist symbol. As of early December, the site was tracking 62 incidents involving nooses that had been reported to authorities. The number of reported hate crimes increased by 8 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the FBI. These 7,722 criminal incidents targeted victims or property based on bias against a race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability. Do you know what to do if a hate crime occurs at your organization? This is the year to plan proactively how you would address the issue from a multicultural stakeholder approach.

Preserving a communications channel

In addition to preparing for unforeseen crises, communicators who are serious about multicultural communications need to plan this year for a major change in television broadcasting. Television has been gradually transitioning from an analog to a digital format for many years, but the shift will reach its climax on Feb. 17, 2009. On this date, federal law will require all full-power broadcast stations to deliver a digital format, ending all analog broadcasts. Not only will the all-digital broadcasting be clearer and more efficient, the Federal Communications Commission believes it will free frequencies for public safety uses.

However, many people from diverse backgrounds rely on those old rabbit ears that receive analog broadcasts and will need to purchase converters, get them free or purchase new televisions. If these audiences are not informed about and prepared for this transition now, you will lose a tool for communicating with your target publics, especially if they are poor, elderly or new immigrants. Joseph Uva, CEO of Univision Communications, Inc., said at the ANA Multicultural Marketing Conference that many Hispanics and other Americans are uninformed and unprepared for this switch, and his company is soliciting the support of others to communicate this issue. Will you be among the first to inform your publics about the conversion?

Rochelle L. Ford, Ph.D., APR, is associate dean, research and academic affairs, at Howard University. E-mail: rocFord@howard.edu

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