MARKETING TIPS

by Ken Mitchell

The Multi-Cultural Festival is a fun time in the ACT with lots of exciting things happening.   It also represents a good opportunity for many businesses to take a fresh look at the festival and plan new opportunities to promote themselves to new sectors of the ACT market.

The ACT, like most other cities in Australia, is made up of lots of people from diverse backgrounds and cultures who have come together to form a unified population comprised of many segments.   Each segment can be unique such as people from France, Vietnam, Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Canada, Fiji, etc.   The festival celebrates the diversity of countries and cultures and makes us more aware of who we are and of our own heritage.  

It also highlights that each segment has market-buying power and is therefore a “market segment” and almost any market segment can be targeted for promotion.   The fact that so many people are involved and take pride in their “old” country and band together provides both an insight of the measure of market size and an avenue to promote to those segments.  

The ABS Population Census data will provides an accurate measure of how many in a specific segment, and the ABS publication the “Social Atlas of Canberra” is an excellent guide to where (suburban distribution) people from various ethnic backgrounds live.   Many such cultural market segments have English as a second language and subscribe to the relevant ethnic newspaper or newsletters.   Also many ethnic organizations have readily identifiable reference people who have great influence in their community and can give advice to businesses about doing business with their community.

For some businesses, this collation of readily available information throws open the prospect of business development through being culturally aware and undertaking culturally sensitive targeted promotion in non-traditional ways.   For others it represents an opportunity to just enjoy a wide range of food and fun.   Either way you will benefit from the Multi-Cultural Festival.

Ken Mitchell is the CEO of Australian Marketing & Research Services and can be contacted on 62576677w, or kenmitch@dynamite.com.au