As we approach the end of the year, I would like to stress why multicultural consumers should be a priority for your 2026 marketing plan and beyond. Surprisingly, there is still skepticism in the marketing industry about multicultural audiences—despite the glaring (and rapidly growing) statistics surrounding the profound influence these audiences are already wielding.
Multicultural marketing is not a passing trend. The truth is the U.S. is already diverse—with 44% of all consumers being multicultural. Regardless of the current political climate, diversity keeps accelerating and multicultural groups will make up the majority of the population by 2045.
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If you want to see continued growth and success, set up your brand today. Multicultural consumers already represent significant economic power. Not embracing these consumers now as part of your overall marketing growth strategy could become detrimental to your brand and organization. Industry analysts project that the combined buying power of Hispanic, Black and Asian American consumers will reach nearly $7 trillion in the U.S. by 2025.
In response to this demographic shift, some brands started adding more diverse faces to their general market campaigns. Representation is a start, but it’s not the finish line. Today’s consumers are quick to distinguish between genuine cultural engagement and surface-level inclusion. People want to see their communities reflected in the story being told, and they want to see that you understand them and aim to improve their experiences.
Audiences can spot tokenism almost immediately. Once trust is lost, it’s difficult to restore. So how do you avoid it? Start by listening. Spend time understanding what motivates people within their communities. Understand their values, aspirations, even their frustrations. Market research plays an important role in this phase. Remember, authenticity requires curiosity, partnership, cultural listening and willingness to reflect lived experiences. When it is done right, it will feel relevant and personal, rather than performative. And you will see numbers improve.
Not everyone in your organization may be on board yet. How do you make the case for multicultural marketing when other departments don’t see its value?
The key is linking cultural insights directly to business outcomes. Multicultural consumers are influencing category growth across many industries, from retail and food to tech and finance. But data alone often isn’t enough. People support what they understand and what they believe is achievable.
Here are four practical ways to build buy-in with your leadership team:
Show where growth is coming from in your category. For example, multicultural consumers are driving population growth in younger age segments, making them essential to the future customer pipeline. Millennials—now the largest multicultural generation in U.S. history—are driving most of the growth in many consumer categories. They over-index in digital engagement and mobile shopping. And they are quick to switch brands when they don’t feel represented.
If you can culturally connect with them, you will see a significant boost in revenue, along with higher conversion rates in digital channels and stronger repeat purchasing.
Work with analytics, product design and customer experience teams. Share insights and collaborate. When colleagues see that cultural understanding improves product adoption and messaging relevance, support will grow.
You could partner with the analytics team to show how culturally nuanced messaging improves click-through rates among younger multicultural Millennials. Then you can highlight where users are dropping off in the journey and show how a culturally informed approach can easily shift outcomes in a more positive direction.
When teams begin to see that these insights really do lead to higher engagement and smoother user experiences, they’ll become your champions and will start looking for ways to integrate cultural relevancy across the organization.
You don’t need a full-scale initiative to begin. Launch a campaign or program designed around one cultural insight. Measure engagement, sentiment and conversion. Successful outcomes create momentum faster than presentations do.
Our team worked with a group of financial institutions to show them just how beneficial the Hispanic audience could be to their immediate and long-term success. We started off using one branch as a pilot campaign. With the simple addition of bilingual customer support and signage, along with culturally relevant financial education content in both Spanish and English, Hispanic customers felt seen and understood. The bank was able to build higher trust within the local Hispanic community and increased lifetime value. After seeing such measurable results, rolling it out through the rest of their branches was an easy, confident choice.
Many people hesitate because they’re afraid to get it wrong. They may not feel confident in the nuances of different cultures. To address this, make room for ongoing learning and open dialogue. You can hold informal sessions where cultural experts, multicultural community leaders or even consumers share firsthand experiences, challenges and insights. Encourage your team to ask questions, explore assumptions and understand the “why” behind behaviors—not just the data points. When you can connect real human stories to business outcomes, comfort will grow and so will their enthusiasm for culturally informed work.
When brands invest in understanding these communities and what motivates their choices, marketing becomes more relatable, engagement deepens and loyalty strengthens.
Multicultural marketing isn’t a separate strategy. It’s an accurate reflection of today’s market reality. The brands that embrace this shift early won’t just win new segments—they will position themselves as the brands of choice for the next generation of consumers.
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