A Crippling Error: Leaving Ethnic Americans Out of Your Plan

It isn't standard practice for agencies to propose ethnic buys as routine parts of media plans, suggests Heide Gardner, the American Advertising Federation's (AAF) vice president for diversity and strategic programs. Gardner, part of an AAF task force seeking to increase minority-owned and targeted media's piece of the ad pie, blames a fundamental "lack of understanding of how cultural cues and trust in minority-formatted media" can impact an advertiser's bottom line.Others are more blunt. "It's segregation," argues Kofi Ofori, who recently authored a major study on ethnic media for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to him, shrinking market share awaits advertisers who don't board the ethnic bandwagon soon. "Even when people stand to make more money, it's another issue to employ people of color and to get out of old habits." This year Ofori's Washington-based firm authored an FCC study that found widespread ad discrimination in radio. Every dollar per listener earned by a general-market station garnered just 78 cents per listener in minority stations, the study says. For example, consider soft-drink consumption and personal care purchases among Hispanic-Americans. While Hispanic-Americans comprise 11 percent of the U.S. population, says Christy Haubegger, founding publisher of Latina magazine, they buy 22 percent of Coca-Cola Classic. "We're using 16 percent of the lip liner, but there's not a cosmetic company yet that has directed 16 percent of their budget to this audience," she told the Mediaweek researchers. Yet minorities assign considerable value to advertising messages based not only on the ad's content but also on its context, be it between a magazine's covers or interspersed in a station's programming. "An invitation to purchase feels a lot different when it's on my nightstand," Haubegger summarized. Certainly, some major advertisers have sustained, even grown, market share by using minority-focused media. Frequently cited kingpins were telecommunications companies such as AT&T, MCI, and Sprint; automakers; and packaged-goods firms such as Phillip Morris' Kraft. But many other advertisers continue to resist dealing with ethnic media.RoadblocksMany experts agree that being in a presentation with media buyers can be a daunting task for those who advocate using in-language media, particularly media for Hispanic- or Asian-Pacific-American audiences. Correcting such imbalances starts with realizing that minorities and their media represent a critical mass with the very real potential to increase an advertiser's market share. Other pro-ethnic advocates contend that the difficulty is considerably more complex, but most focus on getting rid of decades-old stereotypes about minority consumers, their buying habits, and the media they use. It's an attitude that may be slowly changing on Madison Avenue as more research becomes available. Many multicultural media executives say they are optimistic about their future advertising revenues. Eighty percent told the Mediaweek and New America Strategies Group researchers that they were expecting increases to grow through 2001, even though the prevailing opinion was that they weren't receiving their fair share of ad revenue. Most also stated their belief, however, that minority-focused media is still generally considered a "fringe buy" by mainstream marketers.Fighting the Afterthought MentalityHispanic-, African-, and Asian-Pacific-American populations are growing at seven times the rate of the general market. They represent nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population; by 2040, they will account for more than half of all Americans. And the 2000 Census should be another wake-up call to Madison Avenue.Recent examples show that some advertisers have come to recognize the importance of ethnic growth markets:* JC Penney noted a dramatic payback in targeted marketing with its "white suit" campaign. It featured African-American women in tailored white attire, reflecting the long-standing tradition among blacks of wearing white to church on the fifth Sunday of the month. The ad campaign ran in African-American women's magazines and quickly helped sell out white-suit inventory in the department-store chain's urban locations.* Advertising on Spanish-language network television can give advertisers an average 20 percent hike in sales among Hispanic-American consumers, compared to a similar campaign on English-language broadcast networks, according to a pilot study by Skunk-works of New York.* After a three-month grassroots protest urging CompUSA to advertise with African-American–oriented media, the nation's largest computer retailer last month decided to hire an African-American-owned advertising firm and offer store discounts to the protesters. The campaign against CompUSA was orchestrated by popular radio personalities and the BET host, Tavis Smiley.* A week later, American Airlines, "in an effort to better serve its target markets," announced plans to name an African-American–owned advertising agency its national agency of record. "As a leader in the airline industry, we recognize that we operate in a global environment consisting of diverse markets," said Tom Morris, American's managing director of advertising. "Selecting an African-American agency to help with our communications efforts will enable us to better serve the African-American markets."Challenges to Ethnic MediaEthnic-media outlets have their own set of challenges. Key executives within minority media, and the ad community that best knows them, say they are working to counter advertiser resistance and dispel what they call a faulty conventional wisdom. In the last three years, some 165 Hispanic-American publications with a combined circulation of 9.4 million have put together a one-stop shopping program for advertisers wishing to reach Latinos with national media buys. Called the Latino Print Network, the sales arm of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), it is also conducting studies about the buying habits and economic standing of Hispanic-Americans. Andres Tobar, NAHP executive director and CEO, is optimistic that the organization's approach will mean "a more equitable share" of money for print and also will help members gain against Spanish-language TV.Madison Avenue, says Dr. Andrew Erlich, of Woodland Hills, California-based Erlich Transcultural Consultants, "is a reflection of society, and it would be real easy to make them into the bad guys. But I think the issue here is one of human nature. It has to do with all humans being ethnocentric, that 'My way is the only way that has any value.'"This has everything to do with innovative thinking, management, and creativity in the world of advertising, which is supposed to be about creative processes."Case Study: Newspaper Publishing and Ethic AmericansTwenty years ago, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) looked across the nation's newsrooms and determined that to better represent their increasingly multicultural constituencies, they needed to become more racially and ethnically diverse. The association, made up of ranking editors from newspapers large and small, set a benchmark: by the year 2000, the number of minorities working in newsrooms would mirror the U.S. minority population.Newspapers vowed to aggressively recruit African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Pacific-Americans, and Native Americans. Minority scholarships, intern programs, and training initiatives were instituted. Recruiters began traveling to conventions for minority journalists and minority job fairs. Editors and publishers took every opportunity to extol the importance of "accurately reflecting the community," while touting their own unwavering commitment to the cause. Diversity was hot.Despite their good intentions, newspapers must now admit that they fell short—way short. Today, racial and ethnic minorities make up just 11.5 percent of newsroom employees nationwide, according to ASNE, compared with 28.4 percent of the U.S. population. (Shockingly, 380 newspapers that the association examined reported having no minority representation whatsoever.) In 1998, ASNE was forced to adjust its 2000 goal and now hopes newsrooms can reach parity with the general minority population by the year 2025.Jolted by the industry's dearth of achievements, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) recently was moved to issue its first statement on diversity, urging members to redouble diversity efforts and suggesting strategies for boosting their numbers. Six in ten newspapers today have diversity goals, according to the NAA. Meanwhile, the association reports that just 18 percent of full-time newspaper employees across all departments are minorities, compared with 24 percent of the U.S. civilian workforce who are minorities. Larger newspapers, however, have better representation: those with circulations of greater than 50,000 are 27 percent minority, compared with the 7 percent minority workforce of newspapers with circulations of less than 10,000. "If diversity is to happen, it means a critical mass of folks have to believe it's important," said Toni Laws, NAA senior vice president of diversity. "Newspapers have to see themselves as agents for change, just as they have been agents for change throughout their existence."Yet advances have been made, especially in news coverage of minorities. "You don't find the kinds of racially charged headlines and racially biased reporting, especially in the South, that you found in the '50s and '60s," said Reginald Stuart, corporate recruiter for San Jose, California–based Knight Ridder Inc. and former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. "You can say there's been phenomenal progress in the . . . whole presentation of news."But sad to say, more diverse ranks don't always translate to stellar news coverage. "There's a tendency at some papers for a minority to join the staff and cop the company line. That creates a homogenized perspective on the news, and that's not what we're here to do," said Jean Thompson, associate managing editor/staff development for Times Mirror Co.'s Baltimore Sun. "We have to recognize that every single person—male or female, gay or straight, black or white—is going to bring something different to a story that makes us a healthier, stronger newspaper, and that also makes for an article that rings true."Of some 400 newsroom employees at the Sun, 17 percent are minority, up from 12 percent a dozen years ago. "Our goals at the Sun are to better reflect our readership and to hire great journalists of all different backgrounds," Thompson said, noting the city's 65 percent African-American population and its fast-growing Hispanic-American and Asian-Pacific-American communities.Sometimes, even companies with a strong commitment to diversity suffer setbacks. Knight Ridder, publisher of the Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury News, and Philadelphia Inquirer, this year ranked twenty-second on Fortune's list of the best U.S. companies for minorities. The company boasts that 27.7 percent of its 22,000-person workforce are minorities, including 16 percent of its managers. The torch-bearing media behemoth even adopted the slogan, "Diversity. No Excuses."But executives across the industry realize that newspapers' very survival clearly depends on their relevance to a mass audience—an ever more diverse audience. "If newspapers do not reflect what this country is about over the next twenty or thirty years, there will be fewer people using the product," said Veronica Jennings, project manager/content development for Newsday and former diversity chair of ASNE. "America is changing . . . and if we're going to attract young people coming up in this multicultural world—as readers, as advertisers, as potential newspaper professionals—they must see themselves reflected in the newspaper." Case Study: Magazine Publishers Association (MPA)A Mediaweek diversity survey conducted in 1998 by Fairfield Research, a media research firm, and human-resource company Raymond-Karsan Inc. clearly pointed out the lack of minority hiring for professional editorial and publishing positions. People of color—black, Hispanic-American, Asian-Pacific-American, or Native American—account for only 6.1 percent of professional staff in both large- and small-circulation titles.Of the country's top 300 magazines, only 6.1 percent of staff on the editing side were people of color; and on the publishing side, only 6.7 percent were reported as nonwhite. Minorities consisting of black, Hispanic-, and Asian-Pacific-Americans are projected to make up 28.4 percent of the population next year, according to the U.S. Census. In 2050, these groups will make up 46.6 percent of the population. Currently, African-, Hispanic-, and Asian-Pacific-Americans have an estimated combined spending power of nearly $650 billion, according to the FCC."I don't think editorial directors and publishers have realized how important and lucrative the market can be for them," said Isabel Valdés, president of Cultural Axis Group of Axis Worldwide, a Los Angeles–based marketing research firm. "Right now, they are doing good business, but they are going to leave the door open to competitors that take away readers."A joint MPA–Yankelovich Partners survey has revealed the industry's current mind-set, and not surprisingly, the results indicated that for many publishers diversity has just not been top of mind. Of the companies surveyed, only 32 percent said they have implemented some sort of diversity program or training. And though 44.8 percent believe a diverse workforce offers different perspectives and approaches to work, only 10.3 percent have infused that corporate mentality into their workplace.But it's not all bad news. The MPA study noted that 74.1 percent of respondents said they would make their offices "extremely" diverse in the next five years. And both the MPA and various publishers are already beginning to put those programs in place."We really let editors and publishers make their own decisions," says Ruth Diem, Hearst Magazines' vice president and director of human resources. Hearst Magazines publishes Good Housekeeping, Esquire, and House Beautiful. "We have not had a culture that has forced people to make hiring decisions of any kind, and in a sense that's what you have to do." Still, Hearst, under magazine president Cathleen Black, created an internship program three years ago, of which a third of the twenty-five slots are given to minorities. Time Inc. also has in place a number of corporate internship programs, including the Don Logan Associate Program, named for Time Inc.'s president and CEO, which recruits bachelor-level graduates into titles such as Time and Fortune or corporate jobs on the publishing side. A comparable program exists on the editing side, as well.Even so, most companies have seen little progress at the mid-management level and above, those positions of power and influence that can affect a magazine's editorial direction and its bottom line. The result has been that top-level minority talent and editorial content devoted to minority interests remain in various ethnically targeted magazines. Essence, Black Enterprise, People en Espanol, and Latina are proof that if publishers effectively seek out minorities and diversify their content, both the executives and readers will follow.Beyond attending diversity fairs and college recruiting for entry-level jobs and internships, a number of publishers insist that finding professional-level minorities is not easy. The publishing pool is just too small. "It's not there because the talent pool just hasn't evolved where people have the experience of ten years or fifteen or twenty years of experience to do the jobs," said John Fennell, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines' chief operating officer. "It is a concern."In response, the MPA this August kicked off a workforce diversity initiative that will seek out talent at all levels. Wesley Brown & Bartle Company, a New York–based diversity recruitment firm, has been hired—with an initial $500,000 budget—to create a prescreened database of minority applicants from outside the magazine industry. The MPA program is being funded in part through the Reader's Digest Association, which set up a challenge grant ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 per year, with the amount dependent on whether both a recruitment and an internship program are set up. Those companies that join must agree to a five-year commitment. Most of the larger MPA members and a number of smaller members have donated money or have pledged to do so, including Hachette, Hearst, and Time Inc. So far, the recruiting process has started across campuses, but an MPA internship program is still under discussion."This [initiative] is catch-up, to be perfectly honest, but dividends get paid fast here," Thomas Ryder, chairman and CEO of the Reader's Digest Association, said. "The biggest symbol of all is when management throughout the industry makes a commitment to it. And, frankly, I think we're about there. I think it's about to happen."

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A Crippling Error: Leaving Ethnic Americans Out of Your Plan

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