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Cross Cultural Marketing, The New Frontier

By: Lisa Moscarelli
Principal C&M MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

In today's global economy, we are easily connected with other cultures from a distance. Today in Iran, young college students looking for change and democracy can tap into Western cultures and democracies to see a vision of freedom for their homeland with the click of a mouse, a tweet, or a Facebook posting.

Yet, in a major metropolitan area such as our home base in Houston, large communities offer a veritable tapestry of humanity who listen to radio and TV stations in their native language, yet still get snubbed by many main stream advertisers. Most notably, affluent South Asians are an under-targeted universe of consumers. A community of over 250 thousand Indian- and Pakistani-Americans presents a huge marketing opportunity in Houston alone, for our clients looking for affluent, well-educated, family oriented, business owners.

We stumbled upon this amazing "Desi Media Culture," (a pop term that refers to both Indian and Pakistani cultures) when our media director Keith Cohn was urged by one of our clients to run some radio ads on an Indian Pakistani radio station that reached these communities near his office. One thing led to another, and we now include them in many of our media buys and we are producing TV commercials for Pakistani-American political candidates.

The next frontier for your client to conquer may just be another culture in your home town.