Study: Make it local, relevant

By Dita De Boni

When Foote, Cone & Belding's impassioned chief executive Greg Eichmann sneers at the word "caramelisation," he's not talking about his most detested candy flavouring.

Mr Eichmann and fellow agency cohorts believe they have the proof to debunk a prevalent social and advertising myth: that Pakeha, Maori and Pacific Islanders in New Zealand will evolve into a milk chocolate-coloured mass of people advertisers can tidily describe as "the Kiwi market."

"That ain't gonna happen," says Mr Eichmann.

The implications of enduring ethnic diversity are real and have been, in the main, badly handled by advertisers and marketers in the past, he says.

The disciplines will have to understand, respect and communicate more directly with cultural groups as they become a larger part of the spending landscape.

To whit: "[Our society] is more like a licorice allsort," says Mr Eichmann, "with each layer distinctive and unique, but all part of an attractive whole."

The Foote, Cone research team of Mr Eichmann, media director Glen McGahan and mind & mood director Lauren James embarked last year on a study of Maori and Pacific Island peoples when the firm won a contract from the Health Funding Authority to mount a mental health awareness campaign.

In the course of preparing the campaign - to be revealed on February 20 - the company committed to talking with the consumers of mental health products and discovered that wide disparities existed in how different cultures viewed mental illness.

That discovery prompted Foote, Cone to expand its efforts to address "how to communicate with Maori and Pacific peoples in relevant and culturally appropriate ways that create strong links between them and ... brands."

The results of the research strongly suggest Maori and Pacific Island people are in many cases not connecting with, and even being repelled by, mainstream advertising which represents ethnic minorities in a token way, ignores them or insults them.

The problem was finding out why. "We couldn't find any manual for cultural difference," says Mr Eichmann.

"The models traditionally used by [advertisers and marketers] don't incorporate ethnic diversity - you can't just go the library and immediately find a reference on cultural understanding."

To delve into the mindset of both the Maori and Pacific Island consumer, Foote, Cone conducted 23 intensive workshops with groups on maraes, schools and health facilities.

The process yielded information on how cultural beliefs impacted on advertising, differences that exist between those "active" in their culture and " non-active" and acceptable presentations of Maori and Pacific peoples in media.

"We had to go back to basics," says Lauren James. "It was a question of acknowledging that the advertising industry - which has been dominated by white males - can no longer ignore a market of around three quarters of a million people that will grow to around 1.6 million people in 50 years time.

"We had to revisit the nuts and bolts of what we knew about Maori and Pacific Island culture and, in the process, confront prejudices and assumptions we didn't even know we had, in some cases."

Perhaps most importantly, the majority of study respondents considered their ethnicity key to self-identity and were sensitive to portrayals of themselves and their cultures, regardless of their levels of immersion in cultural activities.

The Foote, Cone team found advertising which teamed products with cherished cultural mores such as communal ownership, respect for elders, spirituality/church and the appropriate use of language/cultural symbols had resonance with Maori and Pacific Island consumers.

Points of difference between the two groups also existed. Polynesian respondents reported a greater emphasis on the importance of impressing family and the community (with a strong preference for so-called "aspirational brands" like Nike and Adidas), and an affinity with family-focused brands like Sanitarium and Watties.

The idea of multiculturalism provoked great debates, says Ms James, with many Maori respondents turned off by ads intended to represent multicultural New Zealand.

As one respondent put it: "[the Treaty] is a contract between Maori and Pakeha and the whole essence of it has to be got right before we move into multiculturalism."

For many advertisers, who consider their "one Maori, one Pakeha, one Pacific Islander, one Asian" approach highly enlightened, the Foote, Cone study found tokenism, by any other name, was still as foul-smelling.

"They're always showing us eating at huis, like all we think about is food," said one Maori respondent, while a Pacific Islander complained about the prevalent presentation of Polynesians in "loud, floral uncoordinated colours. We don't all dress like that."

Modesty - or more accurately, the "immodest" content of some ads - was a huge issue with Pacific Island women, who often spoke of feeling the need to leave the room when racy ads came on.

A common Maori tapu left that group horrified to see tampons and foodstuffs on the same supermarket conveyor belt in another ad.

"There are media placement issues that businesses may never have considered here," says Ms James.

"The question for advertisers is what is appropriate for the family time slot? Who is watching, and will it step on cultural taboos if shown while men and women of the family are likely to be watching?"

A common theme that emerged from the talks was the idea that Maori and Pacific Islanders appreciated seeing themselves in advertisements, and the more so when they were presented as regular people.

While it may seem like a no-brainer, Mr Eichmann admits the list of cultural minefields can be pretty daunting for advertisers, many of whom want to "throw their hands up and just keep doing what they are doing, without even going there.

"But basically we say: face up to the reality of NZ's changing population. Fears of going into ethnic communication strategies are alleviated when we understand what trade-offs are available to ensure powerful and culturally appropriate advertising."

As Glen McGahan says, the simple exercise which has blossomed into a presentation to clients and Government organisations requires ongoing work and is vitally important as marketing and advertising becomes a global exercise.

"Lots of advertising now - especially for things which are popular within the Maori and Pacific Island communities, is increasingly coming from overseas and takes advertising one step even further back from addressing the needs of the different communities in this market," he says.

The study is not just paying lip service to breaching the cultural divide, says Mr Eichmann, and while details of the study will be available to clients planning campaigns with Foote, Cone it is not a "cynical exercise in boosting profits," he says.

"This is not a project we undertook lightly. The intention of it was not a publicity tool or a once-over-lightly, but an ongoing philosophy that will permeate our thinking and our work."