Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Diversity In Advertising

Today I am going to post reviews of one of the episodes from The Age of Persuasion. The Age of Persuasion is a Canadian radio series which aired on CBC Radio One and explores the sociological and cultural impact of advertising on modern life.The episode that I will be talking about is "Diversity in Advertising"

Topic of the podcast

The podcast mainly talks about the diversity in Advertising. It is about the emergence of the minority market, and tells us about the failure of Madison Avenue to recognize the spending power of that growing consumer base, and the struggles that people for colour had to be acknowledged as valued consumers. African-Americans were forced to stay outside the mainstream, and the market was remaining invisible to Madison Avenue even though the buying power of Black America topped $ 10 billion.The major advertisers were afraid that they would lose more white customers than they would gain among blacks. However, the face of advertising was beginning to change eventually. Nowadays, Northern America is multi-cultural that people cannot ignore the minorities.


How does that relate to marketing?

Advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers of listeners) to continue or take some new action. The audiences have changed throughout the history. At first, no advertising was aimed at the black population, however, they have changed due to the population growth, increase of the income and so on. Nowadays, there are so many different cultures in North America that advertisers cannot neglect the minority.
So these aspects of advertising would definitely affect marketing.


Key points and examples in the podcast

  • Changes of marketing towards minorities (mostly African-Americans at that time)                                                                                                   
    →No ads were aimed at the black population even though their population increased and their income had grown. The Madison Avenue advertisers ignored the population. But eventually the main sponsor pulled out, and NBC struggled to find another national advertiser, even though black buying power now topped $19 billion a year.
  • Changes of African-Americans' civil rights                                                       
    →the changes in critical role in civil rights were shown in advertising throughout the history, and parallels the fight for equality. 
  • Mass media                                                                                               -
    →In Canada, the largest minority group is South Asians, which surpassed the Chinese in the last census in 2006. South Asia is defined predominantly as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran and Sri Lanka.

    →The ethnic market in Canada has disposable income of over $76 billion dollars, and is made up of 223 distinct groups. Eleven of which have populations of over one million.
  • Minority groups in North America                                                                
     →In Canada, the largest minority group is South Asians, which surpassed the Chinese in the last census in 2006. South Asia is defined predominantly as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan,Iran and Sri Lanka.                                                                        
    →The ethnic market in Canada has disposable income of over $76 billion dollars, and is made up of 223 distinct groups. Eleven of which have populations of over one million.


What did I learn from the podcast?

I didn't know anything about the changes in advertising throughout the history, however, after listening to the podcast, I realized the importance of minority not only in marketing. Also, I think advertising is a mirror of society's values and the shapes are the beliefs. I also learned that there are many things to consider just for advertising like demographic projections, population, income, and minorities and etc. Most importantly I learned that the minority will finally become the majority.