... “multicultural” marketing tends to be an afterthought.

In an interview with Adweek, Warner argues that until now marketers have taken a simple approach to the multi-cultural segment - like translation or featuring an African-American in a commercial. "But the diversity conversation is evolving, and it has to evolve so that marketers aren’t thinking about it from an obvious point of view."

Continues Warner: "Marketing has to evolve into a cultural competency. Brands have to ask themselves:

• How do these consumers understand their cultural experience?
   
• How do they live?
   
• What do they value?

"The big thing is not looking at multicultural marketing as an add-on to the general strategy. It should be thought of within your general marketing."

She cites as an exemplar: "When Disney was thinking about how to drive meaningful engagement with multicultural audiences, they developed the Disney Dream Academy.

"It selects 100 multicultural students from across the US - students who’d probably fall through the cracks otherwise - and provided them with a three-day leadership program to help them align their goals and objectives with real-life experiences. For example, a student who wanted to be a designer got to work with Disney’s costume designers.

"That program was a perfect example of a brand that brings its purpose to life in a way that connects meaningfully with a multicultural audience."

[MT comment]: Although the markets addressed by Ms Warner have mainly been US-domestic, MarketingTomorrow.com points to comparable demographic trends elsewhere - which suggest that the US ethnic growth curve could well be replicated across Europe and Australasia.

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... switch focus to other aspects of the FMCG titan's business, e.g. health and wellness and household products.

According to UK trade magazine Marketing Week: "Families will test practical ways to adapt their daily routines and adopt more sustainable behaviour, for example, not throwing away food and not over buying. Families’ behaviour will be recorded using video and paper diaries.

"Meal planning and recipe tips" will be provided via Unilever brands, among them Knorr and Hellmann’s.

Continues the Marketing Week article: "It is hoped the initiative will help [Unilever] understand the triggers and barriers to changing consumer behaviour towards more sustainable choices.

"The challenge combines a money-saving message with a sustainability message after a Unilever poll found almost 70% of consumers claim that the main barrier to adopting more sustainable behaviours is because it is too expensive.

"Unilever wants to 'bust the myth' that sustainable living is more expensive and make consumers aware that it can also save money.

The Anglo-Dutch giant is the world's seventh largest consumer goods manufacturer* (according to Global Powers of Consumer Products, a report by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu).

*Preceded (in order of ranking) by Samsung Electronics, Nestlé, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Sony and Apple.

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... the nation's banks be allowed to fail in an orderly way. 

This should be done without taxpayer support, he said. Such a strategy would also make it easier for new, smaller entrants to the banking sector and encourage competition in a UK market dominated by a handful of massive institutions.

According to Mr Tucker - a candidate for the BoE governorship - the most important issue ahead is to ensure that banks are allowed to fail in an orderly way. He also cautioned that the "worst may still be ahead" for the banking system.

Still in downbeat mode, the deputy-governor warned that the reserves held by banks are still not calibrated for the "end-of-the-world risks" that remain a possibility.

Another eminent speaker, Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve and author of banking reforms in the US, voiced scepticism about plans in the UK to ring-fence banks' retail operations from their investment banking operations.

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... such a law "would threaten its very existence".

However, Culture Minister Filippetti is unmoved by the Mountain View mammoth's plea. She told a parliamentary commission that a 'pay for news search tax' is "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".

Google France, ever mindful of the general good, pleads that the plan "would be harmful to the internet, internet users and news websites that benefit from the  substantial traffic" garnered by newspapers via Google's search engine.

Google claims it redirects four billion clicks to French media pages each month.

While Google would comfortably survive any such move by the French government, it would not be unscathed.

The real threat to the search engine's global dominance and profitability lies in the adoption of similar legislation across Europe and other world regions.

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... the World Bank nonetheless expects China to enjoy a soft landing - an opinion underscored by the bank's revised 7.7% growth forecast for this year and 8.1% for 2013.

Along with the USA, China is the world's major economic growth engine. Hence the presence in the communist nation of all five global ad agency holding groups - WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, Havas and Publicis.

WPP ceo Sir Martin Sorrell has stressed long and loud the importance of the Chinese and Asia Pacific markets and - more to the point - put his shareholders' money where his mouth is, with WPP outposts in Hong Kong, India, Shanghai, Singapore and South Korea.

According to the World Bank's Data Monitor, ambitious investment plans announced by several regional governments in China could face funding constraints, "not least because governments are feeling the pinch of a cooling real estate market, which lowers land sales revenues".

The Bank also believes that [China's] central government is unlikely to introduce a major fiscal stimulus package, given that policymakers are concerned about a rebound in home prices and a possible reversal of hot money flows.

But the bank expects growth in China to pick up in 2013, helped by monetary policy measures introduced earlier this year and an acceleration of central government investment spending.

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... live in households with a per capita monthly income of between R$291 [US$145] and R$1019 [US$500] and have a low probability of becoming poor in the near future.

Over the past decade, 35 million people joined the official middle class in Brazil, which in 2002 represented 38% of the national population. Today, 104 million Brazilians, or 53% percent of the population, are thus categorised.

According to the SAE study, the expansion of this group resulted from countrywide economic growth and reduced inequality. If these trends are maintained, an estimated 57 percent of the population will be in the middle class by 2022.

Brazil has in the past suffered from high levels of income inequality – its executives boast the highest pay in the world – but successive governments have, over the past decade, sought to remedy this.

They did so via the Bolsa Família program, which provides direct financial support to Brazil’s poorest families in return for ensuring that their children are vaccinated and attend school.

Another key factor driving the prosperity graph upward was the boosting of Brazil's minimum wage, increased by around 60% over the 2002 - 2010 period. It  currently stands at R$622 per month.

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... "in the ranks of innovative nations" by 2020, spurring efforts to reform China's scientific and technological system.

The nation's leadership also aims to accelerate the building of a national innovative system and lay a foundation for the country to become a technological titan by 2049 when the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of a united China.

The government document puts forward new measures to spur technological development, among them:

• Enterprises should become pillar for innovation;
• Supervision of research funds should be enhanced;
• Outstanding researchers aged below 35 should be encouraged to lead scientific projects.

With the international economic meltdown continuing to unfold, China is at a key stage of transforming its development model. The country's overall technological strength and competitiveness have played a leading role in economic and social development and safeguarding state security.

The framework document sets the goal for the country to be "in the ranks of innovative nations" by 2020, urging efforts to deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system. It also aims to step up the building of a national innovative system.

The longterm implications for the world's businesses and marketers are significant.

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... incomes are forecast to fall by an average 0.2% in 2012.

Many UK households have have been affected by wage freezes during the economic downturn, with inflation rising sharply between September 2009 and September 2011 to reach 5.2%, according to the Consumer Prices Index [CPI].

Apart from a small rise in the rate of inflation last month, the CPI has fallen steadily since then to 2.6%.

However, unemployment also rose sharply during the downturn, from 1.61 million in May 2008 to 2.59 million in July 2012.

The study predicts that real levels of income will start to pick up as inflation falls further, with middle and low-income families benefiting the most. Among the CEBR's other predictions:

• Middle-income households would see incomes rise by 1% next year, with lower-income families seeing a rise of 1.5%.
   
• The richest households would see incomes rise by 0.7%, the research estimated. This is because of a drop in top executives' pay and bonuses and the scaling back of some tax allowances.
   
• Similar increases would be seen across the board in 2014 and 2015, it suggested.
   
• Retail boost: The CEBR said improvements in real income levels would have a knock effect for struggling retailers. Over the next  twelve months, it predicted retail sales volumes will rise by 2.5%.
   
• Says CEBR economist Daniel Solomon: "After four barren years, there is finally a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for retailers. Conditions will still be tough, just slightly easier than before."

Many retailers have struggled during the UK economic downturn. The economy is officially back in recession after contracting for the past three quarters.

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... over the past week most listed Chinese banks, including two of the Big Four institutions, unveiled interim 2012 results that generally showed non-performing loan (NPL) ratios are still low.

Currently, however, profitability remains strong - although for how long remains uncertain.

Says the report's writer Hu Bin, vp and senior analyst at the ratings agency: "However, the announcements also showed deteriorating asset quality and slowing profit growth, which are credit negative because they mean the end of a multi-year streak of improving financial performance since a massive bank restructuring nearly ten years ago."

The banks' results reflect the challenges of China's moderating economy and accelerating market-oriented reforms, the report opines.

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... the rest of the world to follow suit.

The ruling will likely be viewed by other governments and legal circles worldwide as a test case, in effect setting precedent. It will also impact adversely on advertising agencies and design studios.

In a brief statement, the High Court said a majority of its seven judges believed the laws did not breach Australia's constitution. A full judgement will be released in due course.

The decision means cigarettes and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive green packets without branding as of 1 December 2012. The unadorned packages will also carry graphic health warnings.

The restrictions are in line with World Health Organisation recommendations and are being watched closely by Britain, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and India, all of which are considering similar measures to help extinguish smoking.

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