Carlos Saavedra of PepsiCo: Traditional multicultural marketing is not sustainable in the long term

Among the speakers on the first day of the 2013 ANA Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference was Carlos Saavedra, director of multicultural marketing at PepsiCo, who shared the brand’s experiences in the multicultural market.According to Saavedra, professional marketing experts have to rethink the way brands connect and interact with consumers and how brands respond to them. “The question now isn’t what, but how,” he said.During the session, he related the successes of PepsiCo’s cultural fluidity in connecting with millennials and selling to them. “Marketers have to move on from segregating ethnic groups to celebrating common truths without forgetting cultural nuances” Saavedra said.The executive also showed how his multicultural marketing team has evolved to include multicultural marketing objectives in each brand’s goals, and how the successful Culture Lab project allows brand managers to stay connected with consumers through their interests rather than just their ethnic group.“PepsiCo’s multicultural marketing team has evolved to become intercultural marketers on the road to achieving a cultural nirvana” Saavedra said. “Brand managers are accountable to connect with the multicultural consumer. They need to know the multicultural consumer as well as general market consumers”.