The music industry has long sold black culture to white Americans. Now McDonald’s (MCD) is doing much the same. It’s taking cues from African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians to develop menus and advertising in the hopes of encouraging middle-class Caucasians to buy smoothies and snack wraps as avidly as they consume hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll.

“The ethnic consumer tends to set trends,” says Neil Golden, McDonald’s U.S. chief marketing officer. “So they help set the tone for how we enter the marketplace.” Golden says preferences gleaned from minority consumers shape McDonald’s menu and ad choices, which are then marketed to all customers.

The fast-food giant’s strategy is a departure from the way companies typically market to American households. Usually, a company works with an agency to develop advertising aimed at the general market, then turns to boutique multicultural agencies to create versions tailored to blacks, Hispanics, or Asians. McDonald’s still creates ads specially tailored to minority groups, as it has for over 30 years, but minorities exert an increasingly influential role in its mainstream advertising as well. The company thinks they provide early exposure to new trends.

“Most companies think they can box in Latinos, box in African-Americans, and then run the general market ad,” says Steve Stoute, chief executive of Translation, which advises brands, including McDonald’s, on how to reach young adults. “McDonald’s will take an ad that could be primarily geared toward African-Americans and put a general market advertising dollar behind it.”

The move reflects a demographic shift under way in the U.S. as a whole. As whites head toward minority status by mid-century, according to Census Bureau projections, Hispanics, Asians, and black populations are growing faster. California and Texas, the two largest states, are already “majority minority,” meaning white non-Hispanics make up less than 50 percent of the population.

Its low prices have helped fuel McDonald’s recent strong performance, even as the rest of the restaurant industry struggles to recover from the recession. But Golden says his minority-shapes-majority marketing strategy is paying off, too. U.S. sales rose 1.5 percent in the first three months of the year, thanks to the success of new menu items and, he says, an improved perception of the brand among all ethnic groups.

Golden says he first discovered how dramatically minority tastes can influence mainstream preferences when he oversaw McDonald’s marketing in the U.S. West in the 1990s. His team had developed products aimed at Hispanics called the “Fiesta Menu,” which included guacamole and spicy beef tortas. After the launch, the items sold well enough in Hispanic neighborhoods—but sales rose more than expected in Orange County and specifically Laguna Beach, an area that was more than 90 percent white. “The intended consumer said, ‘We sure appreciate what you’re trying to do, nice try.’” Golden recalls. “But [the Fiesta menu] overperformed in the general market.”

Golden went on to create a strategy for the U.S. business that he calls “Leading with Ethnic Insights.” Working with Jonah Kaufman, a McDonald’s franchisee who has 13 restaurants on Long Island, N.Y., Golden doubled the spots designated for minority franchisees on the national advertising committee, which advises on and approves ads. McDonald’s also uses a disproportionate number of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in focus groups. Later, marketers are asked to imagine how they would sell a product if the U.S. population were only African American, Hispanic, or Asian. They look for differences to McDonald’s general market plan.

That sensitivity has already influenced new products. The fruit combinations in McDonald’s latest smoothies, for instance, reflect taste preferences in minority communities. And when the company started heavily advertising coffee drinks last year, the ads emphasized the indulgent aspects of sweeter drinks like mochas, a message that resonated with blacks, says Golden.

In fact, many of McDonald’s ads now feature only African Americans. Of the 10 most-aired TV ads from the past 12 months, compiled by ad tracker Nielsen IAG, five had all-black casts. While the ads usually push specific products or deals, many use situations aimed directly at ethnic consumers. In a recent commercial called “Big Day,” a young boy at a wedding looks bored while watching the bride and groom kiss and jump over a broom—an African American matrimonial tradition. His eyes light up, however, when he gets to his seat and finds a Happy Meal.

The bottom line: McDonald’s is increasingly taking its marketing cues from minority groups, which it considers to be trendsetters for white America.

It basically allows several people to work on the same document. The program highlights the changes made by the last user so you are able to see exactly what’s been changed.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/officeconnect.html

A few years back I wrote a column offering a dozen New Year’s resolutions I wish advertisers would make. Given the season, and the suitability of the topic, I thought it might be time for a handful of resolutions dealing with social media.

Below are eight resolutions I developed with the help of some of my social media friends. They’re more focused on the professional than the personal, but if the shoe fits for your personal interactions, feel free to wear it. Some are things to start doing; others are things to stop doing. Some are resolutions I need to make for myself; others I wish everyone would adopt. See if you agree.

I will be original. Plagiarism has always been a crime, but the Internet has made it much easier to commit. The ease and speed with which we can share things through social media makes it even more tempting. While most people wouldn’t plagiarize an entire article, column, or white paper (although I’ve seen it done, even to me), they think much less of plagiarizing a Facebook or Twitter post. @MWCemily says if you like what other people say, give them their due for having said it first. She’s right.

I will not “auto” anything. Don’t auto-follow. Don’t auto-DM. Don’t auto-tweet. Don’t do anything that shortcuts the already less-than-personal nature of social media. As @BartCleveland says, “Give the same consideration to social media you would to a live conversation among friends and peers. Stimulating conversation occurs when people are listening and contributing to the topic of the moment.” Nobody likes being on the receiving end of auto-generated messages; why would we think it’s O.K. to send them?

I will unfollow. This came up a lot in my informal poll of friends. @stephfierman says she’s sensing a “blowback” in social media, as people dial back the search for “more” and realize “what we’ve known all along—that value comes from genuine relationships, and that a person in your network whom you barely know and never speak to is not a relationship.” In that spirit, don’t be afraid to trim back the list of people you follow. Similarly, @SusanHartPR resolves to focus more on “quality, not quantity,” and @lesmckeown says he will “concentrate on content, not numbers.” @deniseleeyohn may have said it most succinctly of all: “Treat ‘friends’ like friends.”

I will integrate. PR pro @AbbieF says she’s going to continue to stress to her clients the importance of social media as a crucial tool in an overall communications strategy. She’s correct in doing so. Social media constitute neither a fad nor a sidelight. In the coming year we all should look for more ways to integrate social media into our big-picture marketing plans. Many good things can come from exploring the links between offline and online media, social media included. If you respect each tool and use it appropriately in your overall marketing mix (rather than seeing it as another blunt instrument with which to bludgeon someone into a sale—see below), you’ll be a lot happier. And so will your followers.

I will not be a narcissist. Remember the feeling you got back in the day when you heard those three magic words, “You’ve got mail”? It was so exciting to think that somebody cared enough to reach out, even if it did turn out to be a perfunctory notification from your ISP. We all like getting attention, but fishing for it is never a good idea. People who post and tweet incessantly about themselves are no different than those who do so face-to-face—annoying. Corporations can be the worst offenders in this arena, viewing social media as just another platform on which to make a pitch. That’s as bad an idea online as it is offline (see The Cocktail Party Test for Advertising). I appreciate the honesty of @girlmeetsgeek, who has resolved to “stop caring about recognition and focus on doing my job.” Amen, sister.

I will not be a boor. Peering through a computer monitor can be a bit like sitting behind a two-way mirror at a focus group, tempting you to draw conclusions and make wisecracks about people in ways that you never would face-to-face. Being a boor is never a good idea, and the network multiplies the effect of boorish behavior. The same goes for profanity. Post and tweet only what you would say to someone’s face in polite company. If you can’t do that, zip it.

I will continue to explore. This may seem obvious to social media veterans, but we all have our limits. You, like me, may have settled into a comfort zone with a handful of social media tools, but we all should resolve to expand, as @ckburgess puts it, our “social media footprints.” @ginidietrich encourages others “to open their minds to trying new technologies” rather than reflexively dismissing them, and @JustInTheSouth believes we should listen more than we tweet and connect more with those who think differently.

I will not LOL. Or ROTFL, provide TMI, or say OMG or JK. I know acronyms like these are meant to serve as shorthand to save precious character space, but a cliché is a cliché. And in the social media world, clichés get tired fast. Say something original.

"Laughter is the best medicine"

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