Cultural Communications

In the spirit of advocating for the patient, I think one of the key things missing at many companies is culturally specific communications.  The simplest solution here is multi-lingual.  Now that nearly 1 in 10 counties in the US have a majority of minorities, this is important (USA Today 8/9/07).

Of course, I always hear the question back of how do I track this.  Will people self-identify into a cultural group?  It depends.  Do you have anything to offer them?  Can you articulate value to them?

If I speak a different language as my primary language and you offer me communications in my native tongue, I would likely be happy to request it.  Can you track it when I request it?  Aquent appears to be a company focused on this within the healthcare space.

This can also manifest itself in color selection.  For different cultures, a certain color can mean different things which might affect your brochure creation.  (see article)   Of course, you need to be able to do mass customization of your brochure rather than print 7M in one run.

With hispanics expected to represent 21% of the US population by 2020, it will be important to understand this segment and how to communicate with them.  Here is a good article on this.  I have seen studies that show they respond at a higher rate than other segments to both letters and direct calls.  Shouldn’t that be important?

The point here is that if you really care about the patient and their health wouldn’t you want to push information to them in a language they care about; using colors that evoke action and emotion; and using words and frameworks that they understand.