2005-05-18 Europe
Personal Is Political in France
"With which groups do you identify?" asks
the controversial questionnaire circulating on the streets of Paris.
Respondents are asked to choose among 11 listed ethnicities.
The poll, part of a multicultural-marketing research campaign conducted by a
small firm called Sopi Communication, is nothing short of revolutionary for
France, where collecting information on race, ethnicity or religion is taboo.
Sopi's effort is part of a larger trend -- the slow acceptance that France
has minorities and that they may have different tastes and needs.
especially needs. it's not HUMANE to keep us from
slitting the throats of Joos, putting our sisters into the veil and taking
over Europe. we got NEEDS you know ...
France long has taken the superficial appearance
of assimilation to an extreme: Officially, only French
and non-French people live here. In the name of equality and integration, the
government insists immigrants leave their old identities at the border to
join what the French Constitution calls "the Indivisible Republic."
Ethnic and religious profiling also is viewed suspiciously in other European
countries, in part because the Nazis used government records containing such
data to identify Jews during World War II.
And, as we discussed the other day, a fair number of French helped.
"In the U.S., it's OK to have different
neighborhoods with different groups of people. In France, there's a mental
block against this" because it is seen as undermining the country's
unity, says Mercedes Erra, who heads Euro RSCG France, a unit of French
advertising group Havas SA.
non, non, there are none of those brutal Anglo
groupings of ethnics in our concrete suburbs, none at all ....
But France's "color blind" philosophy is showing cracks as the
country confronts its failure to integrate its growing minority population,
primarily of North and West African descent. Some politicians, such as former
finance minister and presidential hopeful Nicholas Sarkozy, have begun to
speak favorably of affirmative action, long a no-no here.
Sopi's research is the first of its kind in France. Jean-Christophe Despres,
the firm's founder, initially pitched his idea for multicultural marketing to
Havas and to Publicis SA, France's other big ad and marketing group. Both
companies have extensive multicultural-marketing activities in the U.S., but
they turned him down. Ms. Erra says France's aversion to ethnic profiling has
dissuaded Havas from doing multicultural marketing at home.
So Mr. Despres founded Sopi in 2003, convinced there was a market for ethnic
and religious research that businesses could use to market their products and
guide their strategies. Underscoring the lack of religious data, for
instance, there is no accurate figure available on the number of Muslims in
France. The interior ministry says there are 4.5 million, while French Muslim
organizations estimate the number is closer to seven million among France's
population of roughly 60 million.
Today, France is beginning to see large ethnic brands entering the
marketplace. Beauty-products giant L'Oréal SA introduced a cosmetics line
tailored to blacks in the French market in 2001 but at first only sold it in
specialty shops. L'Oréal, which does brisk business with such products in the
U.S., since has begun selling them in major French retail chains. Franck
Provost, a chain of hair salons, plans to open a spa with an ethnic beauty
salon in September at Galeries Lafayette, an upscale Paris department store.
However, no other French firm has openly compiled ethnic and religious data
to facilitate multicultural marketing. Mr. Despres is treading on delicate
turf and is encountering some stiff resistance.
"To say 'You are black. You are white,' or to ask the question is only
to discriminate," says Samuel Thomas, vice president of SOS Racisme, an
antidiscrimination lobbying group. He says SOS Racisme vehemently opposes
ethnic-marketing research.
To blunt these sensitivities, Sopi has put together an independent ethics
committee to review ideas such as its next planned study, a survey of French
Muslims' halal-meat eating preferences and habits. Sopi employees also are
trained to preface their questions with a warning: "I will be asking you
some very indiscreet questions, like your race and the origin of your
parents."
Before even putting together its questionnaire and starting its research,
Sopi spent a full year preparing the French public, says the company's
project head, Cecile Maugars. The firm's employees marched in street
demonstrations supporting diversity. Mr. Despres spoke at round-table
sessions, participated in debates and gave interviews on the topic. "We
made zero money, but we had to spend time preparing people, letting them know
who we are, where we stand," Ms. Maugars says.
Mr. Despres says Sopi has garnered mounting interest in the past few months.
It has received a growing number of calls from companies and marketing firms
interested in reaching France's minority consumers.
One of its clients is Budget Telecom, a discount-telecommunications operator.
"We hadn't ever focused on ethnic marketing before because we couldn't
find anyone who specialized in it," says Budget Telecom's marketing
director, Jose Caballero. He says he hopes Sopi's expertise will help him
find more customers who regularly call foreign countries.
Posted by too true 2005-05-18 9:07:17 AM|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| Top
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