Marketing to our Global Citizens

As I travel home to New York for this holiday season, I’ve come to a realisation about the community I truly represent: I am a global citizen. This means that even though I may belong to one country technically, my personality, culture, and experience is based off many cultures and many different people. My future thus looks something like a combination of career paths, jobs, travel experiences, maybe foreign languages, and even more cultural adaptations, as opposed to the generations preceding mine that have been shaped around consistency, stability, and one career path. This contrast is quite vast, and will present yet other new tasks for marketers to analyse, interpret, and adjust to.

Global citizens represent a combination of third culture kids, zero generations, and first generations within family lines. Additionally they represent a set of values within our changing world: acceptance, understanding, respect, versatility, and adaptability. In short, this type of individual’s identity transcends borders.

I first heard of the term global citizenship when applying to my undergraduate university, Rollins College. In promoting their liberal arts studies, which I am extremely grateful for, they also produce socially responsible, broadly cultured, and internationally aware students. As a marketer, you’re probably wondering ‘how am I meant to find value for a population that doesn’t fit within normal or measurable demographics?’

Some research and experienced modern-day business owners indicate that social media has become a way of validating our identity as opposed to boarders. Because of this, current and relevant information is becoming the most valuable to us, but can still act as a window of opportunity for governments and businesses alike to capture those identity insights. This movement is fronted by the growing accessibility of information and spread of knowledge.

(Source: Clipartbest.com)

Above is a picture we are all probably very familiar with. Little did I know, when I was five years old and first learned the meaning of this picture at the International School of Curaçao, that it would have such large impacts on the world and the promotion of our diversity and equality over the next 20 years. And now, I sit here as a marketer at Sydney University wondering what truly defined the people I want to create value for.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School