Multiculturalism in Marketing Communications (Short Course)

Course delivered by

... Bieneosa Ebite and Caroline Hodges.

Caroline is a member of the Institute for Media and Communication Research at the Media School and regularly teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate courses concerned with the relationship between communication and culture.

Her research interests include the application of ethnographic research methods in communication research, Latin American communication theory and multicultural communication. Caroline has also published work which explores public relations as a cultural intermediary occupation and is co-editor, together with Lee Edwards- University of Manchester, of ‘Public Relations, Society & Culture’ published in 2011 by Routledge.

Bieneosa (MPRCA) established Bright Star Public Relations in 2007 after eight years working in PR and marketing. Bieneosa began her PR career at Western Union, a global money transfer company, where her role was to engage with African Caribbean and Asian communities across the UK, building brand awareness through media relations, community partnerships and sponsorship. After Western Union, Bieneosa became a Regional Communication Manager at McDonald’s Restaurants.

In her current capacity as Managing Director of Bright Star Public Relations, Bieneosa has worked with organisations including the Home Office, The Big Lottery Fund, and Starbucks. The consultancy has also established a niche working with organisations seeking to tap into the UK’s lucrative multi-cultural markets e.g. Mobile Union, Texas Chicken and Oxfam.

Bieneosa is currently leading a communications campaign to raise awareness of the 2011 Census amongst Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups in the UK. Bieneosa is as a strong advocate for communicating the business case for diversity in PR and has written the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ skills guide on multi-cultural communications. She is Chairperson for Ignite, a network to drive forward the benefits of cultural diversity in PR, and an Associate at Leeds Metropolitan University’s ‘Centre for Research into Diversity in the Professions’, where she sat on the steering board for the groundbreaking research that explored the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic practitioners working in public relations. (© Bright Star Public Relations 2011)

Of the course, Caroline says, “the context in which professional communicators operate is becoming ever more diverse and increasingly characterised by the need for cultural awareness and sensitivity. There is a business case for increased investment in this area as it can offer valuable insight into how your consumers and audiences think and behave.”