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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 15

4. HYBRID STRUCTURE:

A combination of structures that addresses the needs of multiple
brands or of a single brand’s involvement with various consumer segments.

More companies are taking a hybrid approach to structure. AIMM’s study found that often
these are the companies with a more “mature” trajectory in Multicultural marketing. Their
efforts have allowed them to experience the strengths and weaknesses of some or all of the
aforementioned structures. Hybridity gives them an opportunity to pick and choose depending
upon the segment and the circumstances. As an example, a company may just be getting
started with the LGBTQ segment. At this early stage, they fi nd that a Dedicated approach
gives them the focused expertise they need to get up and running quickly while avoiding
unnecessary missteps. Within the same company, the Hispanic initiative may be quite mature,
and the brand may have built up signifi cant resources, including experts and intel. In this
case, they may prefer a COE or Integrated structure. Hybrid structures may give a brand the
best of all worlds. At the same time, it is important that the Hybrid structure is purposeful
and is not just a byproduct of what could be called structural starts and stops, which can be a
refl ection of inconsistent commitments to Multicultural segments or the result of turnover in
experienced Multicultural marketing team members.

Toyota provides a prime example of the Hybrid approach: it has demonstrated structural
leadership in creating T2, a business model that allows agencies to remain separate and
distinct business units while collaborating under the T2 umbrella. To complement the agency
approach, Toyota’s in-house Multicultural marketing team is integrated across all product
marketing teams.