Top 20 Multicultural Markets: Toolkit for Marketing Managers

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY

 

1. KEY FINDINGS

Marketers looking for a concise guide to proven ethnic markets now have a powerful tool. Written with live customers in mind and using experience gained in real advertising campaigns, this report offers practical guidelines needed to tap the top 20 niche ethnic markets in the U.S. The markets listed in this report include descriptions of Americans of Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Egyptian, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Turkish and Ukrainian extraction. Descriptions of these markets contain demographic information, including maps of where these niche markets are geographically located within the U.S., psychographics of what makes these niche markets different, key media listings and notable business connections with overseas economies and with the U.S. mainstream. These markets are top ethnic markets when it comes to getting a return on the marketing investment, based on Global Advertising Strategies (henceforth referred to as Global) assessment and experience. These markets were selected by Global staff as a result of analysis of multiple past campaigns and with customer feedback in mind. The fact that Global was able to put such a guide together illustrates an important threshold in the development of multicultural marketing, as it has become so mainstream that to be effective in it, advertisers and their agencies have to look for smaller niches. Fifty years ago it was hard to imagine a mainstream car dealer adjusting an outdoor advertising campaign to accommodate for cultural tastes of Chinese Americans. Today, Pensky Toyota (California) changes flags at its Lexus dealership from black and white -- colors of death in Chinese culture -- to more neutral colors. No wonder -- with 40 percent of customers at K-Mart, for instance, having multicultural backgrounds -- businesses and advertisers have to adjust, as does American society in general. This report is intended to provide marketers of all levels with a handy tool for tapping into some very specific and not too accessible ethnic realms here in the U.S. Examples of successful ethnic marketing campaigns in markets big and small are given in four case studies in the telecommunications, financial services, education/healthcare and airline industries.

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is meant to help industry executives and professional marketers craft better multicultural marketing strategies by selecting their targets among U.S. ethnic communities with greater precision. For those marketers who are new to the multicultural segment, the report lays out some of the history and core philosophy of ethnic marketing, explaining the disciplines genesis over the last 30 years. The report names agencies instrumental to ushering new ethnic markets into the mainstream and offers interesting insights from the countrys key multicultural marketers. The report contains four case studies which illustrate how real businesses use multicultural marketing to be successful in the U.S. At the end of the day, multicultural marketing is about fostering loyalty and using loyal customers to grow a successful business. These case studies help illustrate a key point about marketing to ethnic niches: no matter how small, each ethnic niche makes up an important segment of American society with vast consumer power, which often stretches beyond an immediate sale. Finding commercially viable ways to identify with such niches is what successful multicultural marketing is all about. c 2005 GLOBAL ADVERTISING STRATEGIES, INC. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION 5 Finally, the report gives readers information they need to make intelligent decisions about new ethnic markets. Each of the 20 ethnic groups profiled here includes a map showing where these groups reside. Maps are color coded, illustrating areas where population densities are the highest. Each profile also contains a psychographic section, which gives marketers hard data on these groups -- information like income and education levels, as well as softer facts, like affinity for calling cards versus direct dial. Each profile also contains information about businesses that are either owned by members of the ethnic group or are active in international trade benefiting the minority. Last but not least, each profile contains a description of ethnic media broken up by radio, TV, print, major Web communities and events, giving marketers necessary tools to run both above and below the line marketing strategies.

3. METHODOLOGY

Data for this study were obtained from various sources, such as interviews with company executives, analysis of media types used within specific ethnic markets, and insights into advertising strategies. Descriptive parts of the report contain information from ongoing proprietary research and market analysis which Global has been conducting on the multicultural marketing industry since 1999. The top markets, as identified by Global Advertising Strategies, are those where Global found the highest returns on marketing investment for numerous clients. Other niche multicultural markets exist. However, they have returned less in Globals assessment. Within market profiles, statistics for demographic snapshots were developed using Census 2000 information. Connections segments are based on Globals events practice feedback and the same ROI concept. Business connections were developed using market feedback on live advertising campaigns. In the course of its research Global found that most ethnic markets in the U.S. typically involve businesses in telecommunications, healthcare/education (pharmaceutical), airline/travel and financial services. The report lists markets where such businesses are absent as blank. Ethnic media profiles have been developed using the same ROI approach, cited above.