Multicultural marketing is one of the fastest growing areas in consumer marketing. The US 2000 Census shows that the U.S. population included 34.7 million Blacks/African Americans, 35.3 million Hispanics, and 10.1 million Americans of Asian descent. The combined growth rate for these minority groups for the period of 1990 to 2000 was 35% vs. 5.9% for White population.

Knowledge of demographics and trends will not be sufficient. In order to create and maintain relationships with Multicultural consumers one needs to strive for authentic connection. This can only be achieved by understanding and integrating cultural, life-stage and personal relevancy.

At the September lunch meeting, Alex Camacho, Director, Multicultural MONITOR Consulting at Yankelovich, provided us with multicultural consumer insights found and confirmed in Yankelovich's latest Multicultural Marketing Study.

He shared some insight on Hispanic consumers: This segment has a significant growth rate. Their culture and purchasing motivators are quite different than other cultures. It tends to be more family and relationship oriented. The Hispanic concept of family is broader than other cultures and includes grandparents (and their siblings and children), parents (and their siblings and children), one’s own siblings and their children, and one’s direct descendents. This is a key contributor to their higher spend rate. Many people in this group do not have experience with saving money or banking. This group is very diverse, as there are significant differences depending on country of origin. Therefore, it is not effective to have a “generic” message targeted for this group.

Learn more about reaching the Hispanic market in this related article on the AMA National web site.

Hena analyzes new business opportunities and market segments for the Microcircuit Materials business group within DuPont Electronics Technologies.