The populations of Hispanics and Asians in the US have each increased more than 40% in the last decade, a fact that has not escaped the country’s marketers. The 2010 US Census data revealed that 16.3% of the country’s population is now Hispanic, while Asians comprise 4.8% but is the fastest growing group.
Every ethnic group witnessed at least double-digit percentage growth, with the black population growing the slowest at 12.3%. For marketers, this data has either served as a wake-up call for those who have traditionally catered to a mainstream audience or as an affirmation for those who have designed culture-specific campaigns.
“We’re way beyond just putting a black face in an ad to appeal to individuals,” says Jerome Williams, interim PhD program director and Prudential Chair in Business at Rutgers University. “There was a time in the 1960s and ‘70s when you saw a black or Hispanic face and it did have an appeal. Today, marketers have to go deeper than that to appeal to a ?particular group.”
Manhattan-based marketing services agency GlobalWorks recently created a campaign segmented by race and sexuality for US Bank. The campaign addressed each group’s unique attitude toward saving money, with campaigns designed specifically for Hispanics, Asians, blacks and gay and lesbian couples, among other groups.
Because Hispanics tend not to have a savings mentality, says Jose Velez-Silva, multicultural group account director at GlobalWorks, the Hispanic-segmented campaign focused on ways to teach consumers how to save and why saving money is important. The campaign designed for gay and lesbian couples, a segment that consumes a lot but doesn’t save much, adds Velez-Silva, featured a tagline that said, “You have achieved more difficult things than saving money.”
“In the last few years, more and more marketers are changing the way they present their brands in order to address the reality of a new America,” says Iñaki Escudero, creative director at GlobalWorks.
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