• by June 13, 2013

As the demographics of the American population continue to shift, marketers understand that the opportunities provided by the growing diversity of consumers in the United States are not what they used to be. In the latest findings from The American Marketscape DataStream Reportreleased earlier this month, the average Asian and Hispanic household are projected to spend far more in their remaining lifetimes than non-Hispanic White households -- by over $800,000 and over $400,000, respectively.

Marketers recognize that marketing in-culture is important, but marketers do not yet understand that each group is diverse in its own right -- that marketers need to go beyond a traditional multicultural approach to hyper-target consumers based on their location, ethnicity, country of origin, language preference, buying behaviors and media habits. They need to leverage the latest technology and data in order to deliver an effective, personalized and appropriate message and shopping experience.

Targeting a new market can be daunting at first, but it shouldn’t be. Here are a few steps that marketers can take to ensure their messages are reaching various cultures and subcultures more effectively.

Look beyond language

When targeting different cultural groups, a marketer’s traditional game plan is to focus only on the languages spoken by their target consumer. While this is an effective first step, brands don’t realize that they can drill down even further to enhance personalized consumer experiences. A Spanish-speaking consumer could descend from several different areas around the globe, including: Mexico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Guatemala (the list could go on and on). As such, marketers must refine their focus to target different subcultures within a broader ethnic group.

To continue using the Hispanic culture as an example, the U.S. Census Bureau found that Hispanics of Mexican origin form the majority of Hispanics in the U.S., followed by Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, Dominicans and Cubans. With this knowledge and emerging technology, marketers now have the ability to view where groups of these specific subcultures reside in the U.S. and can target those consumers through each subculture’s preferences. A good example is that Hispanics from Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico are quite interested in following Major League Baseball, but Hispanics from Brazil, Argentina, Peru and most other South American countries prefer to follow soccer (futbol).

To track these individual preferences, unique marketing resources have emerged that measure the degree to which people of a certain heritage in the United States retain elements of their culture while they simultaneously acquire elements of the American culture. This is another unprecedented level of detail that enables marketers to better understand and take action on the growth of the diverse American consumer marketplace.

Steps to reaching a subculture

There are various steps that marketers must take to ensure their messages are reaching various subcultures, which include the following.

1.    Identify characteristics of each subculture, including: socioeconomic status, income, life stage, country of origin, media usage and shopping behaviors.

2.    Use a targeting technology coded to household, individuals, retail trade areas or ZIP codes to localize your marketing efforts.

3.    Enhance current Customer Information Files (CIF) with subcultural characteristics, acculturation levels, language preferences and media habits in order to tailor brand messaging and customer experience to their particular preferences.

By taking these steps into consideration, brands have the ability to form stronger, more personal relationships with their target consumer and in turn strengthen brand affiliation. Using a combination of technology, data and analytics, brands can better connect to consumers by marketing to the individual, rather than broadcasting to a larger undefined audience. In the end, we all are looking for a faster growth and a greater return on investment -- getting it right the first time will please both consumers and your company’s shareholders.