May 2011 Newsletter: A Growing Multicultural Market

South Hackensack, NJ
May 12th, 2011
E-Tech May Newsletter
by Candace Kennedy candace@ethnictechnologies.com

In 2010, The Census counted 50.4 Million Hispanics, 38.9 Million African Americans and 14.6 Million Asians living in the USA. If anything, numbers like this should get your attention and entice you as a marketer to start building a brand loyalty among these high growth segments of our population. These estimated population numbers should be used as a reference or starting point for any successful direct marketing campaign targeted towards these consumers. Remember the numbers here reflect the estimated total populations for each group and for any direct campaign your target market with be much lower. The use of highly actionable data, utilizing intelligent research and market analytics down to the granular levels of Ethnicity, Language Preference, Religion, Assimilation and Gender helps guide any successful multicultural initiative. Adding key intelligence about your consumers, both current and potential, is the main ingredient for growth.

Conventional wisdom in today’s multicultural climate says that America is a melting pot of many different races, cultures, religions and beliefs. Try mixing up ten different cheeses in a pot then try to find the different taste values of each. It is very difficult to do. The same idea applies to identifying the different races, cultures and religions that make up our nation. The segmentation system that we habitually use simply divides the population into color or racial categories: White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. A better approach is to see the diversity in America as a mixed salad, where each ethnicity is a different ingredient and can be identified. This method, if used properly applies to the many ethnicities and different cultures in our nation and each can be identified.

Marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often market to Hispanics as a separate group from Whites, Blacks and Asians. When you take an in-depth look at the Hispanic population in the United States they often associate with one or more of the aforementioned racial groups and those racial groups can be correlated to their country of origin or cultural identity. An individual or family from Puerto Rico does not exhibit the same cultural identity or buying habits as those of a family that has immigrated to the US from Mexico. If that is the cases then why do marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often approach Hispanics as a whole with the same exact offers, disregard their country of origin and then complain that their campaigns were not successful? Even the dialect of the Spanish language they speak differs.

The same issues arise and in greater depth when attempting to target the Asian community, the "One Size Fits All" mentality is often the method used and low response rates and product interests are the norm. With so many different Asian countries of origin and Asian languages of preference currently residing in the US, it is the smart marketer that embraces technology that allows them to identify all ethnicities, countries of origin and languages that are available. An offer tailored to a Chinese American living in San Francisco, CA should differentiate from one being tailored to a Korean American living in Fort Lee, NJ or a Vietnamese American living in Houston, TX. Now if you add into the mix the different levels of Assimilation and Acculturation, the buying habits and traditional cultural customs the individual embraces are all over the chart.

Many ethnic and religious groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity. They are often attracted to communities with their same ethnicity, communities in which many traditional cultural customs are maintained. Given that the ethnic diversity in the US is far more reflective of a global landscape, it is even more important for marketers to fully understand cultural differences, language preference, purchasing habits and other socioeconomic information and integrate those variations into their everyday marketing strategies and tactics. The time for the “One Size Fits All” methodology is gone, embrace the fast growing multicultural segments within our population and build your brand loyalty now and into the future.

Schedule a meeting with your E-Tech sales representative during the All for One Marketing Summit 2011 presented by DM Days. Stop by and visit us at booth #1100.

Cinco de Mayo Facts & Figures

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the battle fought between the Mexican and French armies on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army was able to defeat the much larger French forces under the guidance of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated in the Mexican State of Puebla and in the United States. It is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage.

The median age of people of Mexican descent is 25.6 yrs.

The median income is $39,115 for Mexican households.

76% of Mexican homes primarily speak a language other than English in their homes.

Persons with Mexican origin own 1 million businesses in the United States.

In 5 years the percent of businesses owned by Mexicans has increased by almost 48%.

The first woman to be US Surgeon General was Hispanic American, Antonia Coello Novello.

The longest flight by a Mexican aviator was a goodwill mission flown by Captain Emilio Carranza.

Statistics were found on the census website: http://www.census.gov/

Women’s History Month

South Hackensack, NJ
March 21st, 2011
E-Tech Women's History Month Newsletter
by Candace Kennedy candace@ethnictechnologies.com

E-Tech Celebrates Women’s History Month

As we look back on past decades, it is clear that a marketing revolution is taking place. Marketing to women has evolved from the homogenized versions of advertising in the 1950’s, to today’s multichannel, culturally competent approach. If we look at a timeline of “stereotypes” we get a clear picture of that changing landscape.

Moving into the next decades, the 1960’s and 70’s saw an important change in thinking about a woman’s role in family and society. It was the beginning of the feminist movement, with women like Gloria Steinem in the forefront. While still at home and in most of America, traditional values prevailed, we were just starting to see and feel that women could not only be in the corporate world, but could also be independent and strong minded.

As we move into the 1980’s and 90’s the idea of the “Superwoman” or “Supermom” appeared at least on the surface to be fully fleshed out. This was the era of movies like Working Girl and Mr. Mom, portraying women as being able to do it all. However, there was still an underlying theme of these women being frazzled, running themselves too ragged, and perhaps having a less than competent partner in life to help her navigate through.

Fast forward to the 2000’s and beyond. Marketing to women in the current day takes the best of all those previous ideas and combines them with cultural competency and recognition of non-traditional family structures. Most importantly, instead of asking “Why market to women?” we need to ask “How can we most effectively influence this important demographic?”

Some important statistics to take away from this discussion:

· 60% of current Internet Users are women
· Women use the internet to do everything: manage and maintain their household, pay bills, do research and socially network.
· 25 million women regularly share advice, knowledge, ideas and opinions via blogs and social networking
· Women are the primary decision makers, or “Chief Purchasing Officers” in most households
· 50% of all do-it-yourself purchases are made by women
· 89% of all household bank accounts are managed by women
· 80% of all healthcare decisions and purchases are done by women

Today’s woman is still evolving, as all the women of past decades were quietly doing as well. In marketing to women today, it is essential to look beyond the “icon” of the decade, and to gain a deeper understanding of how trends will affect the social and socioeconomic status of females in our society. Our landscape is changing, and so brands must adapt to that change in order to stay relevant to this most important consumer.

Below are links to two of our Female Datacards: Female Business Owners by State and Female Heads of Households by State.

http://ethnictechnologies.com/datacards/HHdatacard_236.html
http://ethnictechnologies.com/datacards/HHdatacard_204.html

Ethnic Technologies Female Insight

Women's History Month's roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over poor working conditions. In 1981 Congress established National Women's History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a full month. In 2010 the estimated female population in the U.S. reached 156.4 million in comparison, the number of males was 152.1 million. An estimated 82.8 million of these women are mothers. There are roughly 9.2 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. Women-owned businesses contributed nearly $3.6 trillion to the U.S. economy over the past year. Approximately 8 percent of our nation's labor force works for a business owned by a woman. It is estimated that one third of new jobs by the year 2018 with be created by women-owned businesses. Ethnic Technologies can help your marketing efforts to this fast growing segment. The Ethnicenter Business Owner file has been enhanced with G-Tech 3.1, comprehensive gender identification software. The tables used in G-Tech 3.1 contain the correct female gender identification for over 164,330 first names including those from all the ethnicities covered by E-Tech 7.3.

Contact Candace M. Kennedy, Sales and Marketing Director at 866-333-8324 ext. 106 or candace@ethnictechnologies.com. Visit www.ethnictechnologies.com.