Page 245 - Marketing Management

222 PART 3 CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS
The hit reality show The
Osbournes tapped into baby
boomers’ rock-and-roll sensibilities
and their parental responsibilities.
Members of the oldest generation, so on. Specialized media exists to reach virtually any cultural segment or minority group,
the Silent Generation, take
much pride in their roles as
grandparents.
Consistent with what they say, many older consumers lead very active lives. As
one expert noted, it is if they were having a second middle age before becoming eld-
erly. Advertisers have learned that older consumers don’t mind seeing other older
consumers in ads targeting them, as long as they appear to be leading vibrant lives.
But marketers have learned to avoid clichés like happy older couples riding bikes or
strolling hand-in-hand on a beach at sunset.
Emphasizing their roles as grandparents is universally well-received. Many
older consumers not only happily spend time with their grandkids, they often pro-
vide for their basic needs or at least occasional gifts. The founders of
eBeanstalk.com, which sells children’s learning toys online, thought their business
would be largely driven by young consumers starting families. They were surprised
to find that up to 40 percent of their customers were older consumers, mainly
grandparents. These customers are very demanding, but also more willing to pay
full price than their younger counterparts. 24
RACE AND CULTURE Multicultural marketing is an approach recognizing
that different ethnic and cultural segments have sufficiently different needs and
wants to require targeted marketing activities, and that a mass market approach is
not refined enough for the diversity of the marketplace. Consider that McDonald’s
now does 40 percent of its U.S. business with ethnic minorities. Its highly successful
“I’m Lovin’ It” campaign was rooted in hip-hop culture but has had an appeal that
transcended race and ethnicity. 25
The Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American markets are all
growing at two to three times the rate of nonmulticultural populations, with numer-
ous submarkets, and their buying power is expanding. Multicultural markets also
vary in whether they are first and second (or more) generation, and whether they are
immigrants or born and raised in the United States.
The norms, language nuances, buying habits, and business practices of multicultural markets
need to be factored into the initial formulation of a marketing strategy, rather than added as an
afterthought. All this diversity also has implications for marketing research; it takes careful sampling
26
to adequately profile target markets.
Multicultural marketing can result in different marketing messages, media, channels, and
though some companies have struggled to provide financial and management support for fully
realized programs.
Fortunately, as countries become more culturally diverse, many marketing cam-
paigns targeting a specific cultural group can spill over and positively influence oth-
ers. An ad for Tide in which an African American man wearing a wedding ring was
drying his son off after a bath was well regarded by both African Americans and the
27
market as a whole. Boost Mobile has leveraged a shared interest in youth culture to
create a diverse customer base of young adults made up of 35 percent African
Americans, 27 percent Hispanic Americans, and 32 percent Caucasians. 28
Next, we consider issues in the three largest multicultural markets—Hispanic
Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Table 8.4 lists some im-
portant facts and figures about them. 29
Hispanic Americans Hispanic Americans have become the largest minority in
the country with annual purchasing power estimated to be more than $1 trillion in
2010. By 2020, 17 percent of Americans are projected to be of Hispanic origin.
The Hispanic American market holds a wide variety of subsegments, with roughly
two dozen nationalities including Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and
other Central and South American groups, and a mix of cultures, physical types, racial
backgrounds, and aspirations. 30 To meet these divergent needs, Goya, the United
States’largest Hispanic food company, sells 1,600 products ranging from bags of rice to
ready-to-eat, frozen empanadas. The company sells 38 varieties of beans alone. 31
Although Hispanics suffered from greater unemployment and diminished dis-
posable income in the recession, they were still an attractive target because they had
lower mortgage and credit card debt, two or more income earners, and a greater
propensity to buy advertised brands. 32 Companies such as Johnson & Johnson,