Question

how can marketers of the following products use the material presented in this chapter to develop promotional campaigns designed to increase market share among African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American consumers? The products are: a) smartphones, b) ready-to-eat-cereals, and c) designer jeans

Answer 1

The marketers of the products listed in the question should consider the following data in targeting African American, Hispanic American, and Asian Americans:

Targeting African Americans: The segmentation of the African American market has largely been approached in terms of social class—they tend to be strongly middle-class in their values. They tend to prefer leading brands, are brand loyal, and unlikely to purchase private-label and generic products. Some marketers have been running all their advertising in the general mass media in the belief that African Americans have the same media habits as Caucasians, although others have followed the policy of running additional advertising in selected media directed exclusively to African Americans.

Targeting Hispanic Americans: Hispanic Americans represent a growing portion of the U.S. population, and although sharing a common language, consist of separate subcultural markets corresponding to different countries of origin—Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, etc. Almost 50 percent of Hispanic Americans live in the suburbs. Presently, the biggest Latino suburbs are in southern California, but Latino suburbs are also growing quickly in Florida and southern Texas. Generally, suburban Hispanics have higher per capita incomes than their central-city counterparts and constitute an increasingly lucrative market segment.

Targeting Asian Americans: Presently, Asian Americans are the fastest growing minority group, almost 40 percent of today’s immigrants to America come from Asia. Asian Americans are composed of several distinct subcultures. Presently, most live in Hawaii and California, but New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. also have large Asian populations. Asian Americans are family-oriented, strongly driven to achieve middle-class lifestyle, and as such, highly industrious and entrepreneurial. They are the minority group with the highest percentage of self-employment and tend to be better educated and more computer-literate than the general population. Marketers are just beginning to understand the complexity of this segment. For example, targeting Asian Americans with promotions designed to stimulate short-term sales (e.g., coupons) is a poor approach because these consumers are interested in building long-term brand relationships that often result in intense brand loyalty. Thus, it is not enough to promote products to them; a marketer must establish a relationship. It also appears that Asian Americans are comfortable with being bilingual; in a recent survey, the majority of the Asian American respondents said that they spoke English all the time at work, but more than half chose to be interviewed in their native language. Advertising to Asian Americans represents a challenge. For example: (a) they view comparative advertising as rude; (b) American humor often does not translate well into their subculture; (c) an ad designed to appeal to Koreans failed because it used a Chinese model; and (d) Chinese consumers complained about the sexual innuendo of corks popping out of champagne bottles featured in bank New Year holiday TV ads targeted at them.