Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

5. Demographic
   Dimensions of Global
   Consumer Markets

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

150 Chapter 5

A marketer needs to study ethnic dimensions very carefully because they can be

subtle and fast-changing. This is also an area where stereotyped thinking is the most

common—and misleading. Many firms make the mistake of treating all consumers

in a particular ethnic group as homogeneous. For example, some marketing man-

agers treat all 35 million African-American consumers as “the black market,”

ignoring the great variability among African-American households on other seg-

menting dimensions. Income variability is a good example. While the median

income of black families is still lower than for the whole population, that is chang-

ing. Today 51 percent of black couples have an income of at least $50,000—and

23 percent have an income of $75,000 or more. These affluent consumers are also

a relatively youthful market and a larger percentage (compared with white con-

sumers) are in earlier stages of the life cycle and therefore a better market for certain

products—especially durable goods like cars, furniture, home appliances, and elec-

tronic equipment.

More marketers pay attention to ethnic groups now because the number of eth-

nic consumers is growing at a much faster rate than the overall society. Much of

this growth results from immigration. In addition, however, the median age of Asian

Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics is much lower than that of whites—

and the birthrate is higher.

In combination, these factors have a dramatic effect. The Hispanic population

in the U.S., now over 35 million and about 12.5 percent of the total population,

surged by more than 60 percent since 1990. To put this in perspective, there are

now more Hispanics in the U.S. than there are Canadians in Canada and more His-

panics in the U.S. than African Americans, previously the largest minority group.

Hispanics are on average 10 years younger than the overall population, which helps

to explain why one out of every five babies born in the U.S. is Hispanic. You can

see why strong Hispanic influences among the youth culture will be even greater in

the years ahead.

While there are fewer Asian Americans (about 11.6 million, or 3.6 percent of

the total population), the number has tripled since 1980—one of the fastest growth

rates for any segment of the population. These shifts are changing the face of the

Stereotypes are
common—and
misleading

Ethnic markets are
becoming more
important

Many firms are developing new
strategies to appeal to fast-
growing ethnic markets in the
U.S. For example, this Spanish-
language ad promotes Suavitel
fabric softener, which has a
special fragrance that appeals to
many Hispanic-American
consumers.