The changing consumer base: marketing to ethnic populations.

• Author: Harwell, Jerri A.
• Position: Utah's growing ethnic diversity requires diverse marketing strategies

The Changing Consumer Base

The image of the typical "American" has changed dramatically in the past few decades in marketing. Back in the 1950s, commercials and ads were dominated by middle-class white women in dresses who cooed over cars, laundry detergent, or cosmetics. In the '80s, the women wore suits, armed with a babe on one arm and a brief case in another. And the men? They always seem perennial in a business suit with a tasteful tie and kerchief in the pocket. What do the '90s seem to hold and the early decades of the coming century?

Look at the "United Colors of Benetton" ad; at the models who grace New York runways - you'll still see the blue-eyed, blonde beauty from next door and the white CEO. But next to them, striding confidently along, you'll also see African-American women with dark, doe eyes and sleek features; oriental women with black hair draped across their shoulders and slanted eyes drawing you into the ad; African-American men in business suits and hornrimmed glasses. And you may have seen the life-style magazines or catalogs marketing products to ethnic populations.

The contemporary image of America is one of many types of beauty and cultures - a reflection of the changing make-up of the U.S. population and our increasingly global market. According to the 1990 U.S. Census Bureau figures, almost 25 percent of the U.S. population is comprised of various ethnic minorities. That's a 5 percent increase, in the ethnic make-up of our country, just since 1980.

In comparison, Utah's ethnic minority population has increased 37 percent during the same time period. These ethnic groups include blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Asians and Pacific Islanders. Why are these figures important to Utah businesses? They transfer into potential markets and thus potential dollars.

The Language Barrier

"American businesses must address the issue of language to compete domestically and internationally, insisted Janeen Costa, assistant professor of marketing, department of marketing, at the University of Utah. "Too often our companies are xenophobic. For example, last year while I was attending a World Trade Association meeting, I listened to a discussion about the Canadian Free Trade agreement. A woman in the audience asked why she should bother to translate any of her literature into French the way it's required in Quebec. |Do they really speak French there?' she inquired. Her comment and question were not only insulting to the people who were there from Canada, to imply |You really aren't that important,' but it was also naive of her not to understand that a large portion of the world speaks French."

American companies cannot afford to be ethnocentric. That is, we cannot continue to think that English is the language that is spoken here and American...