Marketing to multicultural customers.

• Author: Albro, Walt

During a time of limited growth, the ethnic demographic may be the only one that offers revenue enhancement opportunities. Here's how one regional bank, BB&T, developed a comprehensive effort to pursue the multicultural market.

THE CURRENT DEMOGRAPHIC REALITY IN THE UNITED STATES is as follows: The birthrate among non-Latino whites has declined, and, since the start of the Great Recession, net immigration has dropped to near zero.

These trends suggest that a major source of population growth is now represented by persons of African, Asian and Latino heritage--groups that are still expanding in size and that currently comprise about a third of the nation and represent 50 percent of the children entering public schools.

In the past, these groups were sometimes overlooked because they had a high proportion of unbanked or underbanked members. Today, these same groups represent potentially huge opportunities for financial institutions.

An example of a regional bank that has energetically positioned itself to take advantage of the emerging multicultural market is BB&T (assets: $187 billion), Winston-Salem, N.C. The bank, founded in 1872, has 1,842 locations (as of January 2015) in 12 southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states plus the District of Columbia.

About a dozen years ago, the bank became aware of the growing diversity of its market area. In Forsyth County, N.C., where BB&T's headquarters is located, the bank observed that children in the public schools spoke 93 languages.

It learned also that if it were not for the growth of ethnic populations in the southeastern United States, the overall population in this region would have declined.

Division for multicultural markets

Realizing that it would be wise to earnestly pursue the ethnic market, the bank in 2002 created a multicultural markets division and in 2011 appointed Luis G. Lobo, executive vice president, as its manager. Lobo himself is an immigrant, from Costa Rica, who came to this country with his parents in the mid-1960s. "I know the drive and desire immigrants have to improve their lives in the U.S.," he says.

The division's first task was to gather information about the immigrant community. It learned that they shared some common characteristics: They distrusted financial institutions, had difficulty integrating into the national fabric and tended to depend on check-cashing services, money remitters and payday lenders because they were unbanked or underbanked. On the other hand, the immigrant population also included entrepreneurs and professionals.

The division initially concentrated on the expanding Hispanic-Latino community by opening Hispanic banking centers that offered marketing materials in Spanish. From the beginning, BB&T was determined to do more than simply provide bilingual banking services. "Our goal has always been to help individuals and families achieve economic success and financial security," Lobo says. "We seek to truly understand the needs of recent immigrants and their U.S.-born children."

Outreach was designed to teach immigrants not only the basics of financial...