When Barack Obama took the oath of office last January, he redefined America – not just this country and its brand, but its constituency as well. In many ways he is living proof of a phenomenon that demographer’s have been predicting for quite some time: descendents of the early settlers will be a minority by 2050 (then, a correction last year – 2042), and traditional minorities, will be the majority.
What does that mean to marketers, to brands, to this country, to the long-held American ethos?
I believe that it means that maybe we should put technology aside for a moment, and focus on the American consumer for a bit. We should identify how he/she has changed over the last four decades (and will continue to change), what he/she looks like (not just demographically, but psychographically), how he/she behaves, and alas – how connected he/she is to a network? Regarding the all important network, we should also identify the network’s composition, how he/she interacts with said network (off-line, on-line, linguistically, culturally), and how we marketers can connect with the network via the consumer.
Continue reading “Come on up: The rise of multicultural marketing”
