July 4th or December 4th?

Fourth of July (Flickr/Mykl Roventine)When I was asked to write a blog for an early July post, it made perfect sense to tie this article to our nation’s Independence Day, but I hesitated. For me, my siblings and parents, December 4th is equally as significant as Fourth of July – that’s when we celebrate freedom.

We don’t have fireworks, hot dogs or apple pie. We don’t tend to congregate in the same locale, because we are geographically dispersed throughout the US – and, it’s not a national holiday (which complicates things). But we celebrate it quietly. We reflect, in awe, at what my parents went through as political exiles entering a country they had honeymooned in, but were not intimate with– and one which they never dreamed of ever inhabiting permanently.

On the 4th of December, 1961 my parents left everything behind (as the saying goes), except for their children, the clothes on their backs, $15 US, their education, and hope. Continue reading “July 4th or December 4th?”

Come on up: The rise of multicultural marketing

multicultural_lump_of_peopleWhen 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”