-Growth of ethnic demographics
-Marketing to Hispanic Americans
-Marketing to African Americans
-Marketing to Asian Americans

[SLIDE 1]

For most of American history, people of white European descent made up a strong majority of the citizen population. That has been rapidly changing. There are now around 120 million minority members of the population.

It is estimated that the white European population will be less than half the population by 2041, creating a “majority minority” nation.

Already, approximately half of all children under five years of age are made up of minorities.

Smart marketers will continue to expand the population by adapting messages to the different demographics. Let’s look at the three main minority demographic groups:

-Hispanic American
-African Americans
-Asian Americans

[SLIDE 2]

The largest minority group is the Hispanic, sometimes called Latino, population with 50 million Hispanic Americans. Hispanic is a general term to describe people who are from native Spanish speaking populations in the rest of the Americas, from Mexico through South America.

As it is a large population with recent immigrants, the Hispanic demographic is strongly bilingual (Spanish and English). Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US, so it is important for marketers to recognize the value of bilingual campaigns when addressing this demographic.

In another change, previous generations overwhelmingly married into the Hispanic population, but now 25% of Hispanic marriages are to non-Hispanic partners.

One important key to the population is that the generational changes are happening much faster than in the main population. The older immigrant population are more conservative and less likely to be on digital media. The Millennials are, in some ways, moving faster than the main population. Due to Hispanic Millennials, Hispanics are the largest group to use mobile devices for transactions. The result of that has meant a strong marketing push by mobile companies such as Metro PCS, Boost Mobile, and Verizon who have significantly increased their marketing budgets.

Another aspect of Hispanic adoption of mobile technology is the use of streaming video. Nielsen Research states that “Latinos stream 6 hours and 15 minutes of online video per month, 60% more than non-Hispanic users.”

The overall demographic move is, of course, helped by the fact that over 40% of the Hispanic demographic are Millennials.

[SLIDE 3]

The African American demographic cannot be discussed without a reference to the core of slavery and its aftermath. Because of that heritage, many white European marketers have a misunderstanding about the advances and changes in the demographic.

Better access to education, especially higher education, since the 1960s has meant a significant increase in income. Today, 44% of African American households earn more than $50,000/year and 23% earn more than $75,000/year.

In addition, the demographic skews to younger population demographics, with 54% of African Americans under the age of 35%

Because of the history of the community, there is a focus on social justice. Forty percent of African Americans expect brands to support social causes.

African American buying focuses on family and culture. Cooking ingredients have a strong cultural component, though in recent years there has been a strong move to health food stores among African Americans ages 18-54 with income over $50,000.

While 84% own a smartphone, it is not the only major marketing channel available. Ninety-one percent of the African American community listen to radio for more than 15 hours/week.

With strong store loyalty, the demographic spends 18% more on store brands than the overall population.

[SLIDE 4]

While the Asian American demographic is growing, it is still less than half of the African American demographic, at 19 million people.

One of the first things to notice is that the definition has been changing over the last two decades. While Asian used to refer to East and Southeast Asia, large immigration from India and Pakistan has begun to include South Asia in that definition and in marketing decisions.

While the growth of the Hispanic and African American populations is primarily through birth in the USA, the Asian American population has been growing predominantly through immigration, with 66% of the demographic being foreign born. That has meant a stronger self-view of the population as foreign, with 62% referring to their country of origin as their nationality. 

Given that focus, the immigrant population tends to focus on purchasing from stores also owned by Asian Americans, while the later generations are more open to a variety of stores.

Asian Americans are more focused on technology, visiting computer and electronics web sites 36% more often and spending 72% more time there than does the general population. They are also early adopters of new technology.

The diversity of Asian cultures means the market must be carefully segmented. For instance, in Japanese American homes, the husband has sole decision-making power over large purchases almost half the time while the wives make the sole decision only six percent of the time. In contrast, in Filipino American households, women make decisions more often than men, while the majority of decisions are shared.

Asian Americans are 31% more likely than the general consumer to buy organic food.

Eight-eight percent of Asian Americans own credit cards, compared to the 66% of the entire population.