Ethnic segmentation in marketing: a tool for social domination in France

Abstract

Purpose– This paper aims to deal with the issue of researchers’ responsibility for the dissemination of ideologies which have led to the cultural marginalisation and categorisation of minority social groups into a dominant/dominated relationship in France. One telling example is the way ethnic segmentation – as now used in marketing – finds its roots in the colonial paradigm.Design/methodology/approach– A critical and analytical review of the literature on ethnic marketing.Findings– The current paradigm which splits the world into centre and periphery or dominant and dominated, in the French context, is not the only existing one. In the framework of postcolonial studies, researchers in marketing now approach the ethnic market by being as close to consumers as possible and by adapting their methodology to the Consumer Culture Theory.Originality/value– Some researchers have become aware that the feeling of ethnic self-identification would not exist without the involvement of the dominant group who imposes their view on minorities. As to multicultural individuals, minorities have to adjust to a great variety of social situations by drawing from a set of available cultural identities. It is therefore more a question of multiple selves than ethnic identity. Multicultural individuals create their own identity and co-create new social categories from the grey area between dominant and dominated groups. The postcolonial approach raises the question as to whether ethnicity is a mere ideological construct with no underlying reality but the actual domination of minorities.