Ethnic Market Research Articles

Ethnicity and Acculturation in a Culturally Diverse Country: Identifying Ethnic Markets

Within a culturally diverse nation such as Australia there are many ethnic groups of widely differing size. The decision to market to individual or aggregates of groups requires the identification of differences and similarities among them. The infusion of new migrants, and interaction between ethnicity and the acculturation process, may either increase or reduce the desirability of targeting individual ethnic groups. This creates the need for a dynamic framework to appraise the marketing relevance of ethnic groups. After reviewing the marketing literature dealing with ethnicity and acculturation, a framework is developed for examining the interaction between the two. The concept of ethnicity has three dimensions: ethnic origin, ethnic identity and ethnic intensity. The framework provides a conceptual understanding of how these dimensions develop within the acculturation process. The conclusion adds to the criticism of the traditional linear model of acculturation and reveals the fragile foundations of multicultural marketing in seeking to target ethnic groups, either in aggregate or individually, without a clear understanding of the similarities and differences among them and changes likely to occur over time.

Ethnic Social Marketing for Elderly Minorities: Challenges and Opportunities

Social marketers are facing major challenges as the United State's aging population becomes increasingly ethnically diverse. Social marketers are interacting with more elderly immigrants, refugees, and multiethnic populations who hold varying world views and health practices. In the face of the dramatic demographic shift toward diversity, concurrent with major changes in healthcare and Medicare, social marketers need to design effective interventions to reduce racial/ethnic and educational/socioeconomic discrepancies in health. Social marketers are also faced with the cultural adaptation of emerging interactive health communication technologies for minority elders who have two major barriers to achieving this communication: low literacy levels and little access to new technologies. It is imperative that social marketers develop culturally competent skills to work with the unique needs of seniors from diverse cultural backgrounds by understanding their needs, beliefs, and behaviors. Culturally appropriate adaptations and extensive pretesting of health messages for literacy and cultural sensitivity will be essential.

Self-Employment Concentration and Earnings among Mexican Immigrants in the U.S.

Recent research has assessed the implications of entrepreneurship for immigrant incorporation by examining the hypothesis that self-employed immigrants earn higher incomes than other immigrant workers in the labor market. With the important exception of several pioneering ethnographic and case studies, however, little attention has been paid in the literature to whether immigrants who are not self-employed derive any income benefit from the activities of immigrants in their communities who have gone into business for themselves. In this article, we draw upon the ethnic entrepreneurship and urban ecological literatures to develop a hypothesis about how the relative size of the local ethnic market conditions the extent to which interurban variation in the self-employment rate of Mexican immigrants will influence the incomes of Mexican immigrants who are not self-employed. Further, we use data from the 1990 U.S. Census of Population and Housing to investigate this hypothesis for Mexican immigrants residing in sixty U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Results from the analyses indicate that the effects of variation in levels of self-employment depend upon the relative size of the local ethnic market: among cities with smaller ethnic markets, higher concentrations of self-employment are related to lower Mexican-immigrant eamings, while among cities with larger ethnic markets, higher concentrations of self-employment are related to small increases in wages

Marketing to ethnic minorities in Britain

The ethnic minority population in Britain is sizeable and represents a viable and untapped market segment. In today’s fragmented and increasingly turbulent markets, ethnic marketing offers a new strategic focus for product/market development and, in many respects, companies which ignore this do so at their own competitive peril. Companies wishing to do business with ethnic minority groups will fundamentally have to review the basic premisses of their marketing plans to take account of the growing market pluralism and the multi‐ethnic reality of modern Britain. Accordingly, this paper provides a literature over‐view of the crucial issues which are likely to become the important determinants of success in developing ethnic marketing programmes. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate thought towards detailed examination of good practices, critical success factors and associated principles which might help to improve marketing practices aimed at the ethnic minority population.

Ethnicity and Acculturation: Influences on Asian American Consumers' Purchase Decision Making for Social Clothes

The increased ethnic diversity of the U.S. population and especially the rapid growth of Asian American markets make it critical to assess the importance of developing marketing strategies specifically targeted to these particular ethnic market segments. These circumstances naturally call for an investigation of differences and similarities among various segments within the market to examine whether undifferentiated or diferentiated target marketing is necessary to reach various Asian American subgroups. This study examined the decision‐making patterns for purchasing social clothes of three major Asian American consumer groups (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). Results showed that the three groups display distinct reference group influence, media influence, and store attribute importance and that these patterns differ depending on the level of acculturation. The findings also suggested implications for various marketing and advertising strategies aimed at the three Asian American consumer markets.

Marketing Strategies in A Multi-Ethnic Environment

Recent demographic changes indicate the increasing importance of ethnic minority consumers in American society. A Review of practices of Marketing towards ethnic minorities reveals several perspectives: traditional Marketing, separated Marketing, integrated Marketing and multicultural Marketing. The article adapts research in international Marketing and proPostes a framework of four distinctive strategies for Marketing to ethnic consumers: total standardization, product adaptation, Advertising adaptation and ethnic Marketing. Factors that influence the selection and implementation of the strategies are examined, such as product preference, ethnic identification, acculturation and Advertising responses. Managerial implications for firms to reach ethnic markets are discussed.

Ethnic/racial segmentation: insights from theory and practice

This paper uses two social science theories — pluralism and multiculturalism — to examine three retail strategies and to consider whether ethnic/racial minorities constitute viable market segments. In keeping with pluralism, the Tianguis grocery format, targeted at first-generation Mexican immigrants, failed because the ethnic market was willing to forgo a shopping experience similar to that of their homeland in favor of American supermarkets that offered low prices. In keeping with multiculturalism, South DeKalb Mall and the E Style catalog are successfully responding to African-Americans who wish to maintain distinctive aspects of their heritage and require specialized products to do so.

Diversity of the Customer Base: A Business Necessity

Abstract This article presents a business strategy that makes use of customer diversity to achieve objectives. It relates how one company conducted market research, segmented the market into ethnic market segments, and developed a measurements approach that validates the effectiveness of its ethnic market segmentation strategy.

Black Money in Belize: The Ethnicity and Social Structure of Black-Market Crime

Black Money in Belize: The Ethnicity and Social Structure of Black-Market Crime

Ethnicity and enterprise: A comparison of Muslim and non‐Muslim owned Asian businesses in Britain

Abstract This article examines the development of Muslim businesses in the UK with particular reference to the northern city of Bradford in the context of Asian business development as a whole. Asian businesses in Bradford have grown rapidly since they first emerged in the late 1950s so that there were 1800 by 1990. In Britain as a whole, there are an estimated 61,000 Asian owned businesses. The article shows that Muslim owned businesses are more likely to concentrate on the ethnic market. They are smaller than the average small business in terms of turnover and employment and concentrated in areas of low profitability. Muslims are also more likely to enter into business because of unemployment than for entrepreneurial reasons and are under‐represented compared to their proportion of the Asian population. This is due to their relatively lower socio‐economic status which in part is determined by cultural factors, namely the low participation of Muslim women in the labour force. Hence, contrary to the preva...

Another Look at the Enclave Economy Thesis: Chinese Immigrants in the Ethnic Labor Market

(1991). Another Look at the Enclave Economy Thesis: Chinese Immigrants in the Ethnic Labor Market. Amerasia Journal: Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 5-21.

PERFORMANCE OF A WIDE RANGE OF ASIAN VEGETABLES AT TWO LOCATIONS IN EAST TEXAS

The population of U.S. Asians will increase by 41% and reach 12 million by the year 2000. Chinese cabbage, Pak Choi, Daikon, and Bitter melon have moved out of the ethnic market and are now in mainstream outlets. This study targeted a diverse range of cool and warm-season crops. Besides those listed above, this study evaluated varieties of Asian greens, Chinese brocolli, Allium, edible soybeam, melon, squash, cucumber, edible Chrysanthemum, amaranth, winged bean, yard-long bean, and edible soybean. A randomized complete block design was utilized, with three replications of row length, varying from 10 to 33 feet, depending on species tested. Direct seedlings of cool-season crops in February and September, 1989 resulted in good market quality and yield of many varieties. Work in 1990 will focus on width of the market window, market information, and grower access to markets.

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Effects of Ethnic Market Size and Isolated Labor Pool

Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Effects of Ethnic Market Size and Isolated Labor Pool

Ethnic marketing — city trip

Muzaffer Uysal, Associate Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University, and Joseph O'Leary, Professor of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University, investigate whether differences exist in the travel motivations, activities, and travel group type of blacks and whites from a national sample of travellers in the US population. Information from this study is intended to provide a basis for comparing the majority and minority groups both in terms of the factors that push people to travel and in the activities that may pull the tourist to an area, to warrant different kinds of marketing action.

Puerto Ricans and the Underclass Debate

This article uses data from the Current Population Surveys of 1975, 1980, and 1985 and the 1980 census of population to investigate why the economic status of Puerto Ricans has declined more than that of Mexicans and Cubans. The working hypothesis—that structural factors, namely, rapidly falling employment opportunities in jobs where Puerto Ricans traditionally have worked and the concentration of Puerto Ricans in areas experiencing severe economic dislocation, are largely responsible for their disproportionate impoverishment—finds considerable support. Results based on the Current Population Surveys show that Puerto Ricans are distinct from Mexicans and Cubans in that their labor market instability and complete withdrawal began earlier—in the mid-compared to the late 1970s—and was more extreme. Furthermore, the analysis of census data shows that the constraints on Puerto Ricans resulting from ethnic labor market divisions and high unemployment rates are stronger than those on Mexicans or Cubans, lending support to structural interpretations of the Puerto Ricans' economic distress.

Production of Specialty Crops for Ethnic Markets in the United States

Abstract The number of people of Caribbean, African, and Asian descent living in the United States is quite high. Most of these people live in diverse ethnic centers, such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. It might be profitable to provide traditional foods (2, 3) for these groups. Many of these foods already are imported into the United States. However, importation sometimes is not possible because of (a) inadequate storage facilities, (b) low cost effectiveness, and (c) small amounts that need to be imported (J.R. Suah, CARDI, personal communication). Three of these crops that may be grown in Missouri are hot pepper, ‘Scotch Bonnet,’ a low moisture pumpkin, ‘Calabash,’ and yam. ‘Scotch Bonnet,’ pepper grown under tropical conditions is semiperennial with peak production occurring in the first year. ‘Calabash’ pumpkin, requires a growing season of at least 7 months. Yam requires a 6- to 10-month growing period under tropical conditions. The potential production of these vegetables in the United States has not been adequately investigated. We, therefore, investigated their performance under mid-Missouri growing conditions.

Ethnic Markets -- A Canadian Perspective

Reworking published 1981 Census of Canada data, the authors initially present—for all ethnic communities of significant size (40.000+ nationally)—information on mother tongue, language spoken most often at home, and place of birth. Comparable provincial and CMA data is then provided. The authors conclude that marketers must supplement Census data with knowledge of such factors as the relative strength of ethnic affiliations and the drawing power of ethnic media. Custom designed studies of ethnic purchase and consumption patterns are also considered essential.

Ethnic Identity: Its Relationship to Ethnic and Contemporary Dress

An ethnic identity is reflected through intrinsic and extrinsic traits which also may be associated with other ethnic behaviors. This study investigated ethnic identity as it relates to traditional ethnic dress patterns, and use of ethnic reference persons and ethnic market sources as information on contemporary dress. A sample of 117 students identifying with one of seven ethnic heritages was analyzed as a pooled group with separate analyses for the Chinese and Japanese. Analyses included Spearman rho correlations and the Mann-Whitney U test. Results indicated a relationship between ethnic identity and ethnic dress usage. Individuals with higher ethnic identities used family, ethnics other than family, ethnic fashion magazines, and ethnic fashion shows as sources of information on dress; however, the relationship with ethnic identity and the use of these sources varied according to ethnic heritage.

Noncitizen Arabs in the Israeli Labor Market: Entry and Permeation

Following the 1967 Six Day War, Arab residents of territories administered by Israel began to enter the Israeli labor market in large numbers. This study focuses on the distribution and change in their occupational status relative to other major ethnic groups in the Israeli economy Data from labor force surveys in Israel and the administered territories for 1969, 1975, and 1981 reveal that noncitizen Arabs initially entered low status occupations and. later, increasingly permeated positions at the bottom of the occupational structure. These results are consistent with models of ethnic succession and labor market discrimination, and they underscore parallels between the case of noncitizen Arabs in Israel and the disadvantageous circumstances of migrant labor in other societies.

Chinatown Unemployment and the Ethnic Labor Market

Chinatown Unemployment and the Ethnic Labor Market