Book Excerpt: The New Age of Ethnic Marketing

Kiss me, I'm Irish American." It's the kind of T-shirt or bumper sticker one might expect to see today, at a time of unprecedented ethnic diversity when immigrants have gained a level of acceptance bordering on chic. Particularly to those of us born in the U.S., the monikers Korean American, Russian American or Polish American—to say nothing of Kuwaiti American, Armenian American or Botswanan American—carry certain positive associations such as language, culture and history.

For marketers, these demographic and cultural shifts represent tremendous new avenues of growth. Catering to groups who seek to reinforce their ethnic identities, businesses have either extended their products or created distinct new lines—everything from travel and financial services to supermarket brands, toys and greeting cards.

This rich vein of material is the subject of Marilyn Halter's Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity (Schocken). A research associate at Boston University's Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Halter explores the reasons underlying the impetus to reclaim our roots and its effects on the marketplace.

"Though a crucial component of the rationale for the creation of ethnic pride groups and related culture-specific practices may be to protest against the ills of consumer society, the new ethnics demonstrate that they are nonetheless deeply tied to consumerist practices," Halter writes. "In effect, the market serves to foster greater awareness of ethnic identity, offers immediate possibilities for cultural participation and can even act as an agent of change in that process."

The following excerpt, culled from chapters Nos. 3 and 4, begins with a discussion of "The New Ethnic Marketing Experts" and later delves into the cultural appeal of ethnicity itself. Halter provides several examples of the multiethnic marketing strategies conducted by various research groups for clients including Bank of America, AT&T, Mitsubishi, Procter & Gamble, Pillsbury, J.C. Penney and the U.S. Postal Service. She also analyzes the work of successful in-house marketing teams from companies like Hallmark and Mattel.

"Multicultural marketing means approaching consumers through their complex cultural affinities . . ." she writes, quoting a researcher from YAR Communications, New York. "It means that, by your knowledge of what is important to them, you are not merely an interloper who is trying to make money from them, but a kindred spirit who knows their hearts—and is really one of them."

Halter is a member of the history department and the American Studies program at Boston University. She is the author of Between Race and Ethnicity and the editor of New Migrants in the Marketplace. She lives in Lakeville, Mass.