Ethnic Marketing

Theory, Practice and Entrepreneurship

Guilherme Pires, John Stanton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315454870
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Commerce Général

Together with the development of transformative technologies that epitomize globalization, the ongoing movements of people across borders and other socio-economic pressures are creating a fast-changing business environment that is difficult for business to understand, let alone control. Dominant social expectations that immigrants should seek to adopt an assimilationist socialization path towards the host country's mainstream are contradicted by minority ethnic group resilience. There is no evidence that these groups naturally disappear within the cultural and behavioural contexts of their adopted countries. Since ethnic minority consumers cannot be expected to assimilate, then they maintain some significant degree of unique ethnicity related consumer characteristics that convert into threats and opportunities for business. The inherent socialisation process also provides opportunities for ethnic entrepreneurship and for proliferation of ethnic minority business.

Following from the extensive examination of scholarly perspectives of ethnic marketing theory, there is an acknowledged and marked divide between theoretical exhortations and what is done in practice, a relative oversight of the implications of mixed embedded markets, and a propinquity to overlook the crucial role played by ethnic entrepreneurship and ethnic networks. Opportunity valuations are difficult to enact due to a lack of intelligence about ethnic markets. Variable sentiment about the future of ethnic marketing links to different predictions on how the drivers of globalization will impact on the acculturation paths of ethnic minorities.

Keeping a focus on the ethnic group as the unit of analysis, combining ethnic marketing and ethnic entrepreneurship theories provides intelligence about contemporary ethnic marketing and practice perspectives. The ultimate objective is to reduce the theory-practice divide through the development of a collaborative framework between business and scholars that converts into theory-in-use.

1
Issues in Ethnic Marketing Theory, Practice and Entrepreneurship

Several decades of large migrant flows into many advanced economies, often from culturally dissimilar sources to the host country, combined with a reawakening of ethnic identity among groups already resident, have stimulated large and often conflicting marketing and entrepreneur-ship literatures discussing whether, when and how to target consumers based on their ethnicity. The diversity of this body of work spans differences in both theoretical and practical perspectives. This book examines these different views of ethnic marketing, its practice and its future, with particular attention given to ethnic entrepreneurship.

The development of ethnic marketing requires understanding the sources of the differences, as well as the drivers of ethnic group resilience over time, as a prerequisite to reconciling the different perspectives. For this reason, a large portion of this text focusses on the process of creation, development and growth or demise of ethnic minority businesses, as a mainstay in minority ethnic group resilience.

This chapter explains how conceptual ambiguity in the development of ethnic marketing is causing a gap between theory and practitioners. To obtain a perspective of differences in ethnic marketing, the explanation draws on the ethnic marketing literature as well as an analysis of interviews with marketing scholars from several countries, some practitioners, on their understanding of ethnic marketing theory and practice and of how ethnic marketing may develop over time. The need for theory-in-use and a framework to achieve better theory that is also pragmatic enough for adoption by business is offered as a way of reconciling theory and practice.

Conceptual Ambiguity

Ethnic marketing research is hampered by different notions of ethnicity drawn from anthropology, ethnography, psychology, sociology and marketing (Weber, 1961; Cohen, 1978; Barth, 1998; Gjerde, 2014). Further discussion of these different notions and their implications will be discussed in Chapter 2. At this early stage of the discussion, we follow Weber’s (1961) view of ethnicity as

a shared sense of common descent extending beyond kinship, political solidarity vis-a-vis other groups, and common customs, language, religion, values, morality, and etiquette, providing “a set of sociocultural features that differentiate ethnic groups from one another”.

(cited in Cohen, 1978, p. 385)

Applying this view of ethnicity can arguably delimit ethnic marketing and contributions identifiable as ethnic marketing research; however, ethnic marketing is a field where different views of ethnicity exist and ethnic marketing theory and practice often reflects these differences.

A lack of definitional clarity permits divergent claims to the field of study and in practice, allowing for disagreement on what a minority ethnic group is and on what is ethnic marketing research. As a consequence, the divergent claims also sustain varying estimates of market size and related assessments of the substantiality of a minority ethnic group, crucially complicating incremental learning about ethnic marketing and decisions about where its application is justified. Lack of definitional clarity is an important ethnic marketing concern. As acknowledged by Phinney (1990),

in order for ethnic identity to develop as a methodologically sound area of … research, there needs to be agreement on the meaning of concepts and valid measures that can be used across groups and settings.

(p. 5)

But the importance of definitional clarity has also been noted as a point of concern in marketing covering both the discipline in general and specific fields of research. Without agreed definitions, scientific discussion can descend into babble (Gilliam and Voss, 2013). In the context of social marketing, Andreasen (1994) lamented that the lack of consensus in the definition resulted in varied research agendas and in “talking at cross purposes”. Definitional differences caused disagreement about the particular domain of social marketing and how it differed from related fields, hindering its theoretical advancement by fuelling incorrect application by practitioners of research findings emerging under the social marketing heading, which justified the likely disaffection by practitioners with the findings of social marketing researchers. In the context of advertising, Richards and Curran (2002) argued the need for an agreed common definition to ensure general understanding and to delimit the profession.

What Is Ethnic Marketing? Definitional Differences

Currently, ethnic marketing has no agreed upon definition. What is asserted to be ethnic marketing varies widely in terms of both theory and practice, being very much dependent on users’ or practitioners’ understanding of ethnicity, of ethnic identity and of the role of acculturation, as well as on the need by practitioners to often be pragmatic in the application of any chosen definition. Further confusion arises from the use of terms other than ethnic marketing, apparently covering the same field.

We discuss these differences in terminology first, followed by an examination of differences in views about ethnic marketing. If ethnic marketing is referred to as marketing focussed on ethnic minority consumers or ethnic minorities (Jamal, 2003; Cui, 2001, 1997), competing terms include multicultural marketing, diaspora marketing, international marketing at home, domestic cross-cultural marketing, ethno-marketing and intercultural marketing. Each of these is briefly explained and their differences noted in the following paragraphs.

“Multicultural marketing” is a term widely used by theorists and practitioners to describe strategies developed to target consumers from different ethnic minority groups within a country. As cultural diversity within a country consists of more than its ethnic diversity, multicultural marketing’s scope is wider than addressing ethnic diversity through marketing strategies. This is reflected in Burton’s (2002) research, who interprets multiculturalism in a wide context of all possible subcultures within a country whether they be based on ethnic differences or not. Different variants of its practice will emerge dependent on political and social conditions. As such, ethnic marketing involves a narrower focus than multicultural marketing.

Cui and Choudhury (2002) provide a contrasting approach, using the term “Ethnic Marketing” in a generic way, to refer to marketing using distinctive marketing programs targeting an ethnic minority within a country, with “Multicultural Marketing” having a more specific meaning. Ethnic marketing embraces a framework of strategies to market to ethnic minorities that encompasses approaches with minimal adaptation (cross-cultural) to the needs of an ethnic minority to the development of specific tailored programs intended to build loyalty and long-term relationships with a minority ethnic group. Which strategy is applied will depend on both demand and supply conditions. In this case, multicultural marketing is more feasible in a country with many ethnic subcultures each requiring a “unique” marketing mix to realize the “sales potential” of that minority group. Multicultural marketing is distinguished from “ethnic niche marketing” by the degree of focus on cultural diversity within a country.

In the Cui and Choudhury schema, fewer ethnic groups enable more focus on their distinctive needs, with ethnic niche marketing potentially enabling marketers to develop a customized offer that can build loyalty and a long-term relationship. Clearly, multicultural marketing based on recognizing each subculture’s unique needs can achieve similar outcomes but the implications of a changed environment consisting of a greater number of diverse ethnic groups is that, for cost/benefit reasons, commonalities and adaptations across groups may be sought to reduce the cost of excessive differentiation. Of course, any behaviour that is ethnicity focused is not taken into account.

“Multicultural marketing” is also used interchangeably with the term “ethnic marketing” by Chan and Ahmed (2006), while Makgosa (2012)’s view of multicultural marketing as targeting and communicating with ethnic minority groups within culturally diverse societies could also be interchanged with ethnic marketing, which Makgosa does in the context of marketing to a particular ethnic minority.

Makgosa (2012) considers that heterogeneity within ethnic groups residing in the UK may require intra-group as well as between group differences in ethnic marketing strategies, adding another layer of complexity in terms of defining either multicultural or ethnic marketing. His study groups of African Blacks and Indians residing in the UK are broadly specified minorities, heterogeneous not only in terms of acculturation and strength of ethnic identity, but also in terms of key subculture elements such as language and religion. Effectively, Makgosa (2012) is embracing the concept of “panethnicity”, borrowed from the USA where multiple ethnicities have been labelled as Asian, Latino or African-American; the creation of pan ethnic groups for a variety of social and economic purposes is discussed by Okamoto and Mora (2014).

Other terms that capture to varying degrees the focus of ethnic marketing in marketing to ethnic minorities include “International Marketing at Home”, “Domestic Cross-Cultural marketing”, “Diaspora Marketing”, “Ethno-Marketing” and “Intercultural Marketing”. Diaspora marketing (Kumar and Steenkamp, 2013) is directed at targeting first generation immigrants in a host country based on meeting their home country developed preferences for particular brands. As such, it is similar to what has been called International Marketing at Home (Wilkinson and Cheng) and domestic cross-cultural marketing (Pires, 1999), all being narrower in their focus than most forms of ethnic marketing because they appear to ignore possible acculturation effects as well as subsequent generations that may still retain varying strengths of ethnic identity.

Ethno-marketing and Intercultural marketing appear more closely related to ethnic marketing in their specific focus and approach. Szillat and Betov (2015) use ethnic marketing and intercultural marketing interchangeably, both referring to the orientation of marketing activities towards target groups with particular ethnic characteristics. This similarity is evident in Ethno-marketing, defined by Waldeck and von Gosen (2006) as

differentiated marketing with respect to the cultural origin of the target groups. Cultural minorities that live in a certain country will be targeted with a tailored marketing mix.

Following Cui and Choudhury (2002), the term “Ethnic Marketing”, as currently used, can include a variety of approaches that need consideration. In their framework “Ethnic Marketing” may consist of “Ethnic Niche Marketing” if a culturally diverse country has only a few ethnic minority groups and each warrants a targeted approach. “Multicultural marketing” is used when a country has many ethnic minority groups and the heterogeneity encourages a targeted approach tempered by looking for commonalities.

For Makgosa (2012) ethnic marketing to an ethnic minority may require further segmentation and adjustments in marketing to that group depending on its heterogeneity, where the researcher’s focus is on differences arising from acculturation patterns and strength of ethnic identification rather than more traditional variables used to assess a group’s ethnic homogeneity.

A French view is offered by Blanchard (2003) who distinguishes different forms of “ethnic marketing”, ranging from the tokenistic use of iconic ethnic characters to attract attention, to what he describes as “hard line ethnic marketing” which recognizes differences between ethnic groups within France and the consequent need for targeting based on recognizing those differences. Multicultural marketing focusses on changing marketing communications to an ethnic group’s preferences, a more superficial approach to adaptation than that instituted through ethnic marketing.

Further insight into the focus of ethnic marketing and some key iss...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1 Issues in Ethnic Marketing Theory, Practice and Entrepreneurship
• 2 Ethnicity, Ethnic Groups and Ethnic Identity
• 3 Acculturation, the Minority Ethnic Group and Ethnic Consumer Behaviour
• 4 Rationale for Ethnic Marketing Focus on Aggregates of Minority Ethnic Groups
• 5 Perspectives on Ethnic Loyalty
• 6 Articulating Ethnic Marketing With Ethnic Entrepreneurship
• 7 Understanding Ethnic Entrepreneurship
• 8 Ethnic Minority Business Growth, Demise and Failure
• 9 Ethnic Networks and the Adoption of Relational Strategies
• 10 Ethnic Entrepreneurship and the Marketing Mix
• 11 Product, Price, Place, Physical Evidence and Process
• 12 Promotion and Personalization
• 13 People, Ethics and Social Responsibility
• 14 Environmental Forces, Ethnic Marketing and Ethnic Entrepreneurship
• Index