Targeting without alienating: multicultural advertising and the subtleties of targeted advertising

The growing diversity of different nations’ populations has encouraged advertisers to adopt their strategy by taking into consideration groups of consumers that were not traditionally targeted, such as cultural and sexual minorities.

Targeting without alienating: multicultural advertising and the subtleties of targeted advertising

Guillaume D. Johnson

University of Witwatersrand

Sonya A. Grier

American University

Introduction

Nations worldwide are experiencing a rising multiculturalisation. In countries such as the UK, US and Canada, a complex and multidimensional market has replaced the ‘average consumer’, where minorities are the new majority (Jamal 2003; Johnson 2009; Statistics Canada 2010). This growing diversity has had important political, social and economic impact on these countries. Specifically, minority groups’ size growth has been accompanied by a growth in spending power that has significantly encouraged advertisers to use cultural group membership...

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