Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You: How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors Don't Understand

Chapter 12

Serving Different Racial and Ethnic Communities

Study after study has shown that marketing to specific racial and ethnic communities pays big dividends. Every customer wants to feel recognized, valued, and welcomed, and one way to effectively communicate all of that is to market to a specific group. When your marketing addresses a specific customer segment, you validate that group’s importance to your business. You send a clear message that tells them, “We want to earn your business, so please consider our product/service when you are making your purchase decision.”

Studies have also shown that not only do different racial and ethnic groups respond enthusiastically to the companies and brands that specifically market to them but they also become loyal, repeat customers. And that means sales growth and profitability for your business.

For most of this book, I have deliberately stayed away from the subject of marketing to specific groups because marketing is such a deep topic. It’s broad and expansive, and there are numerous ways to do it right—and wrong. I also covered marketing to specific, diverse customer segments in my book How to Market to People Not Like You: “Know It or Blow It” Rules for Reaching Diverse Customers.

But I think it’s appropriate to touch on marketing to different racial and ethnic groups in this section. Far too often, brands overlook a specific group’s potential and instead lump everyone into one general marketing campaign. That approach doesn’t ...