Marketing no longer about mobilizing the masses, but about amassing the upwardly mobile

Geoscape issued a report projecting the future buying power of both Asian and Hispanic households, respectively. Both groups will spend far more in their remaining lifetimes than white non-Hispanic households. 

This report should serve as a wake up call that multicultural marketing efforts that appeal to the diversity of a shopper base are not just innovative strategies — they're also essential. 

Marketing has always been about mobilizing the greatest number of consumers to buy. And an homogenized marketing message strategically placed against a mass media outlet times frequency used to do the trick. Not anymore. That collection of consumer eyeballs has been fracturing into smaller and smaller segments ever since cable TV was first introduced decades ago. That fracturing has only accelerated as consumers learn how to better personalize their media consumption through smartphones and tablets. 

Today it's about mobilizing the greatest number of consumers to buy within each fragment. 

It's already being done. Walgreens just last week opened a flagship location in Washington, D.C. at the entryway to the district's Chinatown. And while casual walkersby may not take notice, the Walgreens logo on the exterior includes characters that translate into "pharmacy" in both Mandarin and Chinese. And many retailers like Target are generating separate creative specifically targeting the Hispanic population when constructing their media campaigns. 

Here's why: According to the recent State of the Asian-American Consumer report from Nielsen, the Asian-American population totals 18.2 million today, with 1.4 million households with median incomes greater than $100,00. And the Hispanic-American population numbers more than 52 million, with 1.8 million households generating incomes greater than $100,000. That represents a 51% growth in the number of Asian-Americans and 50.6% growth in the number of Hispanic-Americans between 2000 and 2012.