Generational Status as a Boundary Condition for Minority Targeting Strategies

In recent decades, many countries have witnessed a rapid increase of ethnic and cultural diversity within their population and understanding minority consumers has become a priority for marketers. Standard approaches have emerged in the area of so-called ethnic marketing. In terms of media planning, advertisers attempt to reach consumers when their ethnic identity is most salient. In terms of copy writing, targeted ads typically feature spokespeople or models with the same ethnic background as the target. Spokespeople who are ethnically similar to the distinctive target group are thought to have a positive impact on advertisement. Both of these strategies assume that ethnic groups are homogeneous. Yet, not all minority consumers identify with their host and heritage cultures to the same degree. We argue that generational status is one of the most important factors that determine the effectiveness of these standard minority targeting approaches. In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of taking into account consumers’ generational status for the effectiveness of minority targeting practices. Through two studies, we show that generational status constitutes an important boundary condition for the two standard paradigms described above.