We the people of 2050

In a little over 40 years from now, America will be a minority-majority country where non-Hispanic whites are projected to account for 47% of the population. Knowing this now, how can we prepare for the transition to more multicultural marketing? What are we doing now if we know where we need to be in 40 years? Crazy, I know.

I know Hispanic marketing is gaining a lot of traction and agencies are getting recognition for award-winning work for this consumer segment. But what about African-Americans? Shouldn't their lifestyle and culture be recognized with similarly insightful work and attention? Or even Asian-Americans? There is a lot of room to grow with multicultural marketing, interesting that Hispanics are the first ones to receive significant advertising dollars.

Although when you take into account their large families, affinity for socializing, and the fact that they actually like advertising, they're definitely appealing as a target audience. But they're so diverse!

• 63% are from Mexico
• 10% are from Puerto Rico
• 4% from Cuba
• 3% from the Dominican Republic
• 3% from El Salvador
• etc.

Lots of persona profiles to build. Best get to work now.

new media, baby boomers and design

Ok, no lies, but one year ago I wrote down some trends I thought were interesting and cool:

• non-traditional media
• a focus on baby boomers in advertising/messaging
• more emphasis on the experience of design
• more brands taken through to the consumer level via customer-service

And what do we see happening NOW?

• New media: postcard flyers, cellphone texts, craigslist, etc.
• Cadillac's new campaign targeting the second wind the BB generation experiences
• Agencies like Anomaly, understanding a brand experience holistically through design.
• customer-service is the tortoise....looking forward to upcoming enhancements HERE.

and one more trend that is developing: latino marketing. I love this quote from the Director of MarComm at the Hartman Group: "Anyone can sell product - people are looking for an authentic shopping experience." (think design again, yeah!!!)