Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: http://wzzdirt.com

Marketing that targets different ethnicities is becoming common practice for corporations in today's diverse marketplace, particularly with companies who are looking to stay competitive. This targeted marketing is aimed at gaining an otherwise overlooked group of consumers.

A marketing strategy must be based on its relevancy to the community it is targeted at - however, is marketing perpetuating stereotypes?

In 1993, the New York Times wrote an article called "For Minority Youths, 40 ounces of trouble" on malt liquor, a beer that is supercharged with sugar. The article described aggressive marketing campaigns that targeted minority drinkers in the 80s and made malt liquor the drink of choice for Latino and black minorities.

More recently in July of 2009, urban cities in Detroit were flooded with billboards with a cartoon representation of spokesperson Billie Dee Williams with the words "Works Every Time" in large letters promoting Colt 45, a malt liquor beverage. These billboards popped up in areas where low-income minorities lived, which raised the question among community members - Why not advertise this product in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica? The advertisements were dubbed as being racist by members of the community in Detroit and gained national media coverage.

However, the basis of marketing is the fact that there is a target market for every product. The target market is based upon ethnic or racial tastes, geographic areas, gender, class, religion, or age groups. In the context of ethnic marketing race is not the only factor examined. Other factors such as environmental factors that refer to family upbringing, economic factors such as education or income, and social factors such as place of birth are also examined.

In the case of the Billie Dee advertisement for malt liquor, the advertisement is exercising its ability to target a specific segment of the market, low-income ethnic communities that enjoy drinking malt liquor.

"I don't know if its racist, but it could be found offensive to some people. I always thought the ads were entertaining and funny but as a Black man, I can't say it's racist. I think they are targeting they're core consumer market, the way they think that market should be targeted." said Adrian Sparrow, master of entrepreneurship.

"For instance, Chrysler took the Aspen SUV when it launched and wanted to appeal to the black community. In a television advertisement I recall, they had a black guy walking down the street with a Rottweiler and the voice-over person said something along the lines of, 'You may have left the neighborhood but the neighborhood hasn't left you.'" This advertisement did offend me." stated Sparrow. "It plays on stereotypes of black people and that's what I don't agree with. The best way to get me to buy a product is to just put a black person in an advertisement and market it to the mainstream. Black, white, brown - we're all Americans and that is the best marketing strategy in my opinion."

Continued...

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