Ethnic Marketing

4Rationale for Ethnic Marketing Focus on Aggregates of Minority Ethnic Groups

Group size is often used by marketers as the major indicator of the importance that can be afforded to ethnic groups. This chapter discusses the reasons and potential shortcomings for seeking to increase group size through the aggregation of two or more minority ethnic groups, seemingly conferring the properties of ethnicity discussed in earlier chapters to a panethnic group.

Panethnic groups are most commonly understood as the aggregation of nationally defined ethnic groups using selected aspects of assumed commonality, such as some broad elements of culture; geographic origin and/or language. In the American context this aggregative practice leads to a variety of ...