Race, Ethnicity is the Most Important Part of Identity for Multicultural Consumers

Consumers are expecting more of brands as cultural transformation accelerates in the U.S., with multicultural consumers now representing more than 100 percent of population growth.

December 2, 2020
David Evans – Chief Insights Officer

Replay our webinar featuring these findings,
“New Insights for Authentic Multicultural American Connections.”

As their expectations increase, understanding how consumers define themselves is key to building authentic connections. In our recent research, we found that nearly 3 in 4 multicultural consumers say race and ethnicity is an important part of their identity, outweighing all other factors including personality, being American, gender and more. For Hispanics, this is especially high for unacculturated consumers.

3/4 consumers say their race is important to their identity

Digging deeper into consumer identity, we asked consumers to select the three aspects they would most likely use to describe themselves.

Race and/or heritage ranks at the top of the list for most multicultural consumers, with the exception of acculturated Hispanics (ranked at 4). Personality and being American are also key factors for identity across all consumer segments.

Consumers use many different dimensions to self identify

Given the importance of consumer identity through the lens of race and ethnicity, opportunities are rapidly increasing for brands to deepen cultural connections.

We asked consumers about the actions brands would need to take for them to go out of their way to buy from that brand or company. The top answer across all multicultural consumers: they are most willing to reward brands that support people of their own race or ethnicity. 

You’ll see an increased focus on the three core integrated research streams that feed our platform: the Cultural Fluency of brands and ads, the cultural profiles of diverse segments and their category, shopper, and media needs. This work aims to give you an even more expanded view of your core and target consumers, deeper insights into how your brands and ads stack up to your competitors, and analytics to identify the trends most likely to result in consumption changes in your category.

Amidst challenging economic circumstances, Collage Group is pleased to be a relied-upon resource that enables brands to access necessary insights through one comprehensive platform.

Multicultural consumers want brands to support people like them

What are brands to do to take action on these insights? Multicultural consumers told us a variety of things. Topping the list: more transparent business practices, diverse representation in advertising, diverse stories in ads and authentic stories of diverse people in ads. 

At Collage Group, we have built a framework to help brands understand your consumers, identify how they connect and relate to your brand, and take the steps needed to improve your brand and ad performance. We call this our Cultural Fluency Roadmap.

Contact us to get started.

Other Multicultural Research Articles and Insights from Collage Group

David Evans

David Evans

David serves as the Chief Insights Officer responsible for all syndicated content and thought leadership. He is passionate about leading the teams that reveal insights into consumers that can transform the fortunes of our members, make these actionable in our products and experience, and build great places to work. Before joining Collage Group in 2018, David served in a variety of senior roles in data, analytics and syndicated research organizations, including Cushman & Wakefield as Strategic Advisor, CoStar Group as Vice President of Research, and the White House where he founded the Office of Executive Councils in 2011. From 1998 to 2009, he worked at the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner), serving ultimately as Chief Researcher for a $100 million division covering eight major business units. David holds a Diploma (M.Arch equivalent) from the Architectural Association in London and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Before pursuing a business career, David worked as an architect in the UK, France and Germany, and published and exhibited widely. David was born in London to American and Canadian parents. He lives in Bethesda with his wife Juliette Searight and younger Generation Alpha daughter, while avidly following his older Generation Z daughter’s journey into adulthood in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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