December 17th, 2003
New Marketing
Old labels just don’t stick in 21st century
As the U.S. population grows more diverse and as immigrants move up the economic ladder, race and ethnicity are becoming less important than education, income, home ownership, age and lifestyles. In fact, as Hispanics, blacks and Asian-Americans increasingly move to middle-class suburbs and prosperous neighborhoods, they’re identified more by their lifestyles and spending habits than by their ancestry.
Marketing experts have caught on to this and other dramatic changes in American life since 1990: record immigration, aging, suburban sprawl and rising numbers of singles, single parents and households without kids.