Nielsen Segments 'Intercultural Affinity'

Nielsen has partnered with cross-cultural insights provider EthniFacts to launch a tool called the 'Nielsen Intercultural Affinity Segmentation', designed to help marketers understand how the multicultural landscape is influencing a broader set of consumers across the US.

The partnership combines Nielsen's Homescan panel with EthniFacts' CulturSort cross-cultural survey to understand consumers, regardless of race and ethnicity. From the resulting data, five new segments have been identified, based on mindset, behavior and opportunity. These include those individuals who never experience or participate in lifestyles or tastes other than those of their root culture; along with those who experiment with and have tried diverse tastes and preferences. Mike Lakusta, CEO of EthniFacts, says that by identifying not only the mindset, but also the behavior and opportunity to buy outside one's root culture, marketers can activate high intercultural affinity consumers who are most likely to be the influencers.

Beyond tracking the products that are resonating with consumers across various cultural segments, the firms say the new service also helps brands move away from traditional demographic-only models. Using the tool, CPG businesses can measure what resonates for the total multicultural influenced consumer, including non-Hispanic whites.

Aret Ratyosyan, Nielsen's Product Leader of North America Buy, comments: 'This groundbreaking approach to cultural segmentation helps marketers understand the new American landscape, where a majority of the population is either multicultural or highly influenced by multicultural attitudes, products and trends. This tool will empower our clients to stay ahead of future trends by identifying what intercultural consumers are buying today in order to create effective marketing strategies that resonate with consumers who are highly influenced by multiple cultures'.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.ethnifacts.com.