New Insight into US Ethnic Groups

NFO WorldGroup's NFO InDepth Interactive and Community Connect have announced an alliance to provide marketers with in-depth data on the purchasing habits, brand preferences and advertising receptiveness levels among US multicultural groups.

As a result of this partnership, the two companies have created the country's largest interactive custom research panel comprised of the country's three dominant and fastest-growing ethnic groups - Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans.

The aim is that Community Connect, the leading developer of online communities targeting US ethnic audiences, will push multicultural consumers to NFO's Interactive market research panels via its popular Web communities - BlackPlanet.com, AsianAvenue.com, and Latino-focused MiGente.com. Community Connect's three sites boast more than 4.8 million registered members. NFO InDepth Interactive purportedly has the largest, representative interactive panel in the world, comprised of over 1.2 million households with 3 million Interactive consumers.

The two companies will offer marketers the opportunity to conduct customised market research studies specific to their brand or product, or purchase broad syndicated research data that provides in-depth information on U.S. multicultural markets. Marketers will also be able to compare multicultural spending and brand perception levels versus that of the general population.

According to Mark Berry, NFO InDepth Interactive president, "Multicultural marketing intelligence has become increasingly critical as the population becomes more diverse and the buying power of these population segments becomes more significant. This alliance was driven by our desire to create services that maximize the marketing efficiency of our clients through a better understanding of these ethnic segments."

According to some industry sources, US Latino, African American and Asian American consumers have a combined purchasing power of more than three trillion dollars. The groups' purchasing power continues to grow along with its population size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these multicultural groups currently represent 25% of the American population.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.