Diversity Creates New Business Opportunities

Companies that engage in niche marketing often develop hardcore followers of their products. In the past when a company marketed to either the African American community or the Hispanic community they were engaged in niche marketing. Caucasians were seen as the largest racial group in the U.S. and most companies like IBM, McDonalds and Ford marketed primarily to them. Companies may be forced to focus on a single demographic background as other racial groups grow in size.

Imagine the United States with 30% Caucasian, 30% African American, 30% Hispanic and 10% other. In such an environment it will be difficult for advertisers and marketers to try and serve all three masters at the same time. They will have difficulty developing advertisements to appeal to all three backgrounds and it will likely be too expensive to run three different sets of national advertisements. Thus companies may have to choose their demographic background to market to and in turn open up new opportunities for companies.

Is it possible to have McDonalds for Caucasians, McJohnsons for African Americans and McPedro's for Hispanics? There is a high likelihood that new companies will form to serve the needs of a particular ethnic group and large chains will have to move internationally to maintain their identity. Thus when we think of the country's leading companies we may actually be thinking in terms of companies that serve the three largest ethnic groups. We will have the White, Black and Hispanic sectors of business.

Nearly 10% of counties within the U.S. have non-Caucasian majorities. California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas are states that have other ethnic groups as a majority. 69.1% of the country is non-Hispanic Caucasian and this majority is expected to decline to minority status by 2050. Other ethnic groups like Hispanic and African American are on the rise. It is possible that in the next 20-30 years the country will be divided up into 3 major ethnic backgrounds.

These demographic groups change the nature of marketing and the business environment within the country. It is possible that new companies will form to service groups specific needs, new leaders will develop and new politicians will lobby for their communities. As these demographic communities grow in power and stature the nature of business and politics as we know it will change with them. Instead of one large market we will have three large markets to content with.