Target Customer Segments with Cultural Events

In general, shoppers prefer to do business and buy products from salespeople whom those shoppers see as sharing their distinctive characteristics. The key word is distinctive. Members of minorities are more finely tuned to whether a salesperson is a member of that minority than are people who don't consider themselves to be in the minority.
     Researchers from Stanford University found that African-Americans had more positive reactions to an ad with Black actors than American whites had to the same sort of ad featuring white actors. Earlier, other researchers had reported that Latino consumers living in Austin, Texas—where Latinos were an ethnic minority—were more likely to trust a Latino salesperson than were Latino consumers living just 80 miles away in San Antonio—where Latinos were an ethnic majority.
     You might read this to mean that to keep your profitability high, you should staff your store with people who share with shoppers what those shoppers see as distinctive ethnic characteristics. Well, yes, that's a good idea, as long as doing business this way affords equal employment opportunities and results in you having staff with clear retailing skills, not just certain ethnic, racial, cultural, and language identities.
     But there's another way to target these distinctive customer segments, and it depends less on the look and sound of your staff: Know what cultural groups in your target market areas do consider themselves to be minorities. Then arrange special events to commemorate their particular cultural celebrations—for example, Cinco de Mayo for consumers of Mexican heritage—or to honor special accomplishments by people with whom they can identify—such as the Italian men's archery team winning a silver medal at the latest Summer Olympics.
     Okay, maybe a World Cup win in soccer would be better known among your target markets than would an archery championship.