expat ethnic marketing
“One of the best means of marketing would be using the media that the target community uses or reads.”

Ethnic marketing is a form of marketing that targets a specific ethnicity as its demographic. It therefore tailors the marketing strategy to suit different cultural and social norms.

Expat Marketing spoke to Felicia J.Persaud, founder and brand strategist of Hard Beat Communications NY. She is also an expert in ethnic marketing strategies.

 Felicia, tell me about your company.

Hard Beat Communications is a marketing and advertising agency which was founded in 2004 in New York. It is a multi-media marketing solution company, especially for ethnic marketing. It mainly focuses on the Caribbean Americans, Caribbean business, advertising, public relations and digital media.

What defines an ethnic marketing company?

Here in America, in order to prove yourself as an ethnic marketing company you will have to keep in mind three specific categories of population – Hispanic, African American and Asians. If these three are not the major focus then the market, as well as the Government, will not consider you as an ethnic marketing company.

What differences do you imagine there are between expat and ethnic marketing?

Ethnic marketing is culture specific whereas expat marketing is culture as well as country specific. It’s country vs. culture marketing.

What media do you generally use to target your audience?

It depends on the location, for example, for Caribbean marketing we use the Caribbean media, so based on that we have to see what kind of media is used and where.

Can you give me an example of a successful ethnic marketing campaign? What media did you use?

Event marketing is what works best for many companies in the ethnic Caribbean market. Digicel, the Caribbean’s largest mobile telecommunications company launched a scheme for the Caribbean Americans to call to their native land for cheaper rates and also sponsored a local football competition in Brooklyn NY to boost brand presence and add value to just media buys and PR.

What marketing techniques do you think could be used in expat marketing?

One of the best means of marketing would be using the media that the target community uses or reads. For example – local TV, newspapers, websites and local organisations. Also events, country specific Independence day events, country specific musical events, such as a reggae musical festival for Jamaicans or Latin music concerts for Spanish or Mexicans.