Purchasing power of Britain’s black and ethnic minority is now £300 billion
It’s not true that Britain’s ethnic minorities don’t spend, behave the same as whites and are too hard to target.
This is according to the findings of the IPA’s latest report on ethnic diversity, which examines the rapidly expanding multicultural landscape of the UK.
‘2012 Multicultural Britain’ examines the growing influence of the black and ethnic minority (BME) population. They now account for 12% of the UK population; their purchasing power is £300 billion; mixed race Britons are becoming the fastest growing ethnic category and the average British Indian man is now on a higher income than his white British counterpart.
The report includes updated research conducted by Clearcast that found only one in twenty ads made in 2011 featured ethnic minority actors, although the cuts in public sector advertising and the winding up of the Government’s Central Office of Information (COI) was a big contributory factor.
Yet ethnic media has yet to make consistent inroads into mainstream marketing strategies. However there are signs that businesses and the marketing industry are starting to take notice.
Says Saad Saraf, Founder and CEO of Mediareach and Chairman of the IPA Ethnic Diversity Forum and IPA Council: “We want this report to highlight what makes ethnic minority consumers such an interesting market. We are gradually seeing a cultural change in terms of recruitment and portrayal which I find encouraging. This report helps to make a strong case for marketers to take ethnic minority consumers more seriously.”
The report authors believe that talk of a ‘brown pound’ has helped raised awareness but that the term can obscure more than it clarifies. As ethnic minorities do have different spending patterns and consumer needs from their white counterparts there is still the need to embrace different ethnic pounds. Says Debarshi Pandit, head of OMG Ethnic: “A good chunk of second-or-third generation ethnic minorities who are well integrated into British society, still want a link to their ‘own’ culture.”
The report gives key facts on today’s ethnic minorities…
Highlights include:
-By 2016 half of the (BME) population will be under the age of 12 whereas half of the white
population will be under 40.
– By 2051 England and Wales will be as diverse as London is now.
-Indian households are most likely to own multiple cars or vans.
– South Asian and African Caribbeans still represent the largest ethnic groups.
– Black British women spend six times more on hair products than their white counterparts.
– Britain’s ethnic minorities are more likely to be early adopters of, and spend proportionally
more on, new technology.
– ‘Ethnic’ food is a growing market in the UK, accounting for more than half of the market share
in Europe.
And on the media landscape:
– Lack of accountability – ethnic media is under-represented in mainstream desktop research with
audiences understated by main industry measurement platforms such as RAJAR and BARB.
– Ethnic media is evolving and splintering into different segments.
– Digital switchover has led to the number of ethnic TV channels increasing.
– Eastern Europeans continue to be a prevalent audience segment, with one third of a million
arriving between 2008 and 2011.
– Cinema is rising in popularity especially for Asians and Africans. Nollywood (Nigerian film
industry) now follows Bollywood as the world’s second largest producer of movies.
– The advent of highly credible digital ad networks and ethnic media owners broadening and
diversifying into multimedia.
A second report will be published following the next set of results from the ONS Census out early 2013.
More information can be found on the IPA website.