This article was first featured on Direct Agents' Third Issue of Illuminate Magazine in October of 2021.
This year’s census data showed what analysts have predicted in the decade since the previous calculation; the country has become more diverse and more urban. As expected, the Black, Asian, and Hispanic populations grew by 5.6%, 35%, and 23%, respectively, while the White-only population decreased by 9%.
Perhaps the most intriguing portion of the census showed that the multiracial population had grown substantially (f rom 2.9% in 2010 to 10.2% in 2020). White individuals who also identified with some other race increased by over 1000% in the past decade, being one of the fastest-growing segments, and displaying an increasingly fragmented view of identity as a whole. As communities overlap and interact more with the continuing shift to increasingly heterogeneous urban centers, this is a trend that is likely to continue.
The impact for marketers is clear: any long-term strategy based on the general market approach is obsolete. 62% of Hispanic adults believe that brands’ advertising materials do not tell stories that represent their viewpoints. 3 in 5 Asian Americans and 41% of African Americans feel that their communities are not represented. These surveys do not even account for the identities not captured in the census, such as gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability status. Increasingly, brands will need to think more strategically about the types of communities consumers are part of and how they can bring an inclusive design to products and services to widen their brand umbrella. The brands that embrace a polycultural approach to their business will not only deepen their relationships with their audience from a marketing standpoint but ultimately broaden their product offerings and build companies primed for success in the long term.
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