¡Hola!

Retailers need to wake up to the increasing spending power of ethnic minorities. In 2003, the combined retail spending of US Hispanic, Black, and Asian consumers will exceed $460 billion -- approximately 20% of all dollars spent on retail. What's your company doing to get a piece of that action?

If you're like many retailers, you're probably talking a lot about ethnic or minority marketing, but because it's a political hot potato, you may be doing very little. Or if you're like Office Depot, Sears, and Target, which offer Spanish-language versions of their Web site, print circulars, and kiosk gift registries, respectively, you're reaching out to the fastest-growing minority group -- Hispanics -- and that's a good start.

But developing a strategy to attract and retain racial minorities is a complex undertaking, one that goes beyond simple translation. Our research shows that age, income, and gender matter more than race when selling to racial minorities. For example, income -- not race -- is a better predictor of a consumer's willingness to pay more for an item that saves time. That helps explain why Asians, with their higher incomes, are more willing than Blacks and Hispanics to pay up for products that save time.

That's just one insight our retail quantitative expert and resident sociologist Christopher M. Kelley surfaces in "The Minority Report: Selling To Ethnic Groups." He also discovered that Midwest-based Kohl's had the lowest percentage of racial minorities (10%) shopping its stores in 2002 -- though that number has likely inched up with the addition of 28 stores in ethnically diverse California this year. How this trendsetting retailer responds and adjusts its marketing and merchandising mix to capture a more diverse consumer base may well determine its future success.

Read the report to learn more about this topic and steal some best practices from innovative retailers and leading consumer brand marketers, including P&G and the U.S. Army. Ask how your company can use its Web sites, kiosks, catalogs, and stores to reach minorities. And determine which business intelligence and merchandising optimization software you'll need to avoid the landmines and reap the rewards associated with selling to ethnic minorities.

¡Que le vaya bien!



Kate Delhagen
Consumer Markets Research Director


P.S. Before you take your summer vacation, mark you calendars and plan to attend our Consumer Forum, September 21-23, in New York City. You'll hear from retail leaders USA Interactive, Amazon.com, Origins, and more.

Research Referenced In This Issue If you printed this email, get links to the research featured in this week's issue by going to www.forrester.com/go and entering the five-digit number of the report you'd like to read. Analyzing Sam's Club, Costco, And BJ's Shoppers (16546) Bet On Merchandise Optimization In 2003 (16294) BI Platform Shootout (16748) Do Your Shoppers Want Custom Products? (16844) Europe's Online Shoppers Mature (16824) Online Marketing: Lessons From Shop.org Members (16808) Sears + Lands' End = Multichannel Success (15086) Sears, J.C. Penney, And Kohl's Shoppers (16467) The Minority Report: Selling To Ethnic Groups (16721) Tiny NanoMuscle Picks Up Volkswagen (16817)

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