Auto brands overlook niches in ethnic marketing

Blue-collar luxury? It sounds like a contradiction in terms.

But it represents a potentially lucrative niche market opportunity among ethnic consumers that is being overlooked by advertisers, says Marc Bland, IHS Markit's vice president of diversity and inclusion.

These are the urban entrepreneurs who might have a little dirt under their nails. It could be the small-business owner who runs a profitable landscaping operation, or maybe a beautician or barber who owns several shops. They're not in white-collar professions, but they're making good money, says Bland.

They work hard during the week, Bland says, and when Friday night rolls around, they get dressed up and pull the cover off their Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz or Range Rover for a night on the town.

But for whatever reason, Bland says, advertisers are looking past this group, which he considers to be very much the luxury segment's core audience.

Nissan, for example, tailored its College 100 initiative — a broad sponsorship deal in college athletics that spans 100 universities and 22 sports — to appeal to the five historically black colleges and universities that are included in the program.

Instead of applying the same marketing outreach approach to every school, Nissan engaged with the HBCUs, and learned that it would be effective to build its activities around the marching bands and Greek-letter organizations, according to Jeremy Tucker, Nissan's vice president of marketing communications and media.

When Grambling State University won the 2017 HBCU national football championship, a university-branded Rogue was driven along the victory parade route as the Tiger Marching Band followed behind it. The other HBCUs in Nissan's College 100 program are Hampton University, North Carolina A&T State University, Southern University and Tennessee State University.

Honda says it uses the input of dealers and sales staff in the field to learn about the preferences of all of its customers.

To stay informed from a data standpoint, Honda says it looks at retail sales data from consultancy Urban Science along with IHS Markit registration data "to understand consumer buying shifts" and whether the overall industry shifts are also taking place across ethnic groups, said Susie Rossick, Honda's assistant vice president of marketing, in an email to Automotive News.

Rossick said Honda has long supported Spanish-language creative for the Civic and Accord, which lead the way among Hispanic consumers.

The brand has also noticed increasing popularity of the CR-V with this group. To capitalize on this trend, Honda crafted a TV spot specifically for Hispanic audiences pegged to the launch of the 2017 CR-V. It also partnered with Univision talent show La Reina de la Cancion this year and integrated the CR-V into the show's storyline.

Nissan's Tucker said the automaker is relying on more precise data readings when it brings products to market. The brand can analyze the vehicle preferences of consumers down to the ZIP code level, which can be helpful in markets with large Hispanic populations such as Los Angeles, where it began testing this strategy earlier this year.

"We're accelerating that because we're seeing the performance of what it means to be really focused at a more granular level based on the makeup and needs based on different segments in the multicultural community," Tucker said.