The US marketplace is extremely diverse. While there is evidence of a substantial national culture, sub-cultural and ethnic differences significantly impact the behavior of the US consumers. Domestic and global marketers wishing to successfully segment the US marketplace must be cognizant of this diversity and of the strength in numbers and buying power of the country's ethnic consumers. This paper identifies some of the research and practices targeted towards African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American consumer segments and calls for continuing efforts in this area, particularly among inner-city food retailers.

Kerrigan (2002) asserts that the African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic multicultural markets consist of 29% of the US population; Hispanics markets account for nearly 13%, African-Americans markets for nearly 12% and Asian-Americans markets for nearly 4% with a consumer purchasing power over $1.3 tn.

The US can more accurately be described as a "salad bowl" rather than the traditional "melting pot". The emergence and continuous existence of diverse ethnic consumers is a modern day reality. Marketers have started to understand that these groups are not monolithic. African, Hispanic and Asian consumer markets are not homogeneous in buyer behavior patterns in comparison to the much larger market which is patronized by the white community. Advertisers, marketing managers and practitioners must develop the quality of the product, distribution, operational techniques and promotional campaigns with a focus on the fact that there is a high cohesion within the ethnic communities and that these consumers exhibit very similar and heterogenous purchase behavior.

While some efforts were made towards marketing African-Americans markets since the late 1960s to early 1970s, targeting Hispanic and Asian-American consumers did not emerge as a viable marketing strategy until the 1980s. Around that time it was believed that African-Americans were reasonably assimilated into one cultural majority and thus these markets did not require separate strategies be successful. Therefore, much of the current ethnic marketing activities were switched to Asian-Americans and Hispanics before marketers fully understand the diverse buyer behavior among African-Americans.

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