ABSTRACT
How ethnic minority groups and individuals acculturate and the consequences of this process, including for the identification of aggregates such as panethnic groups, highlights the need to establish groups that are large enough (or with “enough substance”) to justify their targeting. Enough substance implies the expectation of a positive outcome for the businesses doing the targeting. Ethnic loyalty is a major factor in minority ethnic group substantiality, potentially justifying the deployment of ethnic-sensitive tactics that are focused on developing loyalty advantages.
Theory elaborating on the importance of the interactions between ethnic minority consumers and suppliers to a minority ethnic group is discussed as a factor in the generation of consumers’ ethnic loyalty and substantiality. A four-step loyalty development process is discussed that accounts for loyalty drivers and for switching drivers. It is concluded that the decision to target must account for the importance of ethnic characteristics to ethnic-sensitive investment and its expected payoff; that is, ethnic-sensitive strategies that are focused on developing loyalty advantages need to be justified.
