EthnicMajority

(Examiner.com) Sofia Vergara, star of the highly-acclaimed television seriesModern Family, is expanding her Kmart product line with the launch of a home collection. It is part of the retail chain’s attempt to offer a diversity-based approach to attracting customers.

Vergara was recruited by Kmart to introduce a line of apparel with a Latin flavor last year. The successful launch last fall led to this new product line to be in stores later this year.

"The expansion of the Sofia by Sofia Vergara collection into Home provides our customers with yet another beautiful design option when decorating," said Nick Grayston, SVP and president footwear and home for Sears Holdings.

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(Hispanic Business) Los Angeles-based agency Hollywood Branded Inc. this week announced the launch of its Hispanic Consumer Marketing Division servicing the entertainment, corporate and consumer lifestyle sectors. 

HispanicBusiness caught up with Hollywood Branded founder and CEO Stacy Jones to pick her brain as to why this move was so critical for her company. 

With the Hispanic market's growing buying power, it would seem that most agencies are creating these types of subdivisions within their companies to cater to the diverse community, but Jones has a different perspective. 

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(People's Choice) Got debt? Beware! Your employer may fire you for it.

That's what happened to Latoya Horton at Bain & Co., according to a widely circulated petition at change.org.

Horton said she took out student loans - like millions of other Americans - to get an accounting degree. She got a temporary job with Bain & Co., and they offered her a permanent one after six months.

Just weeks after starting the permanent position, the corporation fired her. Why? Because her debt-to-credit ratio was too high!

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(The Root) Poor black youths targeted by tobacco ads: U-T San Diego reports that tobacco marketing is targeting California's low-income and African-American youths, according to researchers who examined advertising throughout the state. Academic researchers funded by the state's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program found that there was greater visibility of menthol-cigarette advertising at retailers near high schools where there are larger African-American student populations.

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(Nielsen Wire) In the U.S., Hispanic consumers’ usage rates of smartphones, television, online video, social networking and other forms of entertainment make this group one of today’s most engaged and dynamic populations in the digital space, according to Nielsen’s recent State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative report.  Mobile presents a significant avenue of opportunity for marketers looking to reach Hispanic consumers – Hispanic mobile users send or receive 941 SMS (text) messages a month, more than any other ethnic group.  They also make 13 phone calls per day, 40 percent more than the average U.S. mobile user.

Social is another platform where Latinos are especially active and rising in numbers.  During February 2012, Hispanics increased their visits to Social Networks/Blogs by 14 percent compared to February 2011.  Not only are Latinos the fastest growing U.S. ethnic group on Facebook and WordPress.com from a year ago, but also Hispanic adults are 25 percent more likely to follow a brand and 18 percent more likely to follow a celebrity than the general online population.

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(Miami Herald) The U.S. Hispanic population is young, mobile, growing and has skyrocketing spending power, making the segment highly desirable for marketers, a report released Tuesday by Nielsen reveals.

Already at 52 million — and projected to represent the bulk of population growth during the next five years, Hispanics are undoubtedly a vital part of the American economy, impacting everything from popular culture to politics and consumerism.

Indeed, the group’s buying power reached $1 trillion in 2010 and is expected to grow 50 percent by 2015, hitting $1.5 trillion, according to Nielsen’s report, “State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative.”

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(Huffington Post) Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest mortgage lender, is facing the second of at least two federal probes into how it treats minority borrowers and the properties it owns in minority neighborhoods. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials confirmed this week that the agency will investigate allegations lodged against the bank Tuesday by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The alliance complaint accused Wells Fargo of working to maintain and market bank-owned foreclosed properties in predominantly white communities far more aggressively than it does in mostly black and Latino neighborhoods.

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(BBC) Asian Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the US, according to census data, and brands have found a new interest in this valuable consumer group.

Despite their growth, though, Asian Americans make up only 5% of the US population and remain very fragmented, with many different cultures and languages all living in the same country.

"You can't look at it as selling only to the 5%. We are looking at how this 5% is influencing the other market as well," says Julia Huang, CEO of interTrend Communications, an advertising agency that focuses on Asian American advertising.

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(Think Multicultural) Did you hear about Nestle’s recent launch of Construye el Mejor Nido (“Create the Best Nest”), a new communications platform to reach the U.S. Hispanic market? Maybe you’ve seen or visited Unilever’s Vive Mejor program, a similar cross-platform effort to engage Hispanics around various Unilever brands. If you haven’t noticed, there has been a growing trend over the last 5 years among consumer goods companies to launch Hispanic multi-brand programs. Here is a brief summary of some of the larger Hispanic multi-brand platforms currently in market.

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(Daily Online) A Burger King commercial featuring Mary J. Blige singing about fried chicken has been pulled after it was branded racist.

In the ad – which premiered this week – the Grammy winner sings soulfully about chicken snack wraps, leading some in the African American community branding it as stereotypical. 

But the fast-food chain is blaming music licensing issues for the decision and not criticism of the ad.

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