Nielsen and EthniFacts Introduce Intercultural Affinity Segmentation to Drive Deeper Understanding of Total U.S. Cultural Landscape for Brand Marketers

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Oct 04, 2016, 08:01 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) and EthniFacts, a leading cross-cultural insights provider, announced today the launch of the Nielsen Intercultural Affinity Segmentation. This new segmentation combines the power of Nielsen Homescan Panel with EthniFacts' CulturSort cross-cultural survey to understand the consumers, regardless of race and ethnicity, who demonstrate that they can think, act and buy outside of their root culture.

Through integration into Nielsen's proprietary consumer and shopper marketing tools, including Homescan, Spectra and Total Shopper View, consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers are able to measure and apply "total market metrics" across various cultures.

With the Nielsen Intercultural Affinity Segmentation, five key segments based on mindset, behavior and opportunity will be used to help marketers gain a deeper understanding of today's intercultural consumer in the U.S. These five segments include:

Monoculturals: Consumers who do not experience or participate in diverse lifestyles or tastes other than their root culture.
Sideliners: Consumers who are aware of but generally uninvolved in diverse tastes and preferences, and often experience more opportunity and less avoidance of diverse experiences.
Explorers: Consumers who experiment with and have tried diverse tastes and preferences on a limited basis.
Enthusiasts: Consumers who are exposed and embrace diverse tastes and preferences. They are practicing, but not leading these experiences.
Ambiculturals: Environment and lifestyle leaders, these consumers are considered influencers with effortless affinity to diverse tastes, preferences and high desire to share experiences with others.

"This groundbreaking approach to cultural segmentation helps marketers to understand the new American landscape, where a majority of the population is either multicultural or highly influenced by multicultural attitudes, products and trends," said Aret Ratyosyan, Product Leader of North America Buy at Nielsen. "This tool will empower our clients -- CPG manufacturers, marketers and retailers -- to stay ahead of future trends by identifying what intercultural consumers are buying today in order to create effective marketing strategies that resonate with consumers who are highly influenced by multiple cultures."

Beyond tracking the products that are resonating with consumers across various cultural segments, the Intercultural Affinity Segmentation also helps brands move away from traditional demographic-only models. For marketers, this means truly understanding and addressing cultural segmentation across U.S. consumers of all races and ethnicities. With this tool, doors to expanded opportunities are opened, offering CPG a broader view into measuring what resonates for the total multicultural influenced consumer – including Non-Hispanic Whites. This includes identifying the best distribution channels for those products, tracking marketing results by affinity across ethnic/racial groups uncovering potential cross-promotion opportunities and identifying trends in the highest intercultural affinity segments that may soon spread to all consumers.

"The Intercultural Affinity model is about majority marketing, not minority marketing. With over half of the U.S. population under the age of 50 now living in multicultural or blended households – those that include multiple races and ethnicities – this model provides a truer picture of the American mainstream," said Mike Lakusta, CEO and Founding Partner at EthniFacts. "By identifying not only the mindset, but also the behavior and opportunity to buy outside one's root culture, marketers can effectively activate Ambiculturals and other high intercultural affinity consumers who are most likely to be the influencers with the highest desire to share their diverse tastes and preferences and lead a product to going viral."

Given the projected rise of multicultural consumers and multicultural influenced consumers in the U.S. in the decades ahead, these groups represent a significant spending power and should be high on brand marketers' radars as the growth drivers of the future. Understanding and connecting with these audiences is critical for brands seeking to remain relevant in the years ahead.

The Nielsen-EthniFacts Hispanic Segmentation is currently available in the U.S.

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

ABOUT ETHNIFACTS
EthniFacts, LLC is a consumer insights provider focused on how culture drives consumer behavior. It applies expertise in psychological and statistical sciences, innovative demographic tools, and deep cultural observation and interpretation to deliver innovative and actionable understanding of today's evolving consumer environment. For more information, visit www.ethnifacts.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Genevieve Aronson, [email protected], (646) 654-5742

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SOURCE Nielsen