New Assimilation Indexes Help Ethnic Direct Mail Marketers Better Segment Their Audience

This index uses language usage to decide and explain if immigrants are assimilated or not. Very interesting, makes sense. DP

PRESS RELEASE

BB Direct offers a new and improved Assimilation Index to better segment both the Hispanic and Asian direct mail markets. Mailing smarter means improved response and better branding.

(Vocus/PRWEB ) March 4, 2009 -- Ethnic marketers rely on data providers to identify their audiences of ethnic origin. Until now, mailers had few choices. Most wanting to reach the Hispanic or Asian ethnicity would simply mail to people whose surname matched one of a select number of known Hispanic or Asian surnames. Traditionally, the message must be broad enough to speak to everyone on the mailing list but resonate with a small percentage. In other words, mailing to this audience is limited to communicating one message that reaches all but touches only a few. This process works for many mailers, but in the never ending quest to reduce costs while increasing response, a more granularly segmented ethnic database was in demand.

The process of predicting the level of assimilation of a given ethnicity now goes well beyond grouping the population by the spelling of the last name. Assimilation is a level in which a Hispanic or Asian individual has adapted to the English language and the American way of living. Ethnicity, language preference, education, income, socioeconomic status, dwelling unit size and enhanced neighborhood analytics are used as variables along with expert system rules that match a Hispanic or Asian individual with one of 4 assimilation indexes.

▪ Assimilated - Speaks and understands only the prevailing culture language. (English speaking only.)
▪ Bilingual English - Speaks primarily the prevailing culture language and still understands native language. (Bilingual prefers English)
▪ Bilingual Native - Speaks primarily native language and understands prevailing culture language. (Bilingual prefers Native language)
▪ Unassimilated - Speaks and understands only the native language. (Native language speaking only)

Within the direct marketing community, it's generally understood that mailers will better connect with their audience if they can version their message to a variety of audience segments over one message to the masses. With these new indexes, the mailer is now able to better communicate with their audience, and sell more products and services.

For more information contact Brian Berg at (239) 573-8150 and brianberg (at) bbdirect (dot) com.

BB Direct is a provider of quality mailing lists and direct mail data solutions. They are located in Cape Coral Florida and can found on the web at http://www.bbdirect.com.