Diaspora Market

A diaspora is a scattered population with a common origin in a smaller geographic locale.

Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.

Smaller markets are created abroad by identifying and targeting diaspora markets.

However, companies or brands are not always well received in such areas.

Categories of Immigrants

a. Assimilators

b. Marginals

c. Ethnic Affirmers

d. Biculturals

Assimilators

Highly adaptive to host culturePurchase host culture products

Want to fell includedRarely retain home culture identity

Rarely purchase home culture productsDon’t want to stand out

Marginals

Feel they have been marginalized by the society

Usually poor immigrantsLack of economic and educational

opportunitiesNeither culture can influence buying behavior

Factors for purchasing – AffordabilityFunctionality

Durability

Ethnic Affirmers

Remain distant from host cultureMay deride customs of host culture

Cling to home culture identityPurchase products from homeland

To preserve identityGood target for emerging giants

Biculturals

Sense of belonging while retaining identityAlter conduct for different contexts

Use elements of both culturesCompared to Ethnic Affirmers

Better educatedHigher socioeconomic status

Besides the importance of the type of diasporas in building global brands, four other elements are important:

1. The brand must be universally attractive: in order to succeed it is necessary that a broader population must have a positive attitude toward a brand.

2. The diaspora needs to be large enough: the relative size of the diaspora to the home country’s population is crucial, because it must be big enough to justify investments involve in the building of global brands.

3. Distribution of the diaspora must encourage brand expansion on the national scale: A diaspora distributed all over a country and simultaneously concentrated in certain key locations is most beneficial for emerging companies. In this way diasporas serve as nodes through which the brands are distributed to various regions; as a result that the mainstream can be reached in a cost-efficient way.

4. Socioeconomic conditions of diaspora must encourage brand bulding: It is important that members of a certain diaspora coincide to some extend with the host population’s profile, because it is well known that people are much more likely to socialize with similar people.