+612 9045 4394
Paperback
Published: 23rd July 2002
ISBN: 9780805210934
Number Of Pages: 256
In America today, you can connect to your ethnic heritage in dozens of ways, or adopt an identity just for an evening. Our society is not a melting pot but a salad bar--a bazaar in which the purveyors of goods and services spend close to $2 billion a year marketing the foods, clothing, objects, vacations, and events that help people express their (and others') ethnic identities. This is a huge business, whose target groups are the "hyphenated Americans"--in other words, all of us.
As immigrant groups gain economic security, they tend to reinforce--not relinquish--their ethnic identification. Marilyn Halter demonstrates that, to a great extent, they do it by shopping. And their purchasing power is enormous. How has the marketplace responded to this hunger? Instantly and wholeheartedly: tweaking old products and inventing new ones; launching new brands in supermarkets, new music groups, vacation itineraries, language courses, toys, greeting cards, et cetera. This nexus of business and ethnicity is already seen as the hottest consumer development of this decade, and Halter is uniquely qualified to describe its origins, the exponential growth of products and advertising, and the phenomenal sales of items from salsa to Chieftains CDs.
She addresses her subject with an abundance of anecdotal evidence, telling examples of ethnic marketing, and interviews with entrepreneurs (many of them immigrants) who are vigorously seizing the opportunities offered by the business of ethnicity.
Shopping for Identity is provocative, intriguing, and farseeing, illuminating an important aspect of our contemporary way of life while validating the yearning we all feel for connection to our roots.
"From the Hardcover edition."
"Original in premise, thoughtfully researched, and eminently readable"
--Joshua Glenn, Bostonia, Spring 2001
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Longings and Belongings: An Introduction | p. 3 |
| From Community to Commodity: The Color of Money | p. 25 |
| The New Ethnic Marketing Experts | p. 48 |
| The Romance of Ethnicity | p. 78 |
| Ethnic by Design: Marketing to a "New America" | p. 104 |
| A Rainbow Coalition of Consumers | p. 138 |
| Recipe for Multiethnicity: The Mestizo Makeover | p. 170 |
| Conclusion | p. 192 |
| A Note on Terminology | p. 199 |
| Notes | p. 203 |
| Bibliography | p. 216 |
| Index | p. 226 |
| Illustration Credits | p. 243 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780805210934
ISBN-10: 0805210938
Audience:
General
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 256
Published: 23rd July 2002
Publisher: Random House USA Inc
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 23.0 x 13.1
x 1.7
Weight (kg): 0.27
Edition Number: 1
Earn 47 Qantas Points
on this Book
