Click here to download the entire report.

Here are some reason-able stats from the report:

• North Carolina’s Latino Community Credit Union, a credit union that explicitly targets Latinos as customers, was launched nearly a decade ago and is the fastest-growing credit union in the United States with 53,000 members in 2009.
• In 2005, two years after the “New Alliance Task Force” was launched, Chicago and mid-western banks had opened 50,000 new Latino accounts totaling over $100 million in deposits.
• In Texas, primarily to benefit from the decreased crime associated with serving unbanked Latinos, police officials and city fathers are partnering with local banks, foreign consulates and the Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration to improve financial services for Latinos.

One of my buddies, Gonzalo Perez, recently released a research study on 14-34 year old Latinos. For more information on the study, click here.

Here’s a quick summary, the 100-page Máximo Report is a comprehensive cross-section of topics including:

• Media habits and preferences
• The role of language and identity
• Usage and preferences around social and digital media
• Issues, concerns and attitudes that shape the New Generation Latino perspective
• Perceptions on marketing and advertising

Nowadays, companies are cutting back on syndicated studies. The Reason — syndicated data provides you with a bunch of nice-to-knows, but if doesn’t tell you what to do next. Gonzalo and his partners may have overcome this challenge… As an additional special component, the NGLC and Motivo Insights have partnered with Guy Garcia, CEO of Mentametrix Inc. (www.mentametrix.com) and author of The New Mainstream: How the Multicultural Consumer Is Transforming American Business, to provide comprehensive market insights and speaking and consulting services focused on New Generation and New Mainstream consumers.

High school and college students can apply until June 6 for the scholarship to attend either the interactive art director or motion graphics program. Click here to apply. The fee for the program is about $18,000. Here’s the tough part — winners will be responsible for travel costs to Sweden, where the school is headquartered.

Thanks to Gabriel Betrone over at Adweek for the tip

Niche marketing is all about reaching a specific group of people or clique.

Nowadays, it seems that companies are increasingly marketing to the LGBT clique. And, here’s the reason: 85 percent of LGBT consumers were likely to make purchasing decisions based on which companies market to them. This according to internal research from MillerCoors.

I don’t have access to their research, but the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law recently published some research showing the bigness of the LGBT population in the U.S.  Click here to download the report.

Some highlights of the report:

• LGBT population is estimated to total 9 million
• LGBT population represents 3.5% of adults in the U.S.
• Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual

hat tip to think multicultural

Nowadays, it seems that companies are increasingly marketing to the LGBT clique. And, here’s the reason: 85 percent of LGBT consumers were likely to make purchasing decisions based on which companies market to them. This according to internal research from MillerCoors.

I don’t have access to their research, but the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law recently published some research showing the bigness of the LGBT population in the U.S.  Click here to download the report.

Some highlights of the report:

• LGBT population is estimated to total 9 million
• LGBT population represents 3.5% of adults in the U.S.
• Women are substantially more likely than men to identify as bisexual

hat tip to think multicultural

Many of you have seen the ad for the Chrysler 200 during the Superbowl. You know … the one featuring Eminem. This is when Chrysler first introduced the tagline “Imported from Detroit.”

Since then, a t-shirt company from Detroit called Pure Detroit made use of the tagline for a line of shirts. When I first heard this, I thought, “Good for Chrysler.” Members of their audience deemed the commercial (read: ad impression) relevant enough to want to express their advocacy. In this case, by releasing a line of t-shirts affirming Chrysler’s message. Many others expressed their advocacy by sharing a youtube video of the commercial on their social networks. You get the point here, an expression signals some level of engagement. And, this is really what marketers want — to engage their customers. Read here for a good article on marketing shifting from impressions to expressions.

Apparently, not Chrysler. Instead of engaging and encouraging their customers’ creativity, they sent a cease and desist letter to Pure Detroit. Major #fail. The Reason — brands aren’t in control.

Chrysler patented the trademark so they can release their own merchandise bearing the logo and tagline. In other words, Chrysler wants to be in control. I’m not sure I need to say it again, but I will — as much as brands and corporations want control, they just don’t have it anymore. The reality is that control lies with consumers. Joe Tripodi, the CMO of the Coca-Cola Company agrees with me… “Coca-Cola’s Facebook page has more than 25 million likes (fans). Our fanpage wasn’t started by an employee at our headquarters in Atlanta. Instead, it was launched by two consumers in Los Angeles as an authentic expression of how they felt about Coca-Cola. A decade ago, a company like ours would have sent a “cease and desist” letter from our lawyer. Instead, we’ve partnered with them to create new content, and our Facebook page is growing by about 100,000 fans every week.”

How are you enabling your customers to express themselves?

hat tip to Joe Tripodi

I’ll be taking my talents to Boston this weekend to speak at two events hosted by my alma mater.

In the morning, I’ll be speaking with the graduate school as part of a strategy to increase Babson’s visibility and success with diverse candidates. And in the afternoon, I’ll be speaking at the Black Affinity Conference on a panel: Marketing to Minorities.

Hope I can put up some footage of the event.