Ethnic Marketing in Multicultural Marketplaces and the Focus on Brussels

Multicultural marketplaces dynamically produce newly situated microcultures that reshape the consumption habits. With the increased heterogeneity, the necessity to offer specific products and marketing communications occur. From marketers’ perspective, to activate the most rewarding strategies, understanding of the changing dynamics and the forces of acculturation becomes crucial in the context of multicultural marketplaces. Brussels, being one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, chosen as a suitable focus area to analyze current ethnic marketing strategies and to elucidate the cosmopolitan consumption behavior. The results of the research reveal the correlation between high acculturation level and the positive perception of the ethnic products for both locals and expats living in Brussels. This also confirms that, the huge potential of ethnic marketing in highly cosmopolitan areas can transform traditional practices by targeting a wider range of culturally distanced consumer groups with the emphasize on authenticity.