In case of such multi-ethnic countries as the USA, Canada, the UK, and almost all the Western European countries, where there are a lot of ethnicities, businesses might consider selling nostalgia and try to satisfy homesickness demand (that’s how I prefer to call it).
By homesickness and nostalgia I mean everything connected with the home country or the exodus country. If I am an immigrant and live for over 10 or 15 years in the US, I am certainly longing for my friends and family in the home country. But besides it, I long for the food I used to eat, things I used to have, etc. – that’s, all that realia common to the previous life in my home country. I cannot say that 100% of immigrants become homesick at a certain time being away from home, but 95% really do.
For businesses it is a real niche. For instance, in the US there are over 30 thousand Bulgarians and 50 thousand Romanians (those, who were born in Bulgaria or Romania and immigrated in the US as grown-ups). They are spread all over the country, but all of them want to taste of bit of their motherland from time to time. Nostalgia is an emotion, but it can shape a certain buying behavior motivated by really strong emotive factors (the dream for any advertiser!).
Here comes an example: http://malincho.com/malincho.asp – buy a bit of Bulgaria in the US and Canada (traditional food and artifacts peculiar to Bulgaria)!
To me, any business built on emotions like homesickness or nostalgia is doomed to success, as people’s habits are deeply enrooted and change reluctantly in new environments.
Tags: Bulgaria, business, canada, homesickness, idea, nostalgia, Romania, USA
March 14, 2008 at 15:10 |
I totally agree, but you better know your niche market!
March 14, 2008 at 16:27 |
How about Americans living, say, in France? Are they also nostalgic for the Super Bowl or anything of the kind that cannot be found in Europe?
March 14, 2008 at 16:33 |
Great idea. Do you plan on capitalizing on it? Immigrants, especially immigrants who are not in America in large groves, would really appreciate this. I’ve noticed that Mexicans in my city already do this. They have shops catered to their native country. But many of the other ethnic groups, such as Bulgaria, are so few in numbers here, that this commodity is hard to find, or is almost nonexistent. Would there be a market for homesickness products; meaning, are their enough of any one ethnic group here to make the venture profitible? Also, can these items, foods, etc. be exported to the states? Well, even if the idea is hard to materialize in the small business world, I’m sure the big stores like Walmart could make it fly. You really need to think about doing a business plan on this idea, and presenting it to some of the super chains. Have your idea copyrighted fast though. A good marketing slogen or buzz might be “When I Think of Home. Nastalgia made to make us feel at home, no matter where we are” or something to that effect. Be carefull though, you don’t want to come off as anti-american or anything.
Peace, Light and Love to you and yours. . .
CordieB.
March 14, 2008 at 16:37 |
Sorry for the double post. It’s just that my mind works so fast at times. But, yes Americans do have that same homesickness. When my husband was in Germany, he longed to see American commercials. Everyone would be really quiet when an American commercial came on TV. And when it went off, every one would applause. Funny huh . . .?
March 14, 2008 at 17:23 |
CordieB, thanks for passing by. You’re right saying that small ethnic groups live dispersively in the States, but they find ways to get together (forums, blogs, community rallies, etc.). These are the places where to make the offer described in the post. Walmart would not be interested since perspective profits are not too high for such a big corporation. That would do for a small business, though.
Here you must belong to the ethnicity in order to understand what they want and what they need: how many people in Walmart know what, say, Hungarians or Polaks long for?
Patenting…Hm, sounds like a very good idea.