Exploring perceptions of ethnicity and ethnic identity

![CDATA[It is estimated that 30% of the Australian population was born overseas (ABS, 2021), this equates to six million people whose needs and requirements may not be well understood by researchers and marketers especially in the context of how these individuals perceive their ethnicity and ethnic identity (Quester et al., 2001). In Australia individuals of ethnic background have been able to maintain their ethnic identity and practice their cultural traditions because of Australia’s supportive multicultural policies.Therefore, the richness of Australia’s cultural diversity necessitates a need to examine how ethnic consumers perceive their ethnicity and ethnic identity and implications of this on marketing practice (Quester et al., 2001). This is a gap which this study seeks to address by way of examining perceptions on ethnicity and ethnic identity by two ethnic groups in Australia; (i) Filipino group which is an established and relatively big group and (ii) Lao group which is a smaller and recent group(ABS, 2021). Although, international research into ethnic marketing strategies has increased over the years, in Australia there remains very little research available ( Pires et al., 2006, Pires and Stanton, 2015). Thus, justification for this research stems from a lack of in-depth studies on how individuals perceive their ethnicity and ethnic identity and their subsequent impact on their behaviour and marketing practices in Australia ( Pires and Stanton, 2015). Hence, our paper’s aim is to address this gap by expanding research to Australia in order to gain a better understanding of how ethnicity and ethnic identity interacts with Australian culture and how that impacts on individual consumer behaviour. This is in line with the conference’s theme on marketing for good which includes a more inclusive understanding of the consumer behaviour of various social groups who now constitute key segments in several multi-cultural markets such as Australia. Ethnic identity has been described as flexible, multi-dimensional and transitional (Phinney, 1989;1990;) and is often linked to ethnicity and ethnic origin (Laroche et al., 2009). Ethnic identity reflects how strongly affiliated the individual feels towards her (or his) ethnic group( Tian and Tian, 2011).]]