Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

Communications www.focus-consultancy.co.uk September 2003). A
study by the London Research Centre shows that the annual income
after tax of minority communities was £13.4 billion in 1997. On a
household-to-household basis, Indians, Chinese and African (such as
Ugandan) Asians all had average incomes higher than the white
population. Caribbean origin, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin peoples
all had lower household incomes than whites. (Gidoomal 1999).
There is also a high degree of engagement and support for the arts
and cultural activities amongst minority ethnic groups (Bridgwood et al
2003). The most widespread activity found in this latter survey was
going to the cinema, with minority ethnic respondents indicating
annual cinema attendance rates of 60-82% for various groups
including mixed heritage, Asian Black British and Chinese and other
ethnic groups, compared to 56% for white groups (Bridgwood et al
2003).
6.3.3 Meeting the customers’ needs and aspirations
Studying changing consumer demographics is important but, as many
companies have discovered, building new markets and developing
relationships with the consumer relies heavily on an understanding of
their individual needs and methods of access. For example, ignoring
or misunderstanding the needs of ethnic minority consumers can be
very costly. A study of ethnic groups and the British travel industry
showed that people of South Asian origin in Bradford were interested
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