Bank of America Sharpens Multicultural Focus.

Bank of America has appointed Wendy Dixon as Multicultural Marketing executive to lead the development, implementation and measurement of marketing strategies for fast-growing multicultural customer segments, such as Hispanic, Asian-American and African-American. In addition, the company has hired John D. Villanueva as director of Multicultural Communications to support multicultural brand and communications initiatives.

Bank of America holds the No. 1 general market share in six of the top growth states that have significant concentrations of these ethnic groups and are experiencing rapid growth: California, Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington.

“Multicultural audiences are extremely important in our marketing strategies,” said Barbara Desoer, Bank of America Consumer Products and Marketing executive. “We have always recognized that our success is linked with meeting the needs of our high-growth multicultural customer segments.”

“Bank of America has a strong heritage of innovation in serving this market, such as in-language ATMs and in-language customer service. With Wendy’s leadership and John’s expertise, we have an unbeatable team whose complete focus is to provide a high-quality customer experience for our multicultural customers and clients.”

Prior to joining Bank of America, Dixon worked for a consulting firm where she was responsible for researching and developing new strategies for potential markets to enhance growth and productivity at AT&T. She also served five years in various marketing management roles for Family Services, Inc., a United Way agency.

Dixon holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina. She is based in Charlotte, N.C.

Dixon will work closely with John Villanueva, director of Multicultural Communications, to develop advertising and build the Bank of America brand equity across multicultural consumer segments through compelling and relevant brand strategies.

Villanueva comes to Bank of America from The Procter & Gamble Company, where he spent 12 years managing the brand for household products such as Tide, Ariel, Cascade, Ivory Snow, Dreft and Gain. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan. He will be based in Charlotte and will report to Brand Management Executive Frank Sottosanti.