Bicultural consumers such as Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S., and one of the challenges marketers face is how to build brands that resonate with consumers who have assimilated norms from different cultures and are able to code-switch between behaviors in response to social cues.

According to a new paper co-written by a team of Gies College of Business experts in consumer marketing, “paradox brands” – that is, brands that can straddle contradictory meanings or possess opposing characteristics – are more appealing to bicultural consumers than traditional singular-meaning brands.