If all the researches show the Asian American market is a big opportunities (growing population, well-education, high income, etc.), why haven’t all the marketers dive in? Here are some of the excuses:
Lack of Knowledge
Most marketers are not familiar with Asian. While Americans know Japanese sushi, Chinese ku fung and Korean nuclear threat, most barely know the group’s multiple cultures and languages. When you are not familiar with something, you either learn or stay away from it. Since learning takes effort, a lot of people choose to hide instead. That’s the very sad part of human nature.
Lack of Infrastructure
Product must be ready -- not necessary finished though – before advertisement starts. In some service industries, companies need to have the infrastructure built before they enter any new markets. For the Asian American market, they may need to open stores in areas with high Asian populations, hire Asian staff and/or develop in-language literature/website.
Lack of Support
For a brand to enter any new market, not only it needs approval by brand manger and upper management, it also require support by the fields. Their green light is the admission ticket to the new market. Yet it is their commitment to diversity marketing that counts. It is their Asian mind to makes the difference. I find it important to have an ambassador in the company to take the ownership of the show as well as leadership to run the show. In reality, the scale and the success of the campaign depends very much on the status of this ambassador.
Lack of Budget
Though one out of four luxury cars are sold to Asian in California, car manufacturers rather look at the Asian potential as the 5% of the total US population. It doesn’t matter how affluent Asian are (number of Asian HHI>200K is that of African American and Hispanic combined), almost all diversity marketers treat Asian as the third focus (at least budget wise). Asian budget comes like something leftover. If there is no leftover, there is no Asian budget.
Being an Asian marketing professional could be very frustrating especially if you don't get the support you need. It is not easy to be the unflavored kid in the family especially when you really believe in yourself.
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Asian American
, Asian Marketing
, Multicultural Marketing
, Diversity Advertising
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