Asian Americans "Invisible" To Marketers

Asian Americans "Invisible" To Marketers
Brandweek

Marketers are missing the boat when it comes to targeting Asian Americans because they don't know how to speak to them, according to multicultural marketing firm InterTrend Communications. And by doing so, they risk ignoring a demo that boasts higher education and considerable spending power. "There is still a dearth of secondary research on the product and brand usage behavior of Asian Americans in many categories," said Saul Gitlin, executive vice president of strategic marketing services at Kang & Lee, New York, a consultancy that specializes in the Asian market whose clients include the NBA, Western Union and The New York Times.

 

"Many marketers therefore may be waiting for the advent of more research to validate their emerging interest in [the demo]."  InterTrend's goal is to fill that void with reliable research conducted by its KnowledgeCenter research arm, which is embarking on an intensive study to obtain qualitative and quantitative data on the Asian market, which it hopes to tailor to the packaged goods industry.  At 4 percent of the U.S. population, or 11.6 million, Asian Americans are one-third the size of the Hispanic population, which is growing at a faster rate. Still, their combined buying clout of $397 billion is well over half that of Hispanics ($686.3 billion) and is projected to rise to $579 billion by 2010.