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The Melting Blog

Musings on the Intersection of Marketing, Culture, and Research

Friday, April 30, 2004

Asian America Rising

This isn't new news per se but the Associated Press says it is, so there you go. Who am I to argue? According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Asian Americans are going to be the fastest growing population segment in the country over the next half-century, accelerating faster than all other ethnic segments, including Hispanics:

Recent Census Bureau projections show the Asian population could grow by a third, to 14 million, by 2010 and more than triple to 33 million in 2050.

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Asians with a Chinese background are the largest single group, with 2.4 million. But the population of Indian-Americans grew the most during the 1990s — 106 percent to 1.7 million. Vietnamese were next at 83 percent and grew to 1.1 million in 2000.

The technology boom of the 1990s lured many immigrants from India. Large numbers settled in California's Silicon Valley and other high-tech hotbeds like the Dulles Corridor outside Washington.

A catch-all category of "other Asians" had 1.3 million people in 2000. This included groups like the Hmong, whose population nearly doubled to 169,000. The Hmong are an ethnic group from the highlands of Laos who fought the communists alongside the CIA (news - web sites) during the Vietnam War.

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Growth has occurred beyond traditional gateways like New York and California. Towns along the Gulf of Mexico have for years attracted immigrant fishermen from Vietnam and Cambodia, and resettlement programs have created large Hmong refugee communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

As luck would have it, here's a nice tie-in to the discussion of my previous entry:

The scents of herbs and spices waft out of a Vietnamese medicine store, down a hall and past a restaurant where diners sip tea and eat bowls of pho. Pulsing Vietnamese music plays in the background.

It's a scene out of Hanoi — but it's really a suburban Washington strip mall that has become a hub for the burgeoning Vietnamese community and an example of what's happening elsewhere in the country.

"A good bit of it reminds me of home," Nguyen Ngoc Bich, 67, says as he strolls past the shops. Bich, a former Vietnamese diplomat who settled in the United States as a refugee in 1975 after the Vietnam War, was one of the mall's original investors.

"Just close your eyes and all you hear around is Vietnamese being spoken. It's all the familiar sounds of home," he said.

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More businesses and strip malls like Eden Center are sprouting across the country, as more Asian families settle outside of cities. One such mall in Las Vegas, called Chinatown Plaza, bills itself as the "largest master-planned Chinatown in America."

More you say? Okay, read this recent report (two parts) about the generational struggles over Hmong identity here (a classic assimilation struggle that pits a resilient tradition against the overwhelming allure of American culture), then head on over to the L.A. Times and peep this read about Orange County's Little Saigon community, the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam (free subscription). Much like Cuban American exiles in Miami, they hate them some communists!

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 5:26 pm

The New Chinatowns

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal contained this fascinating report (paid subscription only) about the growth of mini-Chinatown malls now dotting the landscape of our nation's suburban edges. These are not your traditional Chinatowns -- i.e., full-scale urban districts in the heart of a dense metropolitan area, a la San Francisco or New York -- but are a whole new animal altogether. The story begins with one entrepreneur, James Chen, who, during one routine visit to Las Vegas, realized he couldn't get any decent Chinese food anywhere:

"I asked people, looked at the map, checked the phone book. No Chinatown in Las Vegas."

That's why Mr. Chen had to invent one. Nine years ago, he built what he calls America's first "master-planned Chinatown" -- and, on the way, helped take immigrant enterprise into new territory. Mr. Chen and a few others, mostly East Asians with capital, have come up with an angle that lets middle-class immigrants move away from the coasts and into America's inland car culture without leaving their own cultures behind.

These investors have brought to life what might be called the ethnic commercial enclave, a cross between the regional mall and the corner store. Because their customers live scattered in unsegregated subdivisions, instant-Asia shopping centers can park anyplace where the rent is low and the drive-time reasonable. These commercial spaces are taking on all the intimate social functions of the old immigrant neighborhood. The neighborhood is the only thing missing.

Rice-loving shoppers from the suburbs are driving to about 70 stand-alone Asian shopping centers on the coasts -- not only in New York and Los Angeles, but Seattle, Baltimore and Miami -- and to about 50 in such mid-American cities as Denver, Minneapolis and Phoenix.

So this cat Chen begins modestly by first opening a Chinese video store, giving him the necessary market intelligence on where the local Asian community lives (how's that for bootstrap market research?). It's a small population (in 1990), so he orients (no pun) his business plan around the annual streams of Chinese gamblers en route from California who don't want to be relegated to all-you-can-eat buffet specials at Vegas casinos (Chinese are an infamously finicky bunch when it comes to grub):

In 1990, Nevada's entire Chinese population was just 6,618. To test the market for his shopping center, he opened another Chinese-video service there. Customers supplied their zip codes, and that gave him a map of where Las Vegas Asians lived. Video rentals were understandably sluggish. "It was very risky," he says. "People warned us." But like all Chinatowns, he reckoned his would draw tourists -- especially in the shape of hungry Asian gamblers.

"Do you want population before you build, or do you build to attract population?" says Mr. Chen. "You don't want to be late. You want to be early. That's the game."

With Mr. Hwang (who immigrated on an investor's visa) and a second friend who owns a button factory in China, he acquired eight acres on Spring Mountain Road for a project that would cost $10 million. It was a rough district of wholesalers, small factories, topless bars and no Chinese people.

That's where Mr. Chen wanted to build. But first, he went after the one anchor tenant that he knew would make a desert Chinatown work: 99 Ranch -- America's biggest Asian supermarket chain with 26 west-coast stores and franchises in Phoenix and Atlanta. The number 99 is lucky to Chinese, and "ranch" sounded trendy to another Chen from Taiwan -- Roger Chen -- who founded the chain in 1984.

Ah yes, 99 Ranch, the mother of all Asian grocery stores. Think of the largest Kroger supermarket you know, but triple the size and selection of the seafood and butcher sections. Picture endless rows of fish tanks, shellfish, and gourmet seafood esoterica like geoduck. 99 Ranch stores usually anchor a shopping strip, which include a number of complementary restaurants and retail businesses. They are a magnet for luring Asian shoppers from all over and are a distinguishing feature of Chinese American suburbia. Hell, they practically define it. When Charles Schwab decided to target the U.S. Chinese market several years back, they simply opened up retail branches right next to 99 Ranch stores.

But I digress. By adopting the "if you build it, they will come" approach, Mr. Chen's Chinatown Plaza succeeded. Pretty soon, waves of Asian Americans poured into Las Vegas over the intervening decade, a move made easier by the fact there was now a "Chinatown" not too far away:

Since it opened in Las Vegas, and perfected an ability to truck swimming fish over long distances, the 99 Ranch here has turned into a gold mountain. "I thought the population growth would slow down," says Jason Chen, Roger's nephew and the Las Vegas franchisee. "It went the other way. It keeps going and going."

The nation's fastest-growing state, Nevada had two million people in 2000. Of them, 90,000 were Asian, a 250% increase in 10 years. Yet Las Vegas census maps show them lightly sprinkled. Fewer than 2,000 live in Chinatown Plaza's immediate surrounds.

In suburban Los Angeles or New Jersey, and the old urban enclaves of New York or San Francisco, Asian districts encircle Asian malls. In Las Vegas and young cities like it, the ghettos are gone. Hispanics, more numerous and less affluent, still cluster, but Asians often migrate from the coasts and integrate economically before they arrive. Along with the many others who move to Las Vegas each year, Asians are buying houses in the developments that are advancing into the desert like pink-stucco lava flows. Still, they're rarely more than 10 miles from Chinatown Plaza.

"We don't go to the neighborhood," says James Chen's son, Alan, who was born in Los Angeles. "The neighborhood comes to us."

What's amazing about this case study is that places like Chen's Chinatown Plaza are now being replicated by like-minded pioneers in new residential subdivisions across the country -- places where, though there may not be a densely concentrated Asian community, there are enough patrons willing to traverse relatively lengthy distances for a small taste of home. Subsequently, these "New Chinatowns" have become the catalyst for further economic development, as consumers begin purchasing homes and forming communities in proximity to them.

(Hat tip, Joel.)

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 1:46 am

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

The Warped World of Youth Marketers

I hate it when researchers tout their study as "groundbreaking" -- especially when the results are only merely "interesting." So file this one under the latter category. (BTW, I'm sure I've committed this sin myself, using "groundbreaking" or "landmark" in my own press releases in the past, so call me a hypocrite. Mea culpa. I've reformed and vowed to choose more original terminology for the future.)

In any case, Harris Interactive and Kid Power have recently released their own poll among youth marketers, and this is what they've found:

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – April 20, 2004 – A new ground-breaking survey of professionals who work in youth-related fields shows that they feel it is appropriate to begin marketing to children at age seven, on average. This is more than two years before they feel most young people can view advertising critically (age 9.1), or when they feel most young people can effectively separate fantasy from reality in media and advertising (age 9.3). Youth marketers feel it is appropriate to target marketing to children almost five years before they feel that most young people can make intelligent choices as consumers (age 11.7).

In other words, most youth marketers are as contradictory as I am -- except more so. At least I'm cognizant about being contradictory consistently! (Huh? -- ed. Don't think about it too much.)

These youth marketing professionals believe Age 7 is an appropriate age to target kids with advertising, yet also say that Age 9 is when kids can start viewing advertising critically. Er, isn't that a tad erratic? Other results show that 61% believe advertising to children begins at too young an age (presumably this means 7 years old is just right), and 74% think the positive impacts of their organization outweighs any negatives. If there's anything "groundbreaking" about this study, it's that youth marketers are a confused, screwed-up bunch!

Incidentally, did anyone think to ask the parents of these kids what the appropriate age is to market stuff to them? More later...

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 6:42 pm

Koolin' It Down

Here's a followup to my post from April 1 on the cigarette brand, Kool, accused of targeting youth (a tsk-tsk accompanied by a heady fine if true), especially African American minors, using hip hop iconography and grassroots marketing promotions. It looks like the tobacco firm will be ceasing its hip-hop themed promotions and modifying course:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. has scaled back a marketing campaign featuring hip-hop characters that critics said was aimed at black youths and violated a legal settlement between the industry and 46 states.

Brown & Williamson attorney Neil Mellen said in a recent letter to Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe, who is in charge of enforcing the 1998 agreement with tobacco companies, that the company no longer is packaging Kool cigarettes using images of youthful rappers, disc jockeys and dancers to sell them.

The April 16 letter, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, said the Louisville, Ky.-based company stopped distributing those cigarettes March 30, shortly after receiving a complaint from Rowe.

Rowe told the company to halt the ad campaign, saying the advertisements, retail displays and packaging "appear to be targeted to youth, and particularly African-American youth." Under terms of the legal settlement, tobacco companies are barred from targeting teens through advertising or marketing.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of marketing path Brown & Williamson adopts from here. It's difficult to make the case Kool only targets Black kids, since most hip hop consumers (and trend-followers) aren't event Black. Nevertheless, it's apparent Kool already has loyal brand cache with young African Americans, as evidenced by this column in the St. Louis Dispatch:

Being cool wasn't a motivating factor for me. I started smoking in my early 30s. My business partner smoked. Maybe it was curiosity, boredom, stress or the fact that I liked her that got me started (after all, we were married years later). Either way, I went from "bumming a square" to buying whole packs.

One day, I stopped at a gas station to buy cigarettes with a buddy of mine. I asked for the brand I usually smoked - Marlboro Lights. My friend gave me the oddest look.

"What're you doing smoking those white folks' cigarettes?" he asked.

My friend smoked Kools with menthol. He shook one out of his pack, lit it and took a long drag.

"These, my brotha, are the kind black folks smoke."

Here I thought all cigarettes tasted the same (like I said before, I'm a stogie kind of guy), but no...

My friend wasn't just, ahem, blowing smoke. Blacks make up 65 percent to 75 percent of menthol cigarette consumers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most popular mentholated brands among black adults and teens are Newport, Kool and Salem.

Tobacco companies spend millions attracting and maintaining consumers. And blacks are big business. A CDC study released this year reported that the tobacco industry promotes a positive image in the community by supporting African-American cultural events, colleges, community organizations and scholarship programs. It also pointed out that major African-American magazines receive proportionately higher profits from cigarette advertisements than other magazines

Read the rest of the article here. Hat tip to Negrophile.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 6:04 pm

Last week, I was going to blog about two important Hispanic media studies that were released, one by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) and the other by the Pew Hispanic Center out of Washington DC. I didn't have time to tackle the former, and only marginally touched upon the latter, but thought both studies deserved to be discussed and dissected in a single piece since they produced very different conclusions. Instead, I've put my thoughts into this week's RetailWire column. Here's the lede:

Mixing Media: Spanish-Language Advertising and Hispanic Marketing
By Thomas Tseng

In two influential studies released last week, marketers who target the Hispanic market learned two things: one, Spanish-language advertising spending is not commensurate with the total size of the U.S. Hispanic population; and two, it may not really matter.

Let me explain. The first study was sponsored by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA). At their semi-annual pow-wow in Miami last week, the trade group released their annual report on corporate advertising allocations to Hispanic marketing. The report, "Ad Budget Alignment: Maximizing Impact in the Hispanic Market," showed that among the top 670 U.S. corporate advertisers, 5.1% of total spending is now dedicated to Hispanic advertising.

......

You'll have to the rest of it at RetailWire (it's a free subscription), where you can also read the comments of other esteemed panelists on my piece (and offer your own opinions too). It's an ongoing dialogue. I'm still playing catch-up this week on multiple things and dealing with a flood of work, so more stuff later in the day.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 11:04 am

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Meet the New American Family

Remember the Elliotts? That mixed-race family that kicks off Verizon's "Meet the Families" television campaign I blogged about back on March 22? Well, you can also meet their neighbors in the Verizon ads, the Davises and the Sandovals, who are African American and Latino, respectively (What? No Chens? -- ed.) No doubt each family's execution was conceived by Verizon's three different agencies for this campaign.

Seth Stevenson, ad critic for Slate magazine (I hear him also on NPR's Day-to-Day every once in awhile), critiques the Verizon Elliotts campaign and finds that in spite of the ads' trite elements, he kinda enjoys the family-sitcom riff -- especially the transcultural, rainbow-color casting of the strategy. Some highlights:

But most intriguing of all to me is the mixed-race casting of the Elliott family. Because while the Davises and Sandovals are narrowly targeted to specific demographics, the Elliotts are Verizon's "mass market family," as Rubenstein puts it. They're meant to appeal to everyone, nationwide, as a flagship symbol of Verizon's brand. Yet they're pretty non-traditional by the standards of gargantuan ad buys. I've seen a few other ethnicity-blind, mass-market spots. (A recent Volkswagen ad comes to mind, in which the characters were all South–Asian.) But I don't think I've seen a mixed-race family as the focus of a large, long-term campaign. And certainly not a mixed-race family where the dad's so defiantly white-bread and race is so beside the point.

Of course, nothing's really beside the point when it comes to a big-budget ad. Verizon is using race as a marketing tool but in a way we haven't seen much before. The casting here isn't intended to pander to one specific ethnic audience. Nor is it a grudging corporate concession. (Look, we put a black guy in our ad! Way back in the corner! Not speaking!)

In the Elliotts campaign, race is 1) an attention-getting gimmick and 2) a way to lend the brand a modern, distinctive vibe. This is a delicate (and slightly duplicitous) balancing act, because No. 1 relies on the fact that a mixed-race family is still sort of a big deal while No. 2 relies on Verizon treating it as no big deal at all.

Grade: B. This ad made me stop and pay attention. And I'm a sucker for PC utopias. I'm actually looking forward to more Elliotts "episodes."

Read it all here. Incidentally, one of the reasons for my blogging hiatus (at least these past few days) is because I was at this conference as one of its presenters and co-chairs. But more on that later. Coincidentally, one of Verizon's multicultural directors was also there to talk about their grassroots multicultural marketing activities -- but no discussion of the Elliotts! So I jumped at the opportunity to ask him at the conclusion of his presentation.

As I suspected, the initiative was pushed by the higher-ups at Verizon who demanded their three agencies of record (general market, African American, Hispanic) work together on the campaign. A forced advertising marriage if you will. This is, as you'll remember, called "crossover creative" which I'll be talking more about in the months ahead.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 5:40 pm

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Television, Drug of the Nation (Still!)

Some late afternoon headlines for y'all:

Reports of television's demise have been greatly exaggerated! Sure, TV ratings are down among the much touted 18-34 male demographic -- much of it blamed on the migration to the Internet and gaming. BUT, this study just unveiled by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) demonstrates that young consumers still consider TV just as integral as the Web. In fact, they frequently use 'em both at the same time!
So what are they watching on TV? According to Children Now, they are seeing mostly, uh, white people, and a few more Latinos than before -- at least on prime-time network television. In the group's 4th annual Prime-Time Diversity Report, which tracks minority casting on prime-time network shows, results show that:

The number of Latino characters has increased to more than six percent of the 2003-04 prime-time population, up from 4% in 2001-02. Among opening credits characters, the percentage increased threefold, from two percent to six percent. More than half of all prime time shows now include at least one Latino character.

The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander characters has not changed over the past five years, and the percentage of Asian "opening credits" characters actually declined, from two percent in 1999-2000 to one percent this season.

Nearly half of Arab/Middle Eastern characters (46%) were criminals. Both Latinos and Middle Easterners were more likely to be criminals than to have a professional job such as a doctor or a judge.
But, hey, maybe things are a slightly better in print media's newsroom! Oops, maybe not...
Speaking of print media, the editor of the newly-launched (at least here in L.A.) Hoy -- the chief thorn-in-the-side to Spanish-language daily La Opinión -- pens this denunciation (in English!) against Samuel Huntington's book in the op-ed pages of their mothership, the Chicago Tribune.
Speaking of Sam Huntington, a number of folks in the blogosphere have identified the true unmeltable Hispanic menace here. Warning! Not for the faint-hearted (Seen originally at Latino Pundit).

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 4:21 pm

NASCAR Kids

Is this the NASCAR demographic Dubya is pandering too? Today's Miami Herald has the scoop on the latest street fad being embraced by the hip hop commonwealth:

It's a phenomenon quietly spreading across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York, Miami to Detroit, and taken some by surprise: Garb associated with NASCAR, historically the gritty darling of white men and women from the South, is now a must-have for many urban African-American youths.

''I only just recognized [the trend] last week,'' said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD Group, a New York retail consulting firm. ``It was the young urban consumer, primarily African-American.

'I thought, `Wow! What's going on?' We're talking about white, blue-collar, rural sports,'' Cohen said. ``NASCAR will argue they're not that. But tell that to the African-American community.''

A funny thing about grassroots, urban hip hop trends: the confounding cluelessness registered by representatives of the product in question. We've seen this before among spokespeople for Cadillac, Lincoln, La Courvoisier, and others when their brands unexpectedly surge in hip hop popularity. I mean, you can almost see the bewildered looks on the faces of these people:

Not everyone is aware of the trend -- even among those selling NASCAR wares. QVC, the cable shopping station with a weekly NASCAR program, doesn't gather demographics on its customers.

Still, when Dennis D'Angelo, QVC's director of merchandising for NASCAR, was asked about new urban clientele: ''We don't know about that,'' he said.

The street fashion industry has yet to register the movement, too. Joe Hudick, an employee at h272, a store owned by hip-hop artist DJ Honda in the Village in Manhattan, saw plenty of NASCAR jackets in Orlando recently.

Said Hudick, who is 25 and white, ``The puffy ones, like redneck style.''

But they weren't on black kids, he said.

''I would never believe that, if you told me,'' he said.

This is genuine viral marketing, straight up. Even if it is unintentional. Shout out to Negrophile.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 6:20 am

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Hispanics Migrating to English-Language Media

Research alert, research alert! There was a time any private research firm surveying Latino households -- especially those tied to Hispanic marketing -- who put out data showing Latinos as consuming anything other than Spanish-language media, were instantly relegated to black-sheep status, to be shunned by the Hispanic marketing establishment. Call it the Univision stranglehold effect. Thankfully, the not-for-profit Pew Hispanic Center now releases this type of agenda-less research, so the rest of us don't have to. Fresh off the AP newswires:

The poll found 31 percent of Hispanics get all their news in English, 24 percent get all their news in Spanish and 44 percent get their news from media in both languages.

"The preference for Spanish-language media is highest among recent arrivals to this country," said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, sponsor of the poll. "It's very clear that the size of the future market for the Spanish-language media depends on the number of Hispanics allowed to emigrate here."

Suro said "the longer Hispanics are here in this country, the more they migrate out of Spanish-only media, either to English-language or to be switchers. There's a question whether the Spanish-language media can still exercise some hold on the second generation of immigrants."

Not surprising really. To me, the real story here -- marketers take note! -- is the number of people who say they consume both forms of news media -- English and Spanish -- so a mix in advertising and communications in both languages may be the ideal. Still, while it's clear English-language media gradually becomes the preferred medium with greater acculturation, it's also apparent that there's greater implicit trust in Spanish-language media's portrayal of Latinos:

Views of the media's role in society were generally far more positive among those who get all of their news from Spanish-language outlets.

"Only half of the foreign born population gets all their news from Spanish-language media only," said Suro. But he said that "the Spanish-language media is held in very high esteem as an ethnic institution, it is very important to the Hispanic community."

Lastly, here's something that should give pause to both President Bush's and Senator Kerry's existing campaigns to court the Hispanic vote:

Hispanics who are registered to vote and have cast ballots tend to prefer English-language media. More than half of Hispanic voters, 53 percent, get all their news in English, and 40 percent of that group gets their news in both languages, the poll found.

What have I been saying all along? Go and visit the Pew Hispanic Center for more details. Download the report here (Adobe Acrobat required).

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 12:20 am

Monday, April 19, 2004

Coiffure & Cream

There is perhaps no other industry that has to consider physical features and cultural preferences among consumers of different race and ethnic backgrounds more than the cosmetics industry. In fact, L'Oreal, the French hair-product and makeup conglomerate, has a crackpot team of researchers out of their think tank in Chicago who specifically study this sort of thing. No wonder, it's big business:

Following the purchase of SoftSheen/Carson last year, a brand marketed to African Americans, the Paris-based company has said it is upping money earmarked for research to 4% of US$22-billion in annual sales, up from 3% previously. L'Oreal, known for everything from Maybelline makeup to Lancome skin cream, has 17 research facilities around the world and the Chicago laboratory will soon be joined by an institute in China dedicated to finding new offerings for those of Asian descent.

Chicago, with its diverse population and collection of universities, seemed the perfect spot for L'Oreal's US$11-million investment and there appears to a big business opportunity in hair sprays and skin creams made just for African Americans.

U.S. figures suggest "ethnic" consumers account for 51% of all hair-care sales and spend twice as much of their income on hair products than Caucasians.

There is, however, scant research about this population's hair and skin, meaning most products on the drugstore shelf aren't made with their unique traits in mind.

There's a method to this: study how to improve beauty products geared to a diversifying base of ethnic consumers on the one hand, and scale up your marketing efforts to reach them on the other:

Looking at individual marketers, L'Oreal almost doubled its Hispanic TV spending last year, to $18 million between January and September 2003 from $10 million the previous year. Comparable print figures aren't available, but L'Oreal is the biggest advertiser in this month's debut issue of Thalia, named for Mexican singer-actress Thalia Sodi, from American Media's Latino Magazine Group.

Results? Market leadership in ethnic beauty sales, for one; two, L'Oreal will likely reach it's 20th straight year of double-digit earnings growth in 2004:

In the global $60 billion beauty industry, being first feels familiar to L'Oreal. Analysts expect that 2003 sales, to be released this week, will hit $18.2 billion, allowing the company to achieve its 19th consecutive year of double-digit earnings growth. According to Morgan Stanley, L'Oreal is the only cosmetics company over the past five years to have maintained or grown its market share in categories like cosmetics and hair care, both globally and in the U.S.

For an alternative take on the ethnic beauty business (the surgical side of things), check out MTV's SuChin Pak's journal on her "My Life Translated" series, which recently tackled the story of Asian American women who get double eyelid surgery. My personal opinion of this procedure: it's a tragedy. I never realized how prevalent it was. After watching the program myself, I now look at every single random Asian female on the street to determine if their eyelids have been done (being here in L.A., you wonder if a lot of other things are real too). I can't help it, it's become a fixation. Like Austin Powers staring at Fred Savage bespotted face yelling "moley mole!"

More on Suchin in this month's Audrey. (I predict big things for this standout among MTV VJ's).

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 6:20 pm

Friday, April 16, 2004

Melting Blog Rundown:

image from Transculturalism

Recent visitors to this site may be asking What's this blog about? Well, besides whatever the heck captures my fancy, this space is dedicated to my (near) daily musings on how U.S. marketing is being shaped by America's growing cultural diversity and changing demographic forces -- and vice versa. Specifically, how is the unprecedented growth of ethnic and immigrant populations transforming the consumer landscape? What's Corporate America doing about it? As a research house hired by corporate marketers to investigate this stuff, we like to think we have a unique take on this multicultural marketplace.

In addition, TMB will make occasional (okay frequent) forays into immigration issues, the cultural assimilation debate, the influence of hip hop culture in the marketplace, the nation's evolving post-ethnic identity, and the general, fascinating interweaving of America's amazingly diverse ethnic quilt -- quite a mix, huh? One thing TMB will not delve into is politics -- not because there's no interest on my part (I'm a part-time policy wonk afterall) -- but because there's already enough freakin' great political blogs out there. Then again, I reserve the right to renege on that. It's my blog afterall.

Lastly, this blog is an attempt for me to hang onto to any hip credentials I used to have (or thought I had) now that I'm in my thirties. Y'know, just to prove I'm not simply another corporate lackey (did I mention I was involved in public policy?)

Y'all still with me? Good. Here's a rundown of some recent TMB-approved items:

From the publishers of Trace Magazine comes this book launch, entitled "Transculturalism" -- a collection of essays on "how the world is coming together." You can read a few of 'em: in particular, check out Trace editor-in-chief, Claude Grunitzky's intro piece on what "transculturalism" means and Graham Brown-Martin's "Rise of the Mixed-Race Majority." Many of these themes are echoed in my own article on transculturalism's impact on ethnic marketing from last year.
What do you call yourself if you're Nigerian-Jamaican-Canadian? Peep the Black Girl Chronicles, as spotted by Black Cinderella.
On the business front, Meximerica Media (mentioned here this past Monday) formally unveils the name of their Spanish-newspaper endeavor: Rumbo. The term "on your way" evokes a Spanish phrase "heading north for a better life" according to the press release. Distribution begins in key Texas markets this summer.
To counter, Monica "Bring It On" Lozano, publisher of La Opinión -- no doubt feeling the heat from the recent surge of new competition -- announces a partnership with the Houston Chronicle to distribute the youth-oriented La Vibra ("the Vibe"). The Chronicle begins distributing this weekly pop entertainment tabloid for young Latinos in Houston next week -- bringing total circulation for it up to 250,000.
Whoa! One-third of all telecommunications services in the U.S. will be spent by ethnic markets, according to this new study. That's $94 billion dollars of $288 billion for you folks at home keeping count. Makes sense, who else is making all those long-distance calls?
A shamless plug: our company has launched Retail Wire's Multicultural Marketplace -- it's just like a blog, except it's for retail executives looking to dialogue among other experts. Limited appeal, I know, but those of you out there interested in retail trends (we know you're out there) in the grocery, supermarket, or big-box business, join the fun!
Completely off-topic: Mark Cuban pimp slaps Donald Trump! Read the Dallas Mavericks owner's own blog for the scintillating details.

Finally, I've received more than a few inquiries asking about RSS feeds. Yeah, I know it's about time I move over to a more blog-friendly format. I'm working on it. The full transition to Movable Type will happen. Be patient....

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 4:42 pm