The Melting Blog Archives

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Musings on the Intersection of Culture, Marketing, and Research

Friday, January 30, 2004

Poll Shows Mixed Latino Support for Bush's Immigration Plan

Back on 1-9 ("A Mix of Hope and Suspicion"), I blogged that the President's immigration plan was unlikely to garner the level of support he was seeking among the Latino electorate. I figured since I heard nary a word about it in his State of Union address, Bush and his White House advisers must be hushing up -- realizing they didn't get the positive reaction they had hoped for (plus, it ticked off a furious outrage among the far right spectrum of the Prez's GOP base). As it turns out, I was right.

According to this just-released poll by New California Media, Latinos are cagey about the proposal, especially the more they learn about it. Among other things, the poll tracked in sequence: (1) overall awareness and support/opposition among respondents, (2) followed by a description of the temporary worker program, and (3) then asked again the question of support/opposition (post-definition). Check out these results:

All of a sudden, those 'Don't Knows' realize they know they don't like it! Among undocumented immigrants, the initial, pre-definition reaction to the proposal is undeniably positive: 58% support the plan, while only 19% oppose it. After the program is described, however, support falls significantly to 42% while opposition skyrockets to 50%.

So what, they can't vote anyway! Okay, let's look at registered voters then. Before the proposal description, support is already somewat low at 35%, but it is still higher than the opposition at 24%. After the description, support for the proposal actually inches up to 42% -- but opposition nearly doubles to 47%, almost half of registered voters! All in all, support for Bush's immigration plan is decidedly mixed -- and, I might add, utterly underwhelming. I'm sure this is not the kind of bump Karl Rove had in mind.

That said, Bush still has his base of Hispanic support. Remember, he captured 35% of their vote in 2000. Further, based on Pew results from earlier this month, Latinos generally give props to the President's job performance, as my colleague David pointed out earlier.

P.S. One small, nitpicky point of contention with this survey. It has to do with the description of the immigration plan used in the survey questionnaire -- the one which effectively swings respondents' post-awareness from general support or indecision to opposition. Here it is:

Let me tell you about President Bush's immigration proposal. It would grant working undocumented immigrants in the United States temporary legal status or work visas for three years. The work permits or visas would be renewable for an additional three years. After that, most of those in the program would have to return to their native country. (emphasis mine)

The fact is, it's completely uncertain what will happen after these temporary working visas expire after six years. The plan doesn't go further beyond that. Maybe it'll get renewed again, maybe not. Maybe some folks can renew, but not others. We just don't know! As Donald Rumsfeld would say: it's one of those 'known unknowns' (or is that 'unknown unknowns'?)

Read the article here. Download the report here.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 1:52 am

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

The Lowdown on ImaginAsianTV

Last month (12-17) I submitted a brief blog entry about the arrival of ImaginAsianTV, billed as "the first national 24-hour Asian American television network" and set to launch this upcoming August.

I was surprised to learn about this for several reasons: As a proportion of ethnic advertising spending, the U.S. Asian market tends to get short shrifted compared to Hispanic marketing. Marketers salivate at the desirable qualities of the Asian demographic (high income, education, etc.) but get allergic when they realize the dizzying array of languages, ethnicities, and nationalities that comprise the U.S. Asian market. It gets even trickier when you talk about reaching that English-fluent 2nd generation, since they -- apart from a few niche print and online vehicles -- have few media channels specifically targeted at them.

So along comes iaTV and I'm immediately intrigued. A national network? 24-hour programming? Targeting Asian Americans? Will this be advertiser driven? Who are these guys and, more importantly, what are they drinking?

Well, somehow through this blog they contacted me, and so earlier today I spoke with Anil Srivatsa, iaTV's SVP of Sales & Operations. Here's what I learned:

Initially, a big chunk of their fully-advertiser funded programming will be imported content from Asia -- films, tv-shows, music videos, etc. All the programming will be broadcast in their original language but will also feature English subtitles (done in-house). Anil tells me Asians in Asia are already a "subtitled culture" -- and a pan-Asian pop culture sensibility already prevails there. For example, I had no idea the hottest band in the Phillipines is a Taiwanese pop group. Apparently, examples like this abound across the eastern Pacific Rim.

iaTV's prime time programming will have English-speaking hosts -- on-air personalities serving as quasi-VJ's I imagine -- who will introduce programs, offer commentary, and otherwise create a bond with those aforementioned English-speaking viewers. I'm assured that the overall look and feel of their production is designed to appeal to youth, since that 18 to 32 year old viewer is their primary demo.

At the outset, iaTV hopes to develop two signature shows to complement the imported programs. Eventually, they hope to generate more of their own original content.

The channel will be offered on basic cable, rather than through a premium subscription-based service, since they want to cast a broad net (as of now, they've made significant in-roads in some markets and are still working on getting into other key markets prior to launch). The network hopes to draw a significant crossover audience from the mainstream general market -- appealing to a sizable 'non-Asian' viewership (this is also important to upstart African American network, TV One, and has been a critical part of BET's success too). According to Anil, the emphasis of iaTV is to be a "niche" station, not necessarily an "ethnic" one.

Lest you think these are a bunch of neophytes chasing a quixotic dream, better think again. The senior executives of iaTV's management team draw from a deep well of experience in media and entertainment. Their previous affiliations include the Dish Network, the Discovery Channel, Paramount, Universal, etc. Their pedigree is pretty solid, which gives this venture plenty of needed heft.

"The mainstream is now ready to embrace something Asian," according to Anil. I'm eager to find out.

For more info, you can click here to read their press release.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 12:56 am

Marketing Historically-Black Colleges

This strikes me as very innovative marketing: Throw a ~~big party~~ juggernaut of an extravaganza -- music, celebrity, games -- but make the kids visit prospective college seminars in order to attend. According to the L.A. Times, this is what the Black College Expo has done this year:

With more than 50,000 in attendance at the expo, lines form everywhere — stretching longer than the length of a football field for the entertainment, headlined by Cannon and also including the romantic balladeer Brian McKnight, rapper Warren G. and old-school songbird Angela Winbush.

The lines are long for another reason. This year, unlike years past, the fifth annual Black College Expo requires everyone who wants to enjoy the entertainment to get stamps from three colleges and attend at least one seminar on preparation, hot careers or financial aid, or be caught dead at the one for parents.

"I want them to earn it," expo founder Theresa Price says. Without these requirements, many youngsters would head straight for the fun: the dance contests, the mini basketball court, the flashy new Fords and the "step shows," those precisely synchronized marching, dancing and singing routines performed by members of black fraternities and sororities.

Price, who owns a full-service marketing company, developed the expo to introduce local teenagers to historically black campuses because she had never heard of them when she chose Cal State Long Beach. "I felt left out," she says.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 12:25 am

The "Creative Arrogance" of Advertising Agencies

It's rare thing to see marketers study the culture of other marketers. But this is what we have here. The Association of National Advertisers -- which represents over 300 folks in the marketing profession -- has released its annual survey. The results aren't very flattering to agency culture and reveals the inner-acrimony brewing inside many advertising agencies. The lede:

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- About a third of the major marketers polled by the Association of National Advertisers believe their advertising agencies are infected by "creative arrogance," charge too much and fail to produce work that is on strategy, according to a new ANA report.

Adrants has more on this, sprinkled with additional commentary:

Seems agencies dirty little secret has been found out. Without bashing all agency creatives, the problem stems from the inability of some in advertising to realize that making an ad is not art. It's a commerce of craft. While agencies do need to stand their ground on creative and strategic direction if they truly believe in it and it's backed up by research but at the same time, they need to realize the client is the one paying the bill and is the one who has the final say.

As a marketing research firm, we definitely see this more than we care to remember. If the research results don't fit the already pre-conceived agenda or creative direction of the client marketer (whether it's the ad agency or the end client), it's disregarded. Or spun like a roulette wheel. Moreover:

Like anything, there bad marketers and there are bad agencies. It's a very personal, opinionated business. The problem arises when people with no personality and opinions based on nothing rise to positions of power and ruin it for the rest of us.

Yep, I feel ya. I've been in those situations myself before starting this company.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 12:20 am

Ethnic Marketing's New Buzz: Crossover Creative

The Miami Herald, on the beat of this past week's Strategic Research Institute (SRI) Hispanic marketing conference, again highlights what is becoming the hot new buzzword in ethnic marketing circles: Crossover Creative -- aka, the development of bilingual ads that air for both general market and (in this case) Spanish-language media. Key grafs:

The Coca-Cola spot, which features the Mexican actress Salma Hayek speaking Spanish in the kitchen of a restaurant and then English at the table with her dining companions, aired on both English- and Spanish-language networks without subtitles.

Hispanics ''are perceived by the general market as cool and aspirational, so that's why we're able to run this type of advertising,'' Kunda said, adding that society today is more open and tolerant of other cultures than in the past.

Volkswagen recently ran two commercials that featured Hispanic actors in both markets. One had no dialogue; the other had only one word, in Spanish.

The key is ''visual storytelling,'' said Daniel Marrero, president and creative director of Creative on Demand, the shop that designed the ads.

'General consumers like the spots because they're good spots, and Hispanics like them because they say, `Hey, this is for me.' '' Marrero said.

The marketing pros predict that more advertisers will follow suit as they attempt to reach the burgeoning bilingual market, which will soon surpass the foreign-born Hispanic immigrant population, which speaks mainly Spanish.

I posted a reaction to this "crossover creative" phenemenon back on 11/10/03 when the Herald (by the same writer) reported the trend fresh off the tracks from the Nov. 4, '03 ANA conference. The question for me is whether this is really a full-fledged trend (at this point it's just a handful of companies, albeit big influential ones), or just a strategy by corporate marketers to squeeze more out of less -- streamlining (creating competition between?) general marketing and ethnic advertising resources. I gotta admit though, the ads are good.

(Isn't this just an excuse to post a pic of Salma Hayek? -- ed. You bet. Here's more.)

PLUG: David and I will be presenting at the April SRI conference here in Los Angeles. Maybe we'll include more of our reactions to this fad.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 12:03 am

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The Pope's Hip Hop Epiphany

Stereo Boom Box: $99.99

Round trip airfare from Warsaw to Rome: $386.00 + tax

Spinning on your head in Vatican Hall with Pope John Paul II as your audience:

Priceless.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 1:33 am

Monday, January 26, 2004

Wannabe Bloggers

It seems I've sparked a bit of a blogging revolution here within our company. If you look at our entries from the previous week, you'll notice postings from three different members of this outfit, some who have just been stricken by the blogging spirit and have whipped up a whirling dervish of posts. There's good stuff there to peruse and traffic has shot up.

However, most of you have been shielded from the comedy of technical errors behind this blogging frenzy. Since The Melting Blog does not use true blogging software (and I make a pretty lame techie), entries posted via multiple sources have been accidentally erased, postings have appeared out-of-sequence or past-the-dates of entry, and general chaos has ensued. Not the easiest way for you readers to digest the information I'm afraid.

But fret not, help comes in the way of Movable Type, which we've finally purchased, installed onto the server, and are now trying to learn (how many market researchers does it take to figure out a new software program?). In the next several weeks (I hope), we will be shifting our presence in the blogosphere over to a more user-friendly format, and we (David, Susanna, Julio, myself, and others) will each have our own personal blog pages on this site. There will be RSS feeds! There will be user comments! There will be an automatic archive system! In short, we will have real blogs--graduating from our wannabe status.

And believe you me, we will have a lot to share about this New America that is our namesake. Look out Jupiter Research bloggers...

UPDATE: David's Blog is already up on MT! He's seeking a name for it -- email him here for suggestions.

UPDATE II (2-7-04): All previous blog entries from my colleagues have now been moved to their own personal blog pages on the New American Dimensions website. Visit them now.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 2:05 pm

Friday, January 23, 2004

Pepsi Sings iTunes To Teens

From today's Adrants:

In a sort of FU to the Recording Industry Association of America, Pepsi has recruited RIAA-targeted file-sharers for an upcoming campaign. The 20 or so teens who have been accused of illegal downloading, will appear in a Pepsi-Cola ad that kicks off a two-month offer of up to 100 million free - and legal - downloads from Apple's iTunes. The ad, which will air during the February 1 broadcast of the Super Bowl and be seen by an estimated 88 million viewers, is a jab at the download political hot button. Pepsi hopes this move will help teens identify with Pepsi as a company who "gets it" and to bring teens, who've shown more affinity for bottled water, energy drinks and the Internet, back to Pepsi products.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 2:44 pm

Thursday, January 22, 2004

2004: Year of the Monkey

(photo from Raku Loren)

Usually, the only way I remember it's Chinese New Year is when my parents actually remind me. You see, I'm what most Chinese outside the U.S. call an ABC. It's the time of year when I need to haul ~~ass~~, er, butt home for a big meal with the folks. However, since I'm way past the age where I get any red envelopes (those were the gold ole' days), the occasion to celebrate diminishes for me each year I get older. Plus, I never remember which creature/animal/livestock is associated with what year. This year, Google reminds me.

In any case, some folks in Wales (of all places) are taking this Chinese new year tradition seriously and wrote up some pretty wry observations about the use and etiquette of chopsticks:

According to research carried out for food firm Uncle Ben’s, 60% of people eating Chinese dishes have so much trouble with chopsticks that they revert to using a knife and fork.

THE Chinese have used chopsticks for up to 5,000 years and they are also commonly used in slightly differing forms, in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

They are usually made of wood, bamboo, metal, bone, ivory and plastic.

Chopsticks are traditionally held in the right hand only, even by the left-handed.

Chopsticks should not touch the mouth. It is also poor table manners to suck on the tip of the chopsticks.

If there are serving spoons or public chopsticks on the table, use those to get the food to your own plate/bowl before switching to your own set.

Never rest your chopsticks by sticking them point-first into your bowl of rice. This is reminiscent of ancestral offerings and can be seen as disrespectful.

So Happy Chinese New Year, y'all! Or, as local newscasters here in L.A. like to butcher to death: "Gung Hay Fot Choy!"

P.S. Now, if you really want to "learn Chinese" ABC style, listen to this clip (takes a few seconds to download).

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 4:06 pm

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

The Launch of TV One

Yesterday was the inaugural launch of TV One, a new cable television network targeted squarely at African American adults and older viewers. The station -- a joint venture between Comcast and Radio One -- represents a challenge to BET's hegemony over dedicated Black viewers in the cable TV airwaves, albeit among a different slice of the African American market. According to this profile in the Washington Post:

TV One is a direct competitor to Black Entertainment Television, the first big cable television channel aimed at black viewers. It aims, though, to be different -- to eschew sexy hip-hop videos for more traditional TV fare such as sitcoms and talk shows. There is a lot riding on the channel, and not just culturally -- Radio One Inc., the nation's largest black-owned radio company, which is based in Prince George's County, has staked a lot of its cash and its reputation on this new channel being a winner.

---
The shows that will air first are "Under One Roof," a family drama starring James Earl Jones; "227," a sitcom about the residents of an urban apartment building; and Tom Joyner's "Sky Show," a live weekly concert hosted by the nationally syndicated "fly jock." They were sent by Federal Express to Littleton, Colo., where they were digitized and, today at 12:01 a.m., beamed up to a satellite that delivered them to the cable operators. Locally, Comcast positioned the network on basic cable just behind BET. Comcast will also soon carry the channel in Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and Philadelphia.

On the surface, another African American-themed cable network in the marketplace seems crowded and almost overloaded. But if you look at the market, this venture makes perfect sense. BET's programming is largely geared toward young Black viewers (and I'm certain there's a large proportion of the crossover population who aren't Black, but who are young), whereas TV One eschews the youth demographic in favor of older African American viewers who are probably equally unacquainted by the parade of rap/hip hop videos as their white counterparts.

Now, I'm off to hear the State of the Union.

UPDATE: On the other hand, it looks like there is some competitive overlap between both cable networks. TV One is setting their sights on attracting the 24- to 54- year-old demographic, while BET has created some prime time programming aimed at 18 to 49 year olds, according to this AP article. Moreover, both networks hope to appeal to some crossover audience from the general market. One analyst quoted in the article puts down the challenge for TV One in clear terms: "Are they going to have enough programming to attract not only the BET viewer but also the general market viewer?"

We'll see.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 6:06 pm

Raising Arizona

The Arizona Republic's O. Ricardo Pimentel drops science in his column today about the Grand Canyon State's growing Latino population -- delivering a stern lecture to his fellow Arizonians for stereotyping this misunderstood group. The article is based on new research produced by a Pheonix-based polling firm. A few highlights:

But what if it looked at self-identified Latinos statewide, regardless of whether they spoke Spanish, English or both? In other words, what if it looked at Latinos as they are, not based so much on where they are?

It's an exercise the rest of us in Arizona should undertake. The results shake a whole rash of common assumptions, some of them pernicious. You know, how it's a poor, struggling population that mightily resists assimilation.
---

For instance, there are two ways of looking at Latinos' language preferences in Arizona, which break down as 20 percent Spanish-dominant, 38 percent bilingual and 42 percent English dominant.

Yes, that means that 58 percent are Spanish speakers. But it also means that 80 percent are English speakers.
---

And we buy a lot of stuff, from houses to cellphones. Arizona ranked seventh in the top 10 Latino markets in the United States at $20 billion in purchasing power, behind New Jersey and ahead of Colorado.

Not assimilated? Thirty percent watch NASCAR on television.
---

But mostly what the research points to is the need to resist the old stereotypes. Latinos have assimilated, the immigrants among us participating as well.

In other words, we cannot define Latinos solely according to their problems.

Read the rest of it here.

I'm off to hear the Prez's State of the Union address...

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 5:41 pm

Monday, January 19, 2004

MLK and the Continuing Struggle

I was born a few years after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. but can confidently say that I grew up in a country left far better because of his dream and activism as a leader in the civil rights movement. As the son of immigrants, I came of age during a period vastly improved from the institutional strictures of racism and discrimination that plagued King's generation and their forebears. His book, Strength to Love, was immensely influential on me while I was still a college student during the early 90's -- both as a person of faith and as someone with more than a passing interest in social issues. They continue to resonate with me to this day.

Nevertheless, while there's no question we live in a far better and open nation, it's also hardly a leap to suggest we have still a long way to go. This is evident from today's Gallup Organization release of a nationwide poll conducted asking "How satisfied are you with each of the different aspects of your life?" Among those responding "very satisfied":

June 12-18, 2003 Whites Hispanics Blacks

Family Life
75%
73% 61%

Personal Health 58% 59% 52%

Job/Work 59% 51% 52%

Education 54% 49% 48%

Housing 69% 50% 44%

Physical Safety 63% 59% 43%

Community 67% 49% 42%

Opportunities to Succeed 61% 47% 41%

Financial Situation 32% 24% 22%

In general, African Americans and Hispanics indicate lower levels of personal contentment than Whites -- particularly in the areas of Housing, Physical Safety, Community, and Opportunities to Succeed. In light of the economic disparities that continue to persist, these results are probably not all that surprising. However, they do demonstrate that King's Vision for America still applies and is as relevant as ever.

More details about the Gallup Poll here.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 11:59 pm

The Question of Blackness

Returning visitors to this site may notice that I have finally included a blogroll to the right of this page. It will continue to grow as I discover more interesting sites covering topics relevant to the central themes of The Melting Blog -- an eclectic hybrid of advertising, anthropology, marketing, communications, demography, and sociological issues. In other words, topics of interest to ethnic marketing professionals. Afterall, this is a real business we run. (Isn't it really an excuse to waste time? -- ed. Shh... I've managed to convince my colleagues that blogging actually adds value to our clients!)

One link I want to highlight is Black Cinderella, the blog of author Debra Dickerson who is part of the growing ranks of African American pundits -- along with Leon Wynter, John McWhorter, Randall Kennedy and others -- who are now rethinking conventional orthodoxies about Black Identity and what it represents. She hasn't updated her blog since early last month, but her book -- The End of Blackness -- just came out from Pantheon. It was reviewed this past weekend here, here, and here. Here's one sample from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece:

She shines briefly, however, when she turns to the growing schism between the hip-hop generation and blacks who came of age during the civil rights era. As she puts it, "Movement blacks still flamboyantly grieve for Forty Acres and a Mule, while younger rapper Nelly flamboyantly lusts for Forty Acres and a Pool. One looks backward and the other to the future."

She offers some tantalizing points about this gap: The younger generation has diverged significantly from their elders' politics by supporting school vouchers, partial privatization of Social Security and distrusting federal government action. Moreover, she say, one-third of black voters in the younger generation are political independents and trust America "not to reinstitute the Black Codes while they're on the StairMaster."

Opinions range from across the spectrum, but I look forward to reading it nonetheless. If I ever get through the daunting stack of "to-reads" piling up on my desk, I may even post a review of it in here.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 11:29 pm

Friday, January 16, 2004

Across the Atlantic...

It's Friday evening, and --- lucky me -- I'm spending it attending focus groups. I am literally blogging from the darkened back room of a focus group facility at the moment while listening to Chinese respondents rank and discuss their retail shopping experiences in Mandarin. (I'm sure all of you in the blogosphere are reading this with sheer envy at my exhilarating, sexy occupation. Ah, the life of a market researcher...)

During one lull in the group conversation, I was browsing A Mixed Blog (luckily, there's a high speed connection in the backroom I can plug into) and caught this particularly interesting article about the Ethnically Ambiguous (E.A.) phenomenon in the UK. Evidently, EA trends across the Atlantic are strongly intertwined with American youth pop culture and marketing.

In America, the power of ethnic ambiguity has been recognised by both stars and advertising agencies keen to buy into the youth market. The actor Vin Diesel has said that his multiracial roots - his mother is Irish and his father's race is unknown - have proved to be an asset, enabling him to play a wide variety of roles. And the 'EA' background of baseball player Derek Jeter has probably helped him become one of the most photographed of America's sports stars.

Such ethnic ambiguity is of a piece with real demographic changes in America and also in the UK. Almost one million young Britons identified themselves as members of more than one race or of 'no race' in the most recent census, the first in which respondents could choose their ethnic origin. 'Mixed Race' is now the third largest ethnic minority group in Britain and is set to become the biggest over the next decade.

As blacks and Asians move away from colour-based labels, observers say that white youngsters are moving towards traditional black lifestyles, creating the new 'blended' youth. They point out that almost half the Top 40 albums and singles sold last year were by black acts. Indeed, black music is now so dominant that even white soul singers, such as Mick Hucknall and Jay Kay, win Mobo - Music of Black Origin - awards.

The article references a great deal the NYTimes' own article about E.A. that I blogged about last month (12/27/03). As discussed in the piece, these trends are primarily embraced by British youth (surprise). A Mixed Blog also links to a series of related articles from the UK's Guardian that you can read here and here. Check 'em out.

I'll have more to say about this once I come out from behind the one-way mirror.

Posted by Thomas Tseng, 8:53 pm