The Melting Blog

Pan-Asian con-Fusion

Junichi Semitsu of the Pnut House -- guest blogging at Pop Life -- has a few choice words for Pan-Asian or Asian Fusion restaurants.

To which I can only reply "Amen, brother." Since Chinese food is the No. 1 food category among today's generation of American "tweens", you gotta wonder how much of it is driven by the watered-down, inauthentic drivel served up by non-Asian restauranteurs trying to add an exotic Oriental twist to their regular faire.

In other news, my one year old laptop's gone bust and I've been travelling, so blogging will be light.

Become Culturally Attuned, Drive Sales

Why developing cultural competence is probably a good idea for your business enterprise, especially if you're in the auto industry. After all the problems associated with race discrimination among auto dealerships, it's good to finally see some success stories showing what car sellers have done to reach out to car buyers of color. After all, as the article reports, there are sound business reasons why auto dealers need to be catering to this customer base. The profit motive for one.

A Nation of Immigrants (Still)

Neither 9-11, nor a sluggish economy have diminished immigration levels in the U.S. In fact, those folks who have immigrated here since the turn of the decade are now coming in with greater degrees of human capital compared to immigrants of previous decades -- so says this new report by USA Today:

Of the 3.4 million immigrants age 25 or older who arrived from 2000 to 2004, 30.7% were high school dropouts. That compares with 33.2% of the 3.5 million who came from 1995 to 2000, says Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California. And more recent arrivals are college-educated: 34.3% had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 32.5% in the late 1990s.

Of the foreign-born Hispanics age 25 and over who arrived since 2000, about 13% had bachelor's degrees or more compared with 9% of those who came in the 1990s, according to Frey's analysis. Almost 65% of Asian newcomers had college degrees, up from 49%.

Why are today's recent immigrants coming in with better education than those of the nineties? Dowell Myers gets to the crux of the issue:

"Why are so many more immigrants now highly skilled?" Myers says. "Is it because the U.S. educational system is not putting out as many high-skilled workers? Do we have to import more workers?"

The government issued 195,000 visas a year to specialized, college-educated foreign workers sponsored by employers in 2001, 2002 and 2003, triple the norm.

The article also notes that the immigrant "second generation" -- who represent 11 percent of the total U.S. population -- is exceeding the educational and economic profiles of their parents, which should be hardly new news but at least they're officially measuring it. For all you stat geeks, go here for the detailed data.

Hat tip Anna Todorova

I Am What I Am: Reebok's New Campaign

Get ready to be blitzed by Reebok's largest marketing effort in over a decade. The No. 2 shoemaker in the country announced today the launch of a $50 million global advertising campaign, replete with their new sure-to-be-ubiquitous tag phrase: "I Am What I Am". No, Popeye ain't the new face of Reebok, but the sneaker brand has stacked up an all-star line-up of superstar endorsements across the film, sports, and hip-hop spectrum -- including Jay-Z, 50-cent, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Lucy Liu, etc. -- according to today's USA Today.

Using the poker term "All In," Reebok's chief marketing officer Dennis Baldwin said the $3.8 billion company will bet virtually its entire marketing budget on the "I Am What I am" effort over the next 18 months.

"This is an invitation to consumers. Nike's proposition of 'Just Do It' is fundamentally a command to consumers," Baldwin said. "You either do it. Or you don't do it — and you're a loser."

Roddick said expanding the global campaign beyond jocks like himself is a smart way to appeal to kids more into music than sports.

"If a kid is into music, they have someone to look up to as well (in the ads)," said Roddick, 22.

The hip-hop community has always embraced commercialism, with stars rapping about their favorite cars, clothes and liquor.

Reebok was one of the first to tap into hip-hop endorsement power by signing rappers Jay-Z and 50 Cent and launching best-selling shoes in their name. U.S. sales of footwear endorsed by them doubled in the fourth quarter, according to Reebok.

Now if I'm reading this correctly, it means that Reebok is laying its entire bank on a transcultural youth-oriented strategy (but where are the Latinos?). Remember, Reebok's comeback from the brink of extinction was built upon the house of hip hop commercialism. Their line of special edition, hip hop-endorsed footwear -- such as Jay-Z's S.Carters and 50-cent's G-unit collection -- were runaway success stories, easily outselling anything on the athletic shoe market (a slice that Nike dominates), propelling them into the No. 2 industry position. Plus, with the increasing fusion of hip hop and sports (who better than Allen Iverson? And leading record all-star vote-getter Yao is trillin' these days, no?), Nike may be getting a little bit hot and sweaty around the collars, especially if Reebok's approach pays off.

The TV spots are set to debut during the NBA All Star game. More then.

Univision Has New President

But the actual lede was buried by Bloomberg, so I'm highlighting it in bold-type:

Univision Communications Inc., the nation's largest Spanish-language television and radio broadcaster, said Wednesday that it had promoted Ray Rodriguez to president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.

He will still report to A. Jerrold Perenchio, 73, chairman and chief executive, the company said in a statement. All of Univision's businesses will report to Rodriguez, the Los Angeles-based company said.

Rodriguez, 53, joined the company in August 1990 as a vice president and was promoted to senior vice president and operating manager of the Univision network in September 1991, the company said. He became Univision network president in 1992 and has been president of its Galavision cable network and TeleFutura broadcast network since 2001.

Shares of Los Angeles-based Univision fell 7 cents, or 0.3%, to $25.99 on the New York Stock Exchange. They had fallen 27% in the last year.

A spokeswoman for Univision didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Must be them Local People Meters.

Cockle-Doodle-Doo

Before I forget, Happy New Year to everyone out there reading TMB in the blogosphere! Chinese New Year is crossin' over y'all. In another five years it'll actually be recognized as a legitimate American holiday. Hey, one can always hope...

Now here's how I know my parents -- who've been here in the states for 30 plus years -- are what we researchers like to call "acculturated". For as long as I can remember, I used to receive red envelopes stocked with benjamins from them during this time of the year. Okay, they weren't always benjamins, sometimes they were andrew jacksons, and when I was really young they were george washingtons.

This year? Nothing. In fact, I haven't gotten anything from them since hitting my thirties. "You make your own money now," they tell me. Now the Chinese New Year rule is you are supposed to receive red envelopes until you get married. I'm not getting married 'til later this summer, so this was my one last chance to cash in on this venerated tradition (it's a great tradition until the rulebook says it's time for you to give money to others). That's how acculturated my folks are: they no longer dispense the loot, traditions be damned.

On the other hand, it's also supposed to be bad luck to get married during the Year of the Rooster. But what do I care, I'm way, way acculturated. And it was a Mexican guy who told me about that too.

The Tidal Wave of New Asian American Media

Jeff Yang, the former publisher of aMagazine turned marketing mogul and a sometimes scribe, pens his astonishment at the sudden wave of 24-hour Asian American media that is about to flood the cable TV marketplace (first mentioned here last Sat). Here's a key highlight from his article in last week's San Francisco Chronicle, a quote from KTSF's station manager (about something quite familiar to folks who know my schtick):

"Looking around now, I sometimes say to myself, 'My God...what did we start?'" says Mike Sherman, general manager of KTSF.

It was Sherman who got the ball rolling on the program that would become Stir, commissioning a series of focus groups to explore the tastes and viewership interests of the Asian American youth market. "We've been in the Asian media market for 28 years, and we've always tried to follow demographic trends," he says. "The people we began serving back in 1976, they have children now, and those children speak English. We couldn't ignore this burgeoning second generation."

What those focus groups identified was a theme that runs through the business plans of all of these newly launched channels: The primary thing that young Asian Americans were hungry to see on TV was...themselves.

Yang also goes on to describe how Comcast -- the new owners of the International Channel -- tripled I-Channel's budget to produce original English-language programming this upcoming year to reach the Asian American second generation. Moreover, the article proffers an detailed glimpse into the inaugurations of ImaginAsian, American Desi, and MTV World (the tent that holds the yet-to-be-launched MTV Desi, MTV China, and MTV Korea).

I'm in equal amazement at the sudden rush to capture the 2ndGen market. Compared to just two short years ago, the ethnic media universe has practically upended itself in order to catch up to the demographic reality. It's Kuhn-sian how paradigmatically different the media landscape is becoming. But before we get all drunk on euphoria, it's good to remember these networks are still behind the curve too, with alot of ground to cover over the next few years. The jury's still out. Next up: eagerly awaiting MTV World's next big announcement...

The New Hotness

Coming this Friday to a theater near you.

While I Was Gone Part IV: The Latino L.A. Edition

This one's ambitious. Emmis Publishing, the folks behind Los Angeles Magazine, is launching a bi-monthly glossy lifestyle rag this spring geared toward the upscale Latino Angeleno. A geographically-based print publication targeted to Latinos is ballsy enough, but this one -- called Tu Ciudad Los Angeles -- will also be published en ingles, aimed squarely at "biculturals" and the "acculturated". Here's a snippet:

The full-color, high gloss magazine will serve as the authoritative source for Latino culture in the city, showcasing L.A. people, places and trends while tackling serious issues. "Latinos, and in particular Mexican-Americans, have been a vital part of the history and fabric of Los Angeles from its inception," says Angelo Figueroa, Tu Ciudad's editorial director and the founding editor of both Time Inc.'s People en Espanol and the San Jose Mercury News' Nuevo Mundo, a Spanish-language newspaper. "Now they'll have a magazine that reflects and celebrates the fact that they are transforming the economic and cultural landscape of the city."

The publication of Tu Ciudad heralds a tectonic shift away from the notion of Latino identity built around language, and toward the new reality of culturally identified and geographically dispersed U.S.-born Latinos who are a growing percentage of high-income individuals in metro areas across the U.S. This hot market, with a buying power of $78 million in Los Angeles alone, is just beginning to be noticed.

Sources tell me this venture's got some deep pockets behind it, and they've already lured away some top editors from other publications (i.e., The Los Angeles Times) to steer the helm. While there's no question in my mind they'll find a considerable Latino reader base for Tu Ciudad, the weird economics behind magazine publishing are dictated by whether said substantial readership is in fact large enough to sustain high circulation figures. The hidden part of this ROI equation (return-on-investment) may well be determined by the cross-over market. Afterall, there's a whole lotta hipster Latinophiles in the City of Angels who are a shoe-in audience for this 'zine too.

Look for copies on your newstand this May (if you're in Southern California that is).

While I Was Gone Part III: Tornoe's Droppin' Science

Admit it. You didn't really miss me. What value does this blog bring to your life? Certainly not timely news and as-it-unfolds information about this quirky world of ethnic marketing, especially on the Hispanic market. For that, you can turn to Juan Guillermo Tornoe's excellent, always-on-top-of-it Hispanic Trending blog. I mean, that's where I turn to first if I want the latest juice on Hispanic marketing. No one else comes close in terms of expediency. You want the most recent goods? He's got 'em. And he's not prone to disappear for two months at a time like I am. Go there now and get schooled, son.

But before you do that, check out his recent contribution to the world of print "Tales of a Recent Immigrant" in this month's Marketing y Medios.

I should add that Marketing y Medios is Adweek's nascent sister publication, whose beat is all things under the U.S. Hispanic advertising universe. With more appealing graphics, better layout, and more tightly focused editorial content, MyM may be giving their less embroidered counterparts -- Hispanic Market Weekly and HispanicAd.com -- a run for their money.

While I Was Gone Part II... Rise of American Desi's

Early last year, I wrote that 2004 would go down "as the year ethnic media began to redefine itself". I'm not generally prone to hyperbole (I'm a researcher afterall), but here's a blogger's confession: I didn't really believe it. The article was something I rattled off in a pinch to characterize the emerging brigade of young ethnic media upstarts who challenged the old ethnic media's hegemony. However, I knew the cards were stacked against their favor -- despite how much I might personally root for them.

As it turns out, I may still actually be proved right in the long term. While it's still too early to tell what the future holds for networks like SiTV, ImaginAsian, VOY and their ilk, things appear on the upswing for this new ethnic media cadre. ImaginAsian recently secured coverage in Los Angeles -- perhaps their most strategically important market. Meanwhile, SiTV has recently armed itself with new research data supporting their claim that a greater proportion of its 18-34 year target demographic is centered around English-dominant Latinos.

Furthermore, the end of 2004 witnessed the conspicuous announcement of a few more new kids on the block -- this time targeting South Asian Americans. I'm talking specifically about the New Jersey-based American Desi and MTV Desi. For the latter, MTV will also be inaugurating networks to reach Chinese- and Korean-Americans before the end of this year. According to MTV's representatives:

"We recognize that many young people are bicultural," said Nusrat Durrani, general manager of MTV World. "Many kids have a transcontinental view of life, but they live in the United States. And not only are these channels going to connect with those young people, but they also are going to shine a light on their culture and the artists from these communities."

"It looks very different," said Durrani. "It's very exciting and very fresh. [MTV Desi] will be music-driven, but it takes the best of our international programming while doing a lot of programming locally. We'll have veejays who are hired locally that speak the language. We're really tapping into the subcultures in the U.S. rather than just repurposing what we already have."

The channel's first language will be English, said Durrani. "There will be a lot of video product," he said. "But as we evolve, we'll stay true to [MTV's] mission, to be a pop-culture destination."

Yes, dear friends, if you're in the ethnic marketing industry then you can feel the sands shifting beneath your feet. Read the press releases for both networks. I'll be tracking their progress with tremendous curiosity and will be cheering them on this upcoming year.

While I Was Gone...

...geez, how do you do this geek stuff again? Yes, friends I've been on a lengthy sabbatical away from the blogosphere. Not only have I neglected blogging duties here at TMB, but during this hiatus I also cut-off most of my blog reading -- cold turkey -- over the past two months too. Well, save for about five blog sites that I consider indispensable to my being a well informed citizen. What can I say? Life away from electronic media was purifying, and I recommend it. But now I'm back... so let chaos ensue. Rip.