Marketing to Asian-Americans For Growth Today And Tomorrow

Avoid the quick-fix syndrome. Hiring a consultant or advertising agency to create brand awareness through television, radio and print advertising that promotes incentives, with the aim of earning recognition and community trust overnight, is something that is not likely to achieve a high degree of success.

Rather, companies must engage in serious market research and implement an effective, integrated mix of advertising, public relations, and perhaps most important, community involvement.

Focus on long-term profit not short-term gain. Long-term commitment to an integrated marketing initiative is essential to maintaining sales momentum and customer trust.

Pulling back on advertising budgets and grass-roots programs after a multicultural marketing initiatives initial success can have an adverse effect on sales.

Field team support from the community. Recruit and retain professional financial services representatives from the Asian-American community. The segment prefers doing business with people who understand their culture and speak their language. Communication with, instead of communication to, is a vital key to sustaining success.

Maintain core strengths. Customer needs for financial services mirror those of mainstream customers. An endeavor to create offerings specific to this segment can create confusion among producers. It can also create underwriting and business operations challenges.

Focus on core strengths. Coupled with in-language customer support service and training in cultural sensitivity, core strengths will likely ensure success.

The plethora of financial products and services offered today, coupled with the growing concern for market volatility and financial security, present a specific opportunity among Asian-Americans who want education and advice–many with a preference for conversing in-language.

It should be emphasized that this is probably not an opportunity for most companies unless they understand they must make a considerable investment in commitment, resources and staying power.

is assistant vice president, Multicultural Business Development for New England Life Insurance Company, a MetLife affiliate. You can reach her at Lily Fong/A/TNE@NEF-MLI

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 21, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.