Ethnic Technologies, LLC Celebrates Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

In 1763 a small group of Filipinos deserted a Spanish ship in New Orleans and established the first Filipino, Asian Pacific community in the U.S.A. on a Louisiana bayou. The term Asian-Pacific encompasses the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). These groups, as of July, 2010, numbered over sixteen million individuals (over five percent of the U.S. population.)

Asian-Pacific Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill. In June 1977, Representatives Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. Twelve years later, President George H.W. Bush signed an extension making the week-long celebration into a month-long celebration. The official designation of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law in 1992.

The month of May was chosen in order to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad (after Chinese immigrants laid down tracks through the Sierra Nevada Mountains) on May 10, 1869.

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated with community festivals that include parades and cultural performances. Although there is no one Asian cuisine, such traditional foods such as Indian curries, peanut and coconut mixtures of the tropical Southeast, barbecued beef of Central Asian steppes, and kaldereta stew of the Philippines are available. These are all very different yet uniquely Asian-Pacific. All events encourage the sharing of cultural diversity while promoting group unity.

Most heritage months highlight a specific group and the individuals and events that shape its American experience. Asian-Pacific American Heritage month unites multiple populations each with its own unique history and renowned personalities. Notables include Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian elected to Congress, Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian-American congresswoman, I.M Pei, architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize, Ellison Onizuka, astronaut, Levi Celireo, composer, Alex Tizo, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Vincent Chin whose murder, in 1982, is considered the beginning of the pan-ethnic Asian- American movement.

May salutes the many generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history and cultural landscape and will continue to play an important role in its future.

Schedule a meeting with your E-Tech sales representative during the All for One Marketing Summit 2011 presented by DM Days. Stop by and visit us at booth #1100.

May 2011 Newsletter: A Growing Multicultural Market

South Hackensack, NJ
May 12th, 2011
E-Tech May Newsletter
by Candace Kennedy candace@ethnictechnologies.com

In 2010, The Census counted 50.4 Million Hispanics, 38.9 Million African Americans and 14.6 Million Asians living in the USA. If anything, numbers like this should get your attention and entice you as a marketer to start building a brand loyalty among these high growth segments of our population. These estimated population numbers should be used as a reference or starting point for any successful direct marketing campaign targeted towards these consumers. Remember the numbers here reflect the estimated total populations for each group and for any direct campaign your target market with be much lower. The use of highly actionable data, utilizing intelligent research and market analytics down to the granular levels of Ethnicity, Language Preference, Religion, Assimilation and Gender helps guide any successful multicultural initiative. Adding key intelligence about your consumers, both current and potential, is the main ingredient for growth.

Conventional wisdom in today’s multicultural climate says that America is a melting pot of many different races, cultures, religions and beliefs. Try mixing up ten different cheeses in a pot then try to find the different taste values of each. It is very difficult to do. The same idea applies to identifying the different races, cultures and religions that make up our nation. The segmentation system that we habitually use simply divides the population into color or racial categories: White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. A better approach is to see the diversity in America as a mixed salad, where each ethnicity is a different ingredient and can be identified. This method, if used properly applies to the many ethnicities and different cultures in our nation and each can be identified.

Marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often market to Hispanics as a separate group from Whites, Blacks and Asians. When you take an in-depth look at the Hispanic population in the United States they often associate with one or more of the aforementioned racial groups and those racial groups can be correlated to their country of origin or cultural identity. An individual or family from Puerto Rico does not exhibit the same cultural identity or buying habits as those of a family that has immigrated to the US from Mexico. If that is the cases then why do marketers, researchers, advertising agencies and the media often approach Hispanics as a whole with the same exact offers, disregard their country of origin and then complain that their campaigns were not successful? Even the dialect of the Spanish language they speak differs.

The same issues arise and in greater depth when attempting to target the Asian community, the "One Size Fits All" mentality is often the method used and low response rates and product interests are the norm. With so many different Asian countries of origin and Asian languages of preference currently residing in the US, it is the smart marketer that embraces technology that allows them to identify all ethnicities, countries of origin and languages that are available. An offer tailored to a Chinese American living in San Francisco, CA should differentiate from one being tailored to a Korean American living in Fort Lee, NJ or a Vietnamese American living in Houston, TX. Now if you add into the mix the different levels of Assimilation and Acculturation, the buying habits and traditional cultural customs the individual embraces are all over the chart.

Many ethnic and religious groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity. They are often attracted to communities with their same ethnicity, communities in which many traditional cultural customs are maintained. Given that the ethnic diversity in the US is far more reflective of a global landscape, it is even more important for marketers to fully understand cultural differences, language preference, purchasing habits and other socioeconomic information and integrate those variations into their everyday marketing strategies and tactics. The time for the “One Size Fits All” methodology is gone, embrace the fast growing multicultural segments within our population and build your brand loyalty now and into the future.

Schedule a meeting with your E-Tech sales representative during the All for One Marketing Summit 2011 presented by DM Days. Stop by and visit us at booth #1100.

Cinco de Mayo Facts & Figures

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the battle fought between the Mexican and French armies on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army was able to defeat the much larger French forces under the guidance of General Ignacio Zaragoza. Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated in the Mexican State of Puebla and in the United States. It is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage.

The median age of people of Mexican descent is 25.6 yrs.

The median income is $39,115 for Mexican households.

76% of Mexican homes primarily speak a language other than English in their homes.

Persons with Mexican origin own 1 million businesses in the United States.

In 5 years the percent of businesses owned by Mexicans has increased by almost 48%.

The first woman to be US Surgeon General was Hispanic American, Antonia Coello Novello.

The longest flight by a Mexican aviator was a goodwill mission flown by Captain Emilio Carranza.

Statistics were found on the census website: http://www.census.gov/