Ethnic Technologies: Celebrating Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

In 2016, marketers continue to tout the influence and affluence of the Asian American market.

We’ve all seen the stats: As a group, Asian Americans have a buying power of $770 billion*. In terms of population, Asian American growth is steadily increasing, with a population of about 18 million.**  And now, with the presidential season in full swing, Asian Americans are also flexing their political muscle, with individuals coming out in record numbers to make their votes count.

This may well be a pivotal point in building a stronger relationship with the Asian American consumer. Not only for candidates, but also for the hesitant advertiser, who still chooses to dip their toe, instead of fully immersing themselves in targeting Asian Americans.

Even as the U.S. becomes more and more diverse, and ethnic and racial lines seem to blur, targeted marketing is still a very much needed solution to reaching various groups.  Ethnic marketing allows advertisers to speak directly  to their audience. Addressing specific needs and creating a relationship is key to not only distinguishing your brand but building brand loyalty to sustain you, even during economic and political unbalance.

Ethnic Technologies is the leading provider of multicultural marketing information to the Fortune 500 to help them reach Asian, Hispanic and African American markets.

Our flagship product, E-Tech, appends the following elements to our clients’ customer data: Ethnicity, Ethnic Group, Language Preference, Religion and Hispanic Country of Origin. E-Tech also incorporates Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology, our granular geographic data system. Once E-Tech has analyzed all the available name intelligence and all of the geographic information, it uses our proprietary, culturally sensitive, expert system logic to predict the ethnicity and other demographics for each individual record. E-TECH IDENTIFIES OVER 30 DIFFERENT ASIAN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING LANGUAGE PREFERENCE. In addition to identifying Asian ethnicity, we also identify Assimilation levels for Asian individuals.

Assimilation represents the degree to which an Asian individual has adopted the language and culture of the United States. With each level of Assimilation, the individuals spending habits, socioeconomic status, communication preference and other lifestyle characteristics differ. Ethnicity, language preference, education, income, socioeconomic status, dwelling size and ENA are just some of the variables used, along with our expert system rules, to determine which Assimilation Index best describes a specific Asian individual.

Our four Assimilation Indices are:

1. Assimilated – Speaks and understands primarily the Prevailing Culture’s Language. (Primarily English Speaking)

2. Bilingual, Prefers English – Speaks Primarily the Prevailing Culture’s Language, but still understands Native Language. (e.g. Mandarin)

3. Bilingual, Prefers Native Language – Speaks Primarily Native Language (e.g. Mandarin), but Understands Prevailing Culture’s Language. (e.g. English)

4. Unassimilated – Speaks and understands primarily the Native Language (e.g.

Mandarin) (Primarily Native Language Speaking)

Our Assimilation determinations are predictive and based on the many years of detailed research embedded in our product. No personally identifiable information is ever used.

At Ethnic Technologies, we recognize the importance of “Asian Marketing” but even more importantly, the proper segmentation of groups in order to communicate and market effectively.

*Nielsen: Asian-Americans: Culturally Connected and Forging the Future Report, 2015

**The Washington Post,” Asian Americans, growing in number, struggle to emerge from political shadows,” 2/16/2016