Asian American Trends & Insights.

When it comes to forecasting cultural patterns among Asian Americans, interTrend Communications, Inc., a full service marketing agency targeting Asian Americans, saw the need to go beyond basic research and mere observation.

Recently, the interTrend Knowledge Center conducted its second annual, extensive study surveying approximately 1,100 Asians including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Filipino sub-segments, both in-language and in English, nation-wide across four major DMAs to examine their consumer behavior patterns and attitudes in various industry categories. The 2005 findings revealed insightful views into brand loyalty, lifestyle habits, purchase drivers/motivations, as well as media and product consumption of Asian Americans.

Brand Preference and Consumer Behavior in Industry Specific Categories

According to the study, Asian Americans have high un-aided brand awareness with insurance companies such as Allstate, State Farm and Farmers. 27% of Asian Americans own life insurance, with Filipinos having the highest rate of ownership at 47%. There is a strong market opportunity to market diversified financial services to Asian Americans. Other industries explored in the study were retail, grocery, financial services, and automotive trends.

Lifestyle Habits

Research also included findings on lifestyle habits, values, shopping preferences, and leisure time such as the fact that Asian Americans attend their own community events. In fact, 63% of Asian Americans attended community events in 2005. This demonstrates that Asian Americans are engaged by attending their own cultural events and proactively strive to connect with their communities. In addition, the study revealed important consumer behavior insights, which showed that 96% shop at Asian stores.

Media Consumption

The Knowledge Center’s study also examined the type of media that appealed to Asian Americans. The study showed that 7 out of 10 Asian Americans agree that a company who advertises in their segment cares for their community. Overall, 78% of Asian Americans consume both ethnic (in-language) and English media, with another 12% consuming solely ethnic media. Koreans have the largest group consuming exclusively ethnic specific media (in this case Korean) at 28%. Specifically, print has the highest ranked penetration across all ethnic segments, with the exception of Filipino (who consume television at a higher rate). Both Filipinos and Koreans have high consumption of TV relative to the other segments, while radio is popular among Vietnamese and Chinese. More than half of Asians also go to ethnic Internet portals/sites to find information.

Need for Culturally Relevant Marketing

The research conducted by the Knowledge Center proves not only the need for marketers to target Asian Americans, but also understand the insights for strategically marketing in a culturally appropriate way.

“More and more marketers are seeking this type of information and expertise in order to determine how to strategically connect with this growing and lucrative community,” explains Tanya Raukko, Director of Strategic Planning at interTrend Communications. “Our goal is to generate a comprehensive assessment of Asian Americans so that we can effectively address their unique preferences, consumer interests, and cultural needs to help marketers overcome this challenge.”

“Asian American consumers have evolved in the past several years much like other consumers in America. The objective of our Knowledge Center is to track closely such change in consumption behavior so that marketers can establish a more current and relevant connection with the Asian American consumers,” explains Julia Huang, President and CEO of interTrend Communications. “Only then can marketers maximize the growth potential and ROI from this segment. This is a smart investment that we are making for our clients.”

For more information at http://www.intertrend.com