Asian-Focused Advertising Agencies Key Terms

Learn the terminology used by Asian-focused advertising agencies

By 2011, the Asian-American community as a whole is projected to have a spending power of more than $600 billion. The market tends to have more education, more income and higher home values than the American norm. When hiring an advertising agency to help you develop a plan to reach Asian Americans, it helps if you know some key terms that relate to different segments of the population, which is very large and diverse. There are also some general marketing terms that can help guide you to the right firm.

 

The South Asian community and Asian-Indians

The South Asian community encompasses people of Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Bhutanese descent, among others. Asian-Indian is a term used to differentiate people of Indian ancestry from American Indians, or people descended from indigenous Americans.
Try: ASB Communications develops ad campaigns for the South Asian market.

Asian DMAs

DMA stands for "Designated Marketing Area." It refers to people of a geographic region who get their news from the same television and newspaper outlets, etc. Asian DMAs are markets targeted for their large Asian communities.
Try: The Television Bureau of Advertising has a list of the top 25 Asian DMAs.

Multicultural advertising, ethnospecific advertising, and ethnic branding

Multicultural advertising means developing a marketing plan that reaches many cultures. Ethnospecific advertising and ethnic branding are part of a multicultural advertising plan, in that they target different segments of the ethnic market.
Try: AdAsia Communications provides multicultural branding and advertising services to help businesses reach the Asian market.

Pacific Islanders

Pacific Islander is a broad term that encompasses the peoples of the Oceania region, including Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Pacific Islanders are considered a segment of the Asian market. In the United States, the term also applies to indigenous Hawaiians.
Try: Cultural Marketing Communications, an Asian-focused advertising company, specializes in developing marketing plans geared to Pacific Islanders.

Multi-channel marketing

As the television audiences grow ever more splintered, the thirty second television spot has lost its prominence in marketing campaigns. These days, advertising agencies spend a lot of time researching where different segments get their information so they can develop a plan that encompasses multiple channels, or modes of communication, be it a Web site, billboard or radio spot.
Try: Marketing Vox has a feed of articles on multi-channel marketing.

Localization

It's useless to try developing a single advertising campaign and that will connect with people worldwide. Instead, companies localize their marketing campaigns, so they draw appropriately from the language and symbols of other cultures. Asian-focused ad agencies provide localization services.
Try: Ameredia provides what it calls translation, transcreation and localization services to reach the Asian community. VenTaja Marketing has an article on "internal localization," i.e., localizing marketing campaigns within a business's home country to reach out to different ethnic groups.

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