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by
Matthew Jones
More
than 14 years ago, interTREND
began as a small advertising office
opening its doors to embark on a large
mission – to help leading corporations
reach out to the ever-expanding,
as-yet-untapped Asian American
marketplace.
Today, that
same advertising agency boasts an
estimated $50 million in annual
billings, and more than 45 employees.
Its client list is a virtual who’s-who
of the marketing world with such names
as Toyota Motor Sales, State
Farm Insurance, J.C. Penney,
and Western Union, to name a few
of the national clients.
Looking at
the explosive buying power of the Asian
American market, it comes as no surprise
that smart marketers are scrambling to
keep pace. interTREND is one of the
very few agencies to successfully
service the Asian American market; and
its success has been based on a simple
formula – greater service and ideas
equal greater billings.
“Most of our
growth comes from existing clients and
incremental spending,” said Julia
Huang, founder and CEO of
interTREND. “(Clients are) careful when
they first come in, but as time goes on,
they’re more committed – really
committed. The the return on investment
for those who are really committed to
diversity has been great.”
If return on
investment is the name of the game, then
the Asian American market represents the
heavyweight champion of opportunity.
Weighing in at nearly four percent of
the population (11.2 million), it is a
large community, and over the next 20
years, is expected to grow by 75
percent. It
also happens to be the wealthiest
segment of the American population
measured on a per capita basis - with
the US Census Bureau estimating $350.6
billion in buying power in 2004."
Despite its
considerable economic influence, the
Asian American market remains invisible
to many in corporate America. At the
root of the problem are inaccurate
assumptions about Asian Americans in
general. Most under-informed marketers
erroneously believe that Asian Americans
have fully assimilated into the American
culture and do not warrant the extra
effort and budget to reach. Others
argue that most Asian Americans see
themselves as white.
In reality,
the Asian American market is a
complicated mix of ethnic communities –
each with its own voice, visions and
preferences. “There are a lot of myths
out there (regarding the Asian American
market) … and, a lot of misinformation,”
said Huang.
Even among
advertisers who are better informed, the
complexity of the Asian American market
poses a significant barrier that most
are unprepared to assume.
“The
challenge is language, and the
segmentation of the marketplace,”
explained Huang who is a Taiwanese
American, although she is not fond of
labels.
“It’s very
complicated, and lots of clients don’t
want to deal with it. They’re slow in
getting into the market. (The
difficulty is) not just from a language
(or cultural) standpoint, but from a
consumer standpoint as well. (Each
sub-group demands) different product
characteristics.”
Huang and
her agency teams have spent a great deal
of time bringing clients up to speed on
the different needs and nuances of the
various Asian markets. Over time,
clients have come to appreciate the
nuances, and that has freed Huang to
focus more on the creative product,
rather than the education process.
“(In the
past), we would have to talk about
demographics. Selling the agency’s work
was secondary,” explained Huang. “(The
education process) diluted our message.
Now we can focus on pitching the
agency’s work.”
In the end,
billings are up. Clients are happy; and
the work has gained recognition for its
quality and effectiveness; but the
struggle continues.
“We still
have a ways to go,” said Huang. “We’re
still not getting the respect we deserve
(as a separate and distinct market
segment).”
interTREND:
Shining a Spotlight on an Invisible
Market
Looking back
on things, It seems Huang was destined
to be a pioneer, leading top marketers
to the Asian American marketplace. In
her early marketing days, she worked for
American Standard, led their
Asian American marketing effort.
“I was
selling toilet bowls to cultivate the
Asian American market,” she said. “They
had foresight. This was 20 years ago.”
From there,
Huang went on to work in the strategic
planning group for a Japanese venture
capital firm called Allied Holding
Company. While at Allied, Huang’s
professional life took a dramatic
change.
She was at
dining with several Allied clients one
night – and among the guests was Al
Checchi, who was then the CEO of
Northwest Airlines. In a spirited
moment, Huang challenged Chechi on his
company’s poor acknowledgment of Asian
American consumers.
“I
frequently took the Northwest Airlines
route to Asia – but I never saw any
Asian crewmembers,” she explained to a
surprised Chechi. Huang went on to tell
him that Northwest was failing to reach
her community.
Two weeks
later, Huang received a call from
Chris Clouser, Northwest’s top
marketing executive. He had “heard she
had some criticisms” regarding the
airline’s advertising efforts. Instead
of assuming a defensive posture, Clouser
responded with an interesting offer. He
told Huang that he was looking for an
Asian American advertising firm, and
wondered if she could put her money
where her mouth was.
Huang said
she could, and interTREND was born; but
the birth was not without some
reservations.
“We made the
name (of the agency) as nebulous as
possible, as flexible as possible,” said
Huang. interTREND could be a flower
shop, a restaurant – it could be
anything we wanted, if the agency idea
didn’t work out.”
Clearly, the
agency idea worked out, and soon
interTREND was in partnership with J.
Walter Thompson (JWT), which was
then the lead agency for Northwest
Airlines.
After having
success with Northwest, the two agencies
began sharing a relationship with
Sprint, which was significant
because the telecommunications industry
was one of the first to acknowledge the
Asian American market.
“The
telecommunications industry really made
the Asian marketing industry,” said
Huang. “At the time, 40 to 60 percent
of international calls were made by
Asians. For telecom companies, the
money just flowed in. Calls to
Taiwan were $3 a minute. It was
very competitive.”
Eventually,
David Riemer, who was then
overseeing Sprint business for JWT-SF,
suggested that interTREND pursue their
own contract with Sprint in order to
streamline the billing process for both
agencies.
The
following year, Sprint’s Asian American
marketing budget ballooned from roughly
$100,000 to about $5.6 million.
“If he had
known that it would turn into a $5.6
million dollar account that next year,
he would have never handed it over to
us,” joked Huang about the timing of the
budget boom. But as many smaller
agencies have discovered, such a large,
sharp increase can be as problematic as
it can be profitable.
“It was the
most fortunate, and most unfortunate,
thing that had ever happened to us,”
explained Huang. “Everything we did, we
did for them. For the sake of
stability, you couldn’t be a one-client
agency.”
After four
years of having Sprint drive the
agency’s staffing levels, services and
just about everything else, interTREND
resigned the account.
“It was a
big sacrifice,” said Huang of the
decision. “We didn’t get another
telecom client for more than four
years.”
A
Shifting Paradigm
Small
agencies routinely make decisions
regarding clients and their accounts,
but issues are often magnified, and can
become infinitely more complicated when
a small agency shares an account with a
larger, general market agency.
Historically, whichever agency
established the client relationship
maintains the upper hand in the
agency-to-agency relationship – and
oftentimes, the only hand when it comes
to managing the client. In an era of
global and ethnic marketing, however,
traditional client-agency and
agency-to-agency relationships have
begun to shift.
“Unfortunately, the diversity
initiatives are always driven by the
clients, rather than the general market
agencies,” explained Huang. “For the
longest time, general market agencies
acted as though we were translation
companies, merely adapting their work.
If they could just do advertising for
white folks watching football, they
would just do that.”
Such
scenarios are increasingly rare options
given America’s rapidly changing
demographics. Everyone realizes that
ethnic agencies have an critical role to
play. In fact, general market agencies
are increasingly seeking partnerships,
subsidiaries, or agency buyouts in order
to service their clients’ ethnic market
needs.
“The first
thing (general market agency leaders) do
is strike an alliance (with an ethnic
agency), so they can provide added
value,” said Huang. While such
alliances are becoming business
imperatives, Huang is not convinced that
they are structured to always bring
forth the best ideas. “General market
agencies are more open-minded because
it’s politically correct and because
they can make money – not because
inclusion creates better ideas,”
declared Huang.
As the
agency mix changes, so too does the
process by which ideas are heard – and
sold. In an increasing trend, general
market agencies are finding themselves
playing “catch up” with their ethnic
counterparts when selling truly
universal, breakthrough ideas.
“The great,
innovative ideas are colorblind,” said
Huang. “I’m not just in ethnic
marketing, but also in direct marketing,
promotions, public relations – and
(clients) are going to go with the great
idea.”
Huang hopes
to replicate the success that many
African American agencies have had in
establishing innovative campaigns.
“African American agencies come up with
great ideas, because if you look at it,
African American culture is driving pop
culture,” said Huang.
Despite the
growing fluidity in the industry and the
size of the Asian American market, Asian
American marketers continue to lag
behind other ethnic marketers, both in
terms of billings and attention.
“(Asian American marketers) are down in
the lower, lower echelon of ethnic
marketing to begin with,” said Huang.
“(Agencies) say they have ethnic and
diversity units, but they don’t have
Asian (capabilities).”
Given the
pace with which interTREND is gaining
attention, the invisibility of Asian
marketers might soon change. After all,
the money is in the Asian American
market and corporate America is likely
to chase after it.
Julia Huang is not a Doctor but
definitely part of the Solution
Huang’s
status as a sought-after leader within
the marketing industry is clearly an
anomaly, and she has had to fight
through many social and cultural
barriers.
“(Some
members of) my family would have
preferred me to be, or marry, a doctor,”
she said Huang. “Most professional
Asian Americans (in this industry) go
through this. They ask you, for the
one-thousandth time, ‘What do you do?’
You tell them, and then there is this
silence. One time, my uncle finally
said, ‘So, you’re a con artist.’”
Huang’s
family does not disapprove of her chosen
field, but they are reluctant to
understand it. “They don’t try to
understand,” said a slightly frustrated
Huang. “For them, what you do for a
living boils down to a bunch of
professional buzzwords – doctors,
dentists, engineers, MBAs – everything
else is just a blur.
Despite the
deliberate knowledge gap, Huang
appreciates the love, respect and
support that she receives from her
family and it helps to keep her strong
and focused on bringing along the next
generation of young, Asian American
marketers.
“It’s
satisfying to talk to college graduate
students who say that marketing is what
they want to do, and that marketing to
Asian Americans is what they want to
do,” said Huang. “To hear them say
they’ve heard about my work and it’s
what they want to do is very
satisfying. It’s an obligation that we
have to continue.”
The End |
