Studies Find Narrowing of Digital Divide Benefits African Americans

In a front-page New York Times story Friday, reporter Michel Marriott summarizes research from my friends at the Pew Internet and American Life Project that finds a significant narrowing of the "digital divide."

I recall that the subject of America's "digital divide" drew widespread attention during the 1990s as the Clinton Administration made it a priority to wire all of Americas schools. I remember traveling in rural Virginia listening to a congressional candidate draw applause among African American groups when he discussed lack of access to high-speed internet and the more complex issue of the digital divide. And the Times today evens refers to a Clinton speech in the mid-1990s where he made the issue a national priority.

Marriott introduces her piece by stating "African-Americans are steadily gaining access to and ease with the Internet, signaling a remarkable closing of the "digital divide" that many experts had worried would be a crippling disadvantage in achieving success."

For marketers and advertisers unsure of whether to jump into the Internet and interactive efforts available to reach African American consumers this story should make it easier to make the decision to take the steps necessary to develop effective, culturally appropriate Internet advertising campaigns.

Clik [here] for the full article.

Cultural Differences in Investing, New Report on Ethnic Media

Major banks and banking firms are active advertisers in the Asian American market. Saul Gitlin at Kang and Lee (a leading ad firm that helps corporations reach Asian American consumers) recently wrote that: "The current financial competitive landscape in the Asian-American market includes most national and regional retail banks, virtually every major insurance company, and most full-service and discount brokerage firms."

I found an article today that reminds marketers, including myself, of the importance of understanding the cultural differences between Americans and many Asians or Asian Americans.

Kevin Plumberg, a New York-based reporter for Reuters, reports on culture and tendency to save money today (3.29.06) in an article titled "Culture influences how many pennies get pinched."

He quotes both an economist and an advertising executive in explaining cultural differences between Asians and Americans, and begins the story with quotes from an Asian American woman whose actions mirror what Plumberg suggests are more likely to be Asian cultural characteristics.

Barry Bosworth, of the Brookings Institution, tells Plumberg that "An American might think in terms of saving for their own retirement, but an Asian will think of accumulating resources in terms of saving for their family, for multiple generations in the future."

Click [here] for a link to the full article. If the link becomes inactive I presume that a Google search will help you find it.

Meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News reports today on a new Vietnamese newspaper in the Valley in an article today titled "Ethnic media filling the gap"

Mercury News writer K. Oahn Ha gives ink to the latest industry study of ethnic media: "Ethnic media, including television, online and radio, reaches one-fourth of the entire U.S. population and 80 percent of adults in minority communities, according to a 2005 study by New America Media, a San Francisco-based association of ethnic publications."

New America Media (I believe it was formerly known as New California Media) bills itself as the national association of more than 700 ethnic media organizations. I have no reason to believe their research is innacurate, and in fact enjoy reading the group's reports each year and referring students to their site, but I wish a generous foundation or individual with no investment interests tied to ethnic media would pay for this type of study and detach it from the industry.

Grab a Brewsky and Enjoy a Great Community Backlash

Yes I have to admit it, I love a good community backlash every once in a while. Especially when it relates to companies that peddle their unhealthy goods to young people in minority communities. And more so when the advertising and marketing in front of these efforts get exposed when they go overboard or are deemed immoral or culturally inappropriate.

The beer industry has invested heavily in marketing aimed at Latinos. And nearly every month I come across new beer ads aimed at Hispanics or news reports about new advertising campaigns aimed at this market.

In today's edition of The Wall Street Journal, under the title "The Beer Industry's Embrace of Hispanic Market Prompts a Backlash from Activisits," reporter Miriam Jordan pens the Advertising column which may cause some panic in the marketing divisions of the major beer producers (you know editors believe a story is real newsy when it's teased on the very top of the front page of the paper).

Here's how she summarizes the situation: "Facing stagnant beer sales, an aging population and the blossoming appeal of wine, the nation's biggest brewers are aggressively courting Hispanics, the fastest-growing and youngest population group in the U.S. The brewers' efforts, including a burst of advertising aimed at Spanish-speaking consumers, have rankled community health activists and rekindled the debate about when marketing crosses the line into the realm of unfairly targeting an ethnic group."

The column features comments from Hispanic community organizations that treat addiction and one notes an increase in the number of Hispanic girls seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.

A V.P. at Anheuser-Busch tells Jordan: "We would disagree with anyone who suggests beer billboards increase abuse among Latino or other minority communities."

Who the heck is she kidding? After the tobacco industry got dragged before Congress for lying about addiction as well as the direct connections between advertising and cigarette use, you might assume the beer industry would muzzle the spokespeople who would be most likely to make similar statements about their own efforts and products.

Jordan cites academic and journal-published medical research, one of which "found greater exposure to alcohol ads contributes to an increase in drinking among youth." She reports that "Advertising-related or not, drinking rates among Hispanic teens are alarming."

I'm not a doctor but I can guess what contributes to an increase in alcohol abuse among youth: increased drinking among youth. It's amazing how it all works.

In my graduate-level ethnic marketing course at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, I teach my students to consider the potential consequences of every single ad that targets specific ethnic communities. Whether their clients are perceived by the public as the "good guys" or the "bad guys" they have to be extra cautious when communicating with individual communities because of the greater potential for public opposition. This includes careful use of language and learning about cultural sensitivities. Many of the best corporate advertisers in these ethnic or emerging markets will include community leaders in the process of reviewing advertising campaigns before they "go live." It not only can inoculate them against certain attacks, but it can help ensure the advertising is appropriate.

I have noticed that the beer industry advertises heavily in Hispanic publications and devotes a decent portion of these ads to positive portrayals of the community and what I like to call "pat-on-the-back" ads that applaud something positive in the community or on the community calendar (like Hispanic Heritage Month or Cinco de Mayo) while branding their beer products.

Jordan reports on how the community backlash is taking shape: "Activists are taking on Spanish-language beer commercials. The National Latino Council in February complained to the Federal Trade Commission about a Bud Light commercial that it says is a thinly veiled endorsement of underage drinking."

What's Up with the Hispanic Film Industry? NYT Has an Answer!

The New York Times reports on the disconnect between thriving Spanish-language Hispanic television networks in America and the struggling Hispanic films working to "breakthrough" into popular Hispanic American culture.

This story, excerpted below, wraps the economics of a growing Hispanic community, and the swelling profits at Univision and other networks, into a big story that helps explain why Hispanic films struggle when compared with with even modest mainstream films:

The premise:

"Hispanic television, by contrast, has long thrived in the United States. Last year, advertisers spent over $3 billion on the country's top three Spanish-language television networks — Univision, Telemundo and Telefutura — according to TNS-Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising and marketing across print and electronic media. Moreover, popular telenovelas, like Telemundo's "Cuerpo del Deseo" ("Body of Desire"), can attract nearly two million viewers a night, according to data supplied by Telemundo, which is owned by NBC."

"Now, a handful of companies are trying again to lure that audience toward feature films. Cinema Latino, a Denver-based chain that operates Spanish-language multiplexes near Denver, Houston, Dallas and Phoenix, for instance, is aggressively expanding its business, said Jared Polis, founder of Sonora Entertainment, its parent company. Mr. Polis said his theaters play roughly 80 percent first-run Hollywood fare with the movies dubbed or subtitled in Spanish. The remaining 20 percent come from Spanish-speaking countries and are screened in Spanish with no English subtitles."

One explanation for the challenges the industry faces is offered in the article:

"A prosperous Spanish-language market hardly exists in the U.S.," said Jack Foley, president of distribution at Focus Features. "The Latino market in the U.S. is not changing. Latinos most enjoy English-language Hollywood entertainment. They want escapism and entertainment, exactly as the majority of American moviegoers demand."

Click [here] for the full article.

The Power of Spanish-language Radio

Teresa Watanabe and Hector Becerra with the Los Angeles Times report, today, on "How DJs Put 500,000 Marchers in Motion." The premise of the story is that, more than any other single force, it was Spanish-language radio stations that got hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in Los Angeles.

A labor leader in L.A. confirms the hypothesis: "They were the key to getting so many people out," said Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union. "If you listened to Spanish-language media, they were just pumping, pumping, pumping this up."

This is a huge lesson in the power of Spanish-language media and especially the power and reach of Hispanic-format radio stations of all kinds.

Click [here] for the full article.