Let’s forget about William Hung

Editor’s note: Deidre Sullivan is president of SnapDragon Consultants, a New York research and consulting firm.

Today, there are approximately 3.5 million Asian-American young people under the age of 18. They represent a highly influential and media-savvy demographic with billions dollars of spending power. Yet it’s surprising that more brands aren’t actively reaching out to these kids. It’s a demographic just ready and waiting to be served.

So where does a brand begin? How can a brand move beyond common assumptions and get to what really matters to Asian-American kids today?

The first step to establishing credibility is through listening: simply taking the time to pay close attention to what Asian-American kids have to say about their lives. And frankly, it’s not always what a brand manager or advertising executive might expect.

I learned this firsthand through discussions with Asian-American writer and performer Kate Rigg. Juilliard-trained, Rigg is the force behind such cult hit shows as Kate’s Chink-o-rama and the critically acclaimed play Birth of a nASIAN.

Over the past year, Rigg has interviewed hundreds of Asian-American young people as background for upcoming projects for the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts and NYU’s Asian Pacific American Institute.

As the president of a firm that specializes in qualitative research, this absolutely intrigued me. I wondered: What was she learning? What were kids telling her about their lives? And how can insights drawn from this work help brands, media companies and other organizations that connect to Asian-American youth better serve them? Rigg really challenged my firm’s assumptions and helped us look at this very exciting market differently.

It’s important to note that Rigg and our firm did this research work before the Virginia Tech shootings. The fact that the killer was Asian clearly further compounds the tragedy for young Asian-Americans struggling to be understood and experienced for who they are really are.

All the insights we’re listing should be read as “before the tragedy.” I’m convinced that if we went back and talked to the same group of kids today, the brand insights would be imbued with a different set of emotions. And kids would likely have a lot say about how the media is portraying the killer and the impact the tragedy is having on their lives personally.

That said, our insights include:

1. Many Asian-American youth feel excluded and misunderstood by most brands. It’s made worse by the fact that they see advertisers actively wooing the African-American and Hispanic markets.   Again, the brand that takes the time really listen to Asian-American youth is only going to benefit - especially now.

2. Mixed-race kids are proudly identifying as hapa, a once derogatory word in Hawaiian to mean “half.” Hapa is also slang for marijuana in Japanese (spelled happa). There are hapa Web sites and online communities. There’s the Hapa Project, an acclaimed photography exhibit featuring the portraits of 1,000 people who answer the question: What are you?

In popular vernacular, hapa is supplanting terms like Amerasian, biracial and blasian. For marketers, it’s always important to understand how language is evolving and what resonates with kids. It’s good business.

3. Asian-American youth are secret fans of easy-listening adult contemporary music. Lite FM is a hidden passion. Asian-American teenagers rocking to Kenny Loggins and Olivia Newton-John? This was a surprise to me. I didn’t know anyone was a fan of easy-listening. A brand could have field day with this fun and unexpected insight.

4. There’s a pervasive “hero gap” among Asian-American kids, which is being filled for many by activists from other cultures. Martin Luther King Jr. is a role model and hero to many young Asian-Americans. The implications here are significant. This hero gap speaks to a leadership vacuum in the Asian-American community. Who or what will fill it? Hollywood? A musical act? A businessperson or politician? There’s an opportunity here.

5. Most Asian-American kids refer to white people as “white people” the same way African-Americans do. This fact might be nothing new to the Asian-American community, but it was definitely new to me, a white person who has been making the mistake the most marketers have made for years: assuming Asian-American kids see themselves as part of a larger demographic called “kids.” The fact is, Asian-American youth often see themselves as distinct and separate from “white people” and others. This simple insight is a wake-up call for brands that have often lumped Asian-American kids’ interests in with interests of the dominant culture. This isn’t reality: Asian-American kids have their own developing style, attitudes and appetites that are powerfully influenced by their bicultural identities.

6. Underage gambling is huge. The “new” American poker obsession is nothing new to Asian-American kids. Gambling has a long history in Asian cultures. Many students Rigg spoke with are avid online gamblers and card players. Private online poker tournaments, dorm room card games and other kinds of gambling are common.

What struck us most about this insight was that gaming and the Las Vegas casino aesthetic has huge appeal and offers potential for an interactive marketing campaign that includes elements of risk or even games with prizes. For many of the kids Rigg interviewed, the American Dream is still tied to the idea of winning or getting lucky at gambling.

7. Asian-American kids want an end to the hyper-nerdy images of themselves on TV and want to see more punked-out skater and graffiti DJ images which reflect a different energy. The feeling is: Enough with the math geeks, future doctors and violinists. Enough with the strictly defined model minority portrayals. Asian-American kids crave street credibility, not just academic accolades.

Few if any television shows or brands have picked up on this desire. By dismissing and depicting Asian-American kids as unhip, brands and programmers are alienating an audience that is avidly involved in cutting-edge technology, music and style and thereby implicitly dismissing their buying power.

That said, certain brands are making strides. Volkswagen, for instance, recently ran an ad which featuring twentysomethings at a poetry reading and the poet was a young Asian-American guy. Intel featured a hipster Asian-American girl dancing in its recent Core 2 Duo campaign.

8. Asian-American kids universally hate the question “Where are you from?” - especially since the answers are usually something like “Westchester” or “Boston.”

The issue came up a lot in the research: just how utterly clueless other teenagers are about Asian-American youth. (We’ll most likely be generating a list in the future of “10 things never to say to your Asian-American friends.”)

What’s important for brands to recognize is that Asian-American kids feel separate from other kids and questions like “Where are you from?” totally reinforce this. To make matters worse, they are often not speaking up except among themselves.

There’s a pervasive sense that those outside Asian culture have absolutely no clue about who Asian-Americans really are. Again, a brand that makes an effort to listen and to understand will be rewarded because Asian-American kids are already out there in the marketplace, consuming products, interacting with brands and creating pop culture.

9. All things Korean have been hot and getting hotter. Fashion. Foods. DJs. Online communities. Korea is the new Japan.

If ABC Carpet and Target are doing their branding and trend homework, we should be seeing Korean products in the shelves very soon. (The Virginia Tech massacre could likely have an impact here.)

10. The 15 minutes of seemingly benign American Idol fame for William Hung had a surprisingly negative effect on Asian-American students. There’s a feeling that Hung perpetuated the worst stereotypes about Asian people and gave non-Asians permission to indulge in years of racial stereotyping and mocking.

Hung embodies where brands shouldn’t go and what they shouldn’t embrace if they want to reach Asian-American kids. Hung represents 10 steps back. And the kids Rigg spoke with want to go 10 steps in the future. The brand that understands this will profit handsomely.