What does it mean to be Chinese in Canada?

Started my morning off with my usual routine, scanning Marketing Mag, Adage and Strategy Online (and if I have the occasional extra time, the Globe & Mail). Came across a column article by Pepper Miller, who founded an agency focused on the African-American market "To Know Market Segments, Know the Many Shades of Black Identity". I really enjoyed this article for its blunt, candid, grassroots and yet professional perspective of what it means to be black in America.

It prodded me to validate Sensu's reason of existence in the Canadian market. (I often like to tell others that we "sell people...Chinese people to be exact". Quite frankly, that's exactly what it is - we are selling an audience and along with it, their lifestyles, habits, attitudes, values and behaviours.)

You can easily apply Pepper Miller's article into the context of being Chinese in Canada. I think that our "shades" become much more complex: we have the fobs, the cbc's, the hongkongers, the mainlanders and even amongst the mainlanders, it breaks down further by region - GZ group is different than those from Shanghai and then different from those in Beijing. Fujian is another story altogether. Infuse the Canadian layer on top of all that...boy must I tell you, mainstream marketers have a LOT to learn and understand about Chinese consumers in Canada.

But I absolutely love the beauty of this complexity, because that is what gives Sensu our real value proposition, that is how we help our clients best. Pepper mentions that "Improving one's African-American cultural IQ is critical to understanding the differences among segments." In parallel, improving one's Chinese-Canadian cultural IQ is critical to understand not only the differences but also similarities, among Chinese segments. Trick is, you cannot really articulate a culture unless you are IN it. Culture is dynamic in nature, it is an experience not a theory, not a rationale.
 
Many clients hold back from committing to multicultural marketing, most of them mention issues with scalability and market size - it's about the bottomline. But they seem to be missing the key point - the nucleus of multicultural marketing that drives cultural activity and growth - is to pay attention to all the subtle differences between and within ethnic segments. To impact the bottomline is to not only recognize that there are subtle differences but also to show your customers that you care and you want to make a connection - an authentic one.

Scalability should not be a barrier to strategy nor creativity. Neither should it come at the sacrifice of authenticity. 

Culture breeds character, diversity shapes communication.

I grew up knowing that people are different. Being one of the very few students from the city in my high school, I noticed how little kids already started labeling each other "suburban" or "urban". Afterwards having spent most of my adolescent life in international dormitories, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to North American, from North America to Europe, the two words "culture" and "diversity" no longer stop at being definitions on my Sociology textbooks. In my mind, they take forms in stories, pictures, travel journals, body languages, tears, dances, hugs, and even the smell of morning grass I enjoyed when staying at my friend's farm in Scotland.

I didn't realize there even exists culture differences between mainland China and Hong Kong until I actually lived in this mysterious little SAR (Special Administrative Region). I was surprised to witness how its civic culture brings out the city's organized social pace, how its family culture forms the adults' attitudes towards love, how its business culture stores everyone's confidence in performing fair and square, etc.

If say I already experienced a Chinese culture shock when moving from mainland to Hong Kong, then my multiple Asian and western culture shocks definitely broadened my entire world of cultural perception. I was amazed by the similarities between me and the Japanese and Korean, every understanding smile that we had simultaneously when facing a western dilemma reminds me of the Asian cultural roots that we share. I loved the moments when my dutch friends joking about the Germans and could even rap about the two countries' differences without a breath.

So many cultures are described with characters, while at the same time they gave us our very own characters. We walk around without knowing exactly what those characters actually mean. However, when we encounter each other, something called "diversity" starts to make us become aware of who we really are.

Difference exists when there are dissimilarities, it is often a neutral and factual concept being independent from human relationships. Diversity, however, exists not only when there are dissimilarities, but also when there are implications to give such 'diversity' further meanings. Put aside the political debates between the two terminologies, diversity is considered more emotionally involved and associated more with the aesthetic and social perspectives.

Practically grew up in international dorms, I was constantly amused by communications result from diversity in cultures. Completely aware of the different characters that we each has to offer, everyone tend to more openly express confusions or appreciation regarding others' values and opinions, or even question themselves! Stereotypes usually work in the first and create communication platforms for diversity. Conversations and debates exchange for a nice sense of understanding with both one-selves and others. With no doubt, diversity brought us more reasons to believe in this world's broadness and tolerance, as well as a more powerful motivation in continue to learn about the culturally unknowns.

Today, I am still walking in between cultures to experience their characters while forming my own. And I believe for a very very long time, the diversities that happening around us would not stop generating wonderful communications for this big lovely world.

Will Your Brand Save The Day?

http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/marketers-get-consumers-over-the-paywall-but-at-what-cost-25499

So it has been reported that many online publishers (i.e. New York Times) will begin to charge users for digital content. On second thought, that makes sense - you pay for your Toronto Star, National Post, Canadian Business etc., so why would that all become free now just because the same (if not more) content is available online? 

THAT is the objective viewpoint spoken with clear rationality and logic.

Unfortunately, the average consumer typically "thinks" with their emotions prior to using rationale. As an Asian Canadian, my genuine first response to any news that involves me ditching out my wallet is - "What the !#$#%^%*&%?! Are you out of your mind? Since when did we pay for anything over the Internet except for the service itself?" 

So now, imagine thousands of your customers evoking such an emotion to the idea of a paywall for online content. Not good right? Now, further imagine an advertiser walk in and announce that they will "foot the bill" for user subscription fees because they want their consumers  to be able to enjoy this digital content for free. Of course - such offers typically replace the price tag with a call to action and branded tagline. 

Putting my marketing hat on:
As the article suggests, this return model is just merely a form of sponsorship. What is most effective about it is that it manages to grasp the emotion of these bitter online users and then playing on these emotions, solve their problems to position the brand as a hero. 


---------------------------------------------------------------------------


I love sponsorships - because they are such an effective form of marketing amongst the ethnic markets. When executed as part of an integrated campaign, sponsorships can drive the emotions that you want in your consumers - they show that you care about the audience, know about the events that are important to them and is simply an act of involvement at a very grassroot level.


Perhaps, one of the more notable brands amongst the multicultural audience is TD. The company's branding efforts have been a seamless execution leveraging cross-media implementations and of course, sponsorships & PR. 


Quite truthfully, as an active member of the local Chinese community in Toronto msyelf - I can say that TD's brand has been really well-integrated into both my community as well as my "consumer mind". Whenever an important event occurs within the Chinese community, you typically see TD's brand name plastered everywhere as a title sponsor. Whenever I have a financial service/banking need, I think of TD first. 


As a matter of fact, I even switched all my personal banking from CIBC to TD quite recently (largely influenced by my immediate peers)... But hey! That proves another point: you cannot expect sponsorships to deliver a quantifiable result for your brand as it is a qualitative method after all. It does however, connect you with your consumers at the relevant touch points, generate brand equity and increase top-of-mind impressions; all to ensure that the next time a consumer has to make a purchase decision, they remember you and recall that emotion they experienced with your brand.