Marketing to Chinese Americans
Among the four methods of marketing, print, television, radio, and the Internet, depending on the type of products or services, a company can consider using a combination of them to market to Chinese Americans. Roughly, we can divide the four types of media and their targeted groups of Chinese Americans as follows:
1. Chinese Newspapers
Most of the people who read Chinese newspapers are those who have a lot of time, and either who are in their senior ages or people who are looking for jobs. Most of this group of Chinese Americans do not speak English well, and are depended on Chinese media to give them information and guide. Depending on the newspaper, the purchasing power of this group of Chinese Americans can be extremely powerful or insignificant.
2. Chinese TV
People who watch Chinese TV are mostly housewives, or working people who wish their children to have Chinese listening and speaking abilities. For consumer products, or new products, it is probably the best to market them on Chinese televisions. The purchasing power of this group of Chinese Americans are normally very powerful if you are talking about Chinese Cable TV (or Chinese Satellite TV), or not very good if you are talking about free TVs. (Yes, those who have Chinese Cable TVs or Chinese Satellite TVs don’t watch Chinese free TVs).
3. Chinese Radios
People who listen to Chinese radios are normally those who drive to work but are not very good at understanding English. This group of Chinese Americans normally are vehicle owners and listen to news and talk shows and interviews. In Los Angeles, Chinese radio stations are owned by one company, making the company a monopoly. Therefore, the advertisement prices can be very high.
4. Chinese Websites
1. Is your website properly translated into Chinese?
This looks very obvious but you need to make sure that you are targeting the right Chinese audience. If your website is translated into simplified Chinese, then you are targeting the Chinese visitors from mainland China, and Singapore, as Chinese people from those places read simplified Chinese characters. If your website is translated into traditional Chinese characters, then you are targeting Chinese visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities in the United States and Canada.
2. Is your website accessible from Mainland China? If not, we can unblock your website from China.
As you probably know, Chinese government from mainland China blocks many websites. If your website fully accessible from mainland China? Ask your Chinese friend from China to visit your site, and see if it is accessible. If not, you probably need to unblock your website first before conducting your Chinese Internet marketing campaign. We provide services to unblock your website from China.
3. Do you have Chinese speaking staff who can take orders?
A lot of people who read Chinese websites don’t speak or write English well. Therefore, it is essential that you have people who can speak Mandarin or Cantonese who can take orders or read emails in Chinese. Please note that Chinese people in general tend to ask a lot of questions before making a decision to purchase, and that they always compare prices before purchase. Therefore, when conducting your Chinese Internet marketing campaign, please also make sure your prices are compatible from your competitors.
After making sure the above two points, you may then start your Chinese Internet marketing campaign. Here are the tips
4. Use Google’s Adwords instead of Baidu
You probably have heard a lot of publicity for Baidu, the Chinese search engine portal, and “Google of China”. However, from my personal Chinese Internet marketing experience, it is probably better to use Google’s Adwords than Baidu because most of the mainland Chinese people who have the purchasing power use Google instead of Baidu. Baidu’s users are mainly young students who seek games and freebies. Google’s users are more serious. Of course, you may try both of them, and I am sure you will agree with me.
5. Do not directly advertise on Chinese websites
A lot of Chinese websites use tricks to increase their visibility. Therefore, try not to advertise on Chinese websites directly. Instead, hire a Chinese advertising agency to do that for you, as they will be more knowledgeable than you to know which websites to advertise on.
6. PR campaign sometimes is more effective than advertising
Chinese speaking people tend to ignore advertisements more than their American counterparts. Therefore, sometimes, it is more effective to start a Chinese language PR campaign. More often than not, they will bring much better results than ads alone. Actually, many Chinese websites will help you to engage in an Internet PR campaign if you advertise on their sites. Again, it’s probably better to leave the work to the Chinese advertising agency.
Chinese Demographics in America
Overview of Chinese Demographics in America
The Chinese American community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising of 22.4% of the Asian American population. They constitute 1.2% of the United States as a whole. In 2006, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.6 million.
As a whole, Chinese American populations continue to grow at a rapid rate due to immigration. However, they also on average have birth rates lower than those of White Americans, and as such their population is aging relatively quickly. In recent years, adoption of young children, especially girls, from China has also brought a boost to the numbers of Chinese Americans, although most of the adoptions appear to have been done by white parents.
Chinese Demographics in America – Facts
Largest Asian American group with a population of 2,422,970 (Chinese only).
About 1.68 million Asians reported more then one Asian group or race in Census 2000 and are not included in these numbers. Actual number of Chinese would thus be more.
Population growth rates of 47.5% from 1990 to 2000 and 104.1% from 1980-1990.
Chinese Demographics in America – Incomes
Median Household Income of $41,583.
Average Chinese household income is about 30% higher then the national average.
Chinese Demographics in America – Immigration
Immigrant (native Chinese) population is 47% of Chinese American population.
Chinese Demographics in America – Home Ownership
Home ownership rate of 65% compared to 54% for US average.
About 84% of Chinese Americans between ages 35-44 own a home.
Chinese Demographics in America – Household Size
Average household size of 3.8 people per household compared to 3.2 for US.
Chinese Demographics in America – Education
38% have Bachelors degree or higher compared to 22% for national average.
Locations of Chinese Americans
Cities with large Chinese American populations include (the following is the top 15 Chinese-American populations):
* Boston, Flushing, Queens, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Houston, Plano in the Dallas, Texas area, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento and Las Vegas.
In these cities, there are often multiple Chinatowns, an older one and a newer one which is populated by immigrants from the 1960s and 1970s. In some areas, Chinese Americans maintain close relationships with other Asian groups (i.e. Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and so on).
In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university-college towns, throughout the United States. Chinese Americans formed nearly 3 percent of California’s population in 2000, and over one percent in the Northeast. Hawaii, with its historically heavily-Asian population, was nearly 10 percent Chinese American.
Language of Chinese Americans
Chinese, mostly of the Cantonese variety, is the third most-spoken language in the United States, almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California. Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese, with the Standard Mandarin becoming increasingly more prevalent due to immigration from mainland China and Taiwan.
In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca. In addition, the immigration from Fujian is creating an increasingly large number of Min speakers.
Although Chinese Americans grow up learning English, some teach their children Chinese for a variety of reasons: pride in their cultural ancestry, desire for easy communication with them and other relatives, and the perception that Chinese will be a very useful language as China’s economic strength increases.