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Business Horizons (2017) 60, 91—100

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A Korean, a Chinese, and an Indian walk into

an American bar: Tapping the Asian-American
goldmine
Steven Chen, Yuna Kim, Chiranjeev Kohli *

Mihaylo College of Business & Economics, California State University, Fullerton, 800 N. State College
Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831, U.S.A.

KEYWORDS Abstract Historically, globalization has been synonymous with mega brands’ ex-
Asian-Americans; pansion into international markets. However, changes in the marketing landscape–—
Cultural branding; namely, growth of immigrant consumers, new and emerging branding strategies,
Branding strategies; and advancements in technology–—have created a shift in the globalization
Long tail marketing; paradigm, opening opportunities for small brands. Focusing on the growing number
Social media branding; of Asian- American consumers, the authors develop a two-stage global market entry
Cross cultural strategy for small brands entering the U.S. market. Specifically, the authors show
marketing; how Asian brands can penetrate the U.S. market by serving Asian-American
Market penetration consumers or using them as a launchpad to reach mainstream American consumers.
strategy The growth of small global brands signifies an important and exciting change in the
branded marketplace currently dominated by Western brands.
# 2016 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.

1. The growth of small global brands
in the U.S. market
KakaoTalk is a mobile instant messaging
application for smartphones with free text and
call features. It was launched in 2010 and is
available on iOS, Android, Bada OS, BlackBerry,
Windows Phone, Nokia Asha, and personal
computers. KakaoTalk
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: stchen@fullerton.edu (S. Chen),
yukim@fullerton.edu (Y. Kim), ckohli@fullerton.edu (C. Kohli)
currently has 170 million users and is available
in 15 languages. In 2013, Kakao Corp., the South
Korean company behind the popular application,
generated revenue of approximately $200 million
through gaming, digital content, and mobile com-
merce. Following immense success in South Korea,
Kakao Corp. is expanding into international mar-
kets. In the U.S., KakaoTalk is used predominantly
by Korean-Americans, but these users are also
facilitating the adoption of the application among
their friends, including those not of Asian origin.
99 Ranch Market, the largest Asian supermarket
chain in the U.S., opened its first store in 1984 in

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copyright.
Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
92
California. Since then, it has expanded to over
39 locations in California, Nevada, Texas, and
Washington. It started by opening stores in neigh-
borhoods with dense Chinese populations, but soon
word spread among the consumers and a
significant number of non-Chinese Asians,
American-born Asians, and non-Asians who live in
these communi- ties also started to shop at 99
Ranch Market for their grocery needs. To serve
these non-Chinese consum- ers, 99 Ranch Market
diversified its products to include brands from
other countries including Vietnam, Korea, Japan,
Mexico, and the U.S. The supermarket chain now
uses dual languages (English and Chinese) in its
marketing communications to appeal to its more
diverse audience.
These two examples illustrate the new
globaliza- tion paradigm where consumers, rather
than com- panies, dictate the usage and adoption
of global products in international markets.
Traditionally, globalization studies have examined
how Western brands, particularly U.S.-based
brands, flow into the rest of the world. This
perspective is known as the Americanization thesis
of globalization (Ritzer, 2009). The poster children
of the Americanization thesis include brands such
as McDonald’s (which has over 36,000 restaurants
in over 100 countries), Ap- ple, Starbucks, and
Google. However, scholars are noting increasingly
that globalization is now dislo- cated from Western
centers (Iwabuchi, 2002). Thomas Friedman argues
that the ‘world is flat,’ meaning the contemporary
marketplace has more parity than it ever has had
before. Businesses of all sizes and national origins
have an equal opportunity to compete in the
global market. Particularly, busi- ness entities with
origins in international markets can approach or
exceed major American brands in terms of global
relevance and fiscal performance. For example,
Samsung, a South Korean technology brand,
commands 28.2% and 20.7% global market shares
in the competitive smart television and
smartphones markets, respectively.
Historically, multinational corporations have
benefitted disproportionally from globalization.
The McDonalds, Starbucks, Samsungs, and Toyotas
of the world have become household names
around the world by leveraging their immense
resources to tap into international markets. Before
entering an international market, McDonald’s
spends millions of dollars to understand properly
the local market needs and creates localized
products and services to satisfy those needs. For
example, McDonald’s entered the Indian market by
forming joint ventures with prominent Indian
industry veterans and lever- aged their resources
and expertise to penetrate the Indian market
successfully. Asian automotive com- panies, such
as Toyota or Hyundai, have entered the
S. Chen et al.
U.S. market successfully through direct
investment by building manufacturing plants and
establishing relationships with local state
governments.
However, we make a case that the time has
come for comparatively smaller brands to make
their move. As illustrated through the earlier
examples, in the new global landscape,
consumers–—and not just company resources and
support–—play an im- portant role in market
penetration. Specifically, we draw attention to the
significant role that immigrant consumers play in
facilitating the growth of smaller global brands.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014
American Community Survey (ACS), the
U.S. immigrant population stood at more than
42.4 million (13.3%) of the total U.S. population
of 318.9 million in 2014. Between 2013 and 2014,
the foreign-born population increased by 1 million
(2.5%). Immigrants and their U.S.-born children
now number approximately 81 million people (26%)
of the overall U.S. population. These consumers
are driving demand for products from their home
coun- tries and American retailers increasingly are
devot- ing a significant proportion of their shelf
space to smaller, ethnic brands such as Lee Kum
Kee (Chinese food sauce and condiment brand),
Kingfisher (Indian beer brand), and Huy Fung Foods
(Thai food sauce and condiment brand). As such,
smaller brands from emergent countries now have
a wider window of opportunity to go global.
The purpose of this article is to examine the
growth of smaller global brands in the U.S. market
by focusing on the role played by immigrant con-
sumers. We propose a two-stage market entry
strat- egy, where in the short run, brands can
market to immigrant consumers living in their new
host culture (e.g., U.S.) who demand products
from their native culture. In the long run, brands
can use these immi- grant consumers as a
launchpad to reach main- stream consumers in the
host culture (e.g., American consumers).
Specifically, we focus on the global entry of East
Asian brands and their strategy to reach Asian-
American consumers. Asian-Americans are the
fastest growing ethnic consumer segment in the
U.S., making them a par- ticularly attractive
market. Many first generation Asian-American
consumers were able to immigrate to the U.S.
because of their wealth. But Asian- Americans are
not only affluent respective to their native
countrymen; they are also more affluent and
educated than the average American consumer.
The combination of high disposable income,
education, and rapid growth rate makes Asian-
Americans in the
U.S. one of the most appealing markets worldwide
for many businesses.
While the increase in immigrant population
stim- ulated demand for the smaller global brands
in the
A Korean, a Chinese, and an Indian walk into an American bar: Tapping the Asian-American goldmine 93

U.S. market, significant changes in the marketing participation in the Formula 1 auto racing circuit.
landscape–—namely, the emergence of new In international
branding strategies and technologies–—have
created an eco- system for these brands to
flourish. We discuss these changes in the
marketing landscape before outlining our proposed
market entry strategy.

2. Emerging branding strategies

Brands are the most valuable intangible assets that
companies possess, helping consumers identify and
differentiate a company’s product offerings from
competitors’ (Keller & Lehmann, 2006). More for-
mally, brands allow companies to enjoy the differ-
ential effect of brand knowledge on consumer
response to marketing efforts (Aaker, 2012).
Brands enable companies to appeal to consumers,
charge price premiums, and command loyalty for
their products. As such, once a brand is
established, a barrier is built against competing
brands.
In the traditional market paradigm,
marketplace sovereignty generally is determined
by a company’s ability to make a substantial
financial investment to push brands onto the
consumers who would buy into the lifestyle
articulated by the company. For exam- ple, to
create brand awareness, a company heavily
invests in advertising and promotion budgets
during the early stages of the product life cycle.
As the brand enters the growth and maturity
stage, the company can outpace new competitors
entering the market by leveraging existing
competitive ad- vantages such as economies of
scale, learning curves, and relationships
established with channel members. Based on the
traditional market struc- ture, multinational
corporations thrived. However, the model of
branding has been transformed in the recent past.
While many aspects of the branding landscape
have changed, we discuss two notable changes
that have impacted smaller brands: a shift toward
cultural branding and long-tail marketing.

2.1. Cultural branding

We now live in the age of the informed,

coproducing consumer, and the market has seen a
shift to the cultural model of branding (Holt,
2002). According to Holt, brands can strengthen
their case by devel- oping close relationships with
brand communities or distancing themselves from
commercial sponsorship and instead
manufacturing original myths that en- hance brand
authenticity at the street level. For example, Red
Bull became a cultural icon through its
involvement with extreme sports such as hang
glid- ing and bungee jumping, as well as its
markets, smaller global brands do not have the
name recognition of multinational brands, and as a
result they do not carry the aura of commercialism
that plagues multinational brands. Additionally,
many smaller global brands link their products to
their local cultural identity and, consequently, re-
tain an aura of authenticity that may elude larger,
multinational brands.

2.2. Long tail marketing

Another shift in the branding model is that consum-

ers are now noticing brands in the long tail of the
market. As the market becomes saturated,
creating a blockbuster brand or product is
becoming increas- ingly difficult. Even if a
company is able to develop a popular brand or
product, the duration for which this brand or
product remains dominant in the mar- ket is
shortened. Long tail marketing focuses on the fact
that, contrary to the traditional marketing
paradigm where a small group of popular brands or
products dominate market share, a large group of
smaller brands can reach more consumers
effective- ly to generate more sales (Anderson,
2008). In other words, the market will have more
options but small- er sales for each option, leading
to a demand curve with a shorter head and a much
longer tail (see Figure 1).
For example, despite the current larger market
in the music industry compared to the past, most
of the top 50 bestselling albums of all time were
produced in the 1970s and 1980s, and none were
produced in the new millennium (Anderson, 2008).
In other words, while there is an increasing number
of albums that sell well, there are no mega hits.
The same phenomenon can be observed in TV
programs, books, and cars (Kohli, Suri, & Kapoor,
2015). All these factors strengthen the case of the
smaller global brands.

2.3. Social media and branding

In addition to these emerging branding strategies,

advances in technology, especially the spread of
social media, have also contributed to creating a
receptive market environment for smaller global
brands. Specifically, social media has lowered the
entry barrier for smaller global brands by
disrupting the traditional model of branding. Social
media essentially is consumer-generated media,
covering a variety of new sources of online
information that are created and used by
consumers intent on sharing information with each
other on any topic of their interest (Blackshaw &
Nazarro, 2004). Perhaps the biggest contribution of
social media has been its hand in transforming
the traditional marketing
94
Figure 1. The long tail
communication model. In contrast to the
traditional model, where information flowed in a
mostly one- way direction from marketers to
consumers, social media facilitates two-way
interaction.
As an interactive information source, social me-
dia has helped both consumers and companies.
Social media has empowered consumers by
enabling them to initiate communication directed
toward marketers, as well as facilitating
information shar- ing with other consumers. Now,
consumers are used to sharing information with
other consumers if they feel it may be useful or
interesting. This may be based on information
consumers receive from the marketers or based on
their own experiences with the brand. Through
social media, such information regarding the
brand becomes more accessible, spreads faster,
and is amplified. Therefore, as con- sumers
become more adept at creating and sharing
information through social media, they can gain
more power to influence marketers at a much
larger scale. Companies have also benefitted by
using social media as a valuable source of real-
time mar- ket and consumer information. Social
media plat- forms, such as Twitter, can be used as
low-cost substitutes and supplements for
traditional market- ing research methods.
Academic studies have shown that data obtained
from social media can be used reliably to forecast
market outcomes, such as box- office revenues for
movies (Asur & Huberman, 2010).
So, how does social media help the introduction
and success of smaller brands? Again, social media
contributes by lowering the entry barrier and en-
abling small brands to reach their consumers in a
cost effective way. First, social media can encour-
age small brands to overcome the fear of market
failure. Under the old paradigm, a few brands
were concentrated in the head of the long tail
curve (Anderson, 2008). This was mainly due to
the fact
S. Chen et al.
that only a few resource-rich companies were able
to afford the expensive undertaking associated
with introducing a new product. Due to high cost,
mar- keters carefully evaluated and selectively
intro- duced products, followed by substantial
upfront investments to ensure success in the
market. There- fore, albeit limiting in terms of
products choices, the monetary and non-monetary
support provided by the companies ensured
consumers of the quality of products. On the other
hand, brands in the tail–— the relatively unknown
small brands–—had difficulty creating consumer
demand since their quality could not be signaled
through such support. With social media,
marketers have less control over the content their
consumers view, create, and share. In other
words, social media leads to a more transparent
marketplace where desired products and brands
trump those being pushed by marketers. Now, a
brand/product can be accepted by consumers if
word-of-mouth ensures that it is good. Niches can
now thrive because small groups of consumers can
spread the word to others who may also want the
brands they like. Additionally, consumers are more
likely to transmit word-of-mouth regarding mun-
dane products and brands (e.g., Cheerios) than
popular brands (e.g., Disney World) because the
former is more salient in consumers’ everyday
lives (Berger, 2013). In essence, social media and
word- of-mouth level the playing field in favor of
small brands that do not have deep pockets for
marketing. Second, social media can help small
brands build brand awareness and knowledge.
Creating brand awareness is a daunting task,
requiring substantial investment over long periods
of time. Therefore, small brands (which are often
the underdog brands in the market) generally
cannot compete against larger brands using
traditional marketing mediums, such as
advertisement. Social media provides small- er
brands with an effective alternative. Brands can
get noticed with smaller investments if they are
able to use social media in a creative way to
connect with consumers. For example, Maes
(Belgian beer brand) leveraged the power of
social media to increase brand awareness by
offering everyone with the last name Maes (one of
the most popular last names in Belgium) a code
on Facebook to receive a free barrel of beer to
share with family and friends. Also, longer time
horizons for marketing initiatives are not need- ed
since social media has the ability to amplify and
move information faster. This limits the power of
advertising, making it difficult to justify large up-
front investments in it. In other words, social
media has democratized the process of creating
brand
awareness.
It is important to note, however, that social
media is not a fix-all solution to branding and it will
A Korean, a Chinese, and an Indian walk into an American bar: Tapping the Asian-American goldmine 95

not (and should not) dictate the core elements of and older had a bachelor’s degree
branding. The positioning of a brand should reflect
the marketers’ conscious choice based on
carefully strategized data-driven exercises, which
take into account consumer preferences and the
competitive landscape, before entering the
market and being introduced to consumers.
Third, social media can help small brands
induce trial and develop loyalty. Consumers are
known to trust and rely on recommendations from
their family or friends when making purchasing
decisions. Since most social media platforms
encourage users to establish a social network
(which is comprised heavily of family and friends)
and facilitate infor- mation exchange within this
network, social media only makes it easier for
family and friends to make recommendations to
each other and compare notes on brands. Also, by
enabling companies to engage in a personal
communication with individual consum- ers, social
media can increase the trustworthiness of the
company (Nejad, Sherrell, & Babakus, 2014). Once
companies connect with and establish an emo-
tional bond with consumers, it will help small
brands further induce product trial and loyalty.
We now return our discussion to how smaller
global brands can take advantage of these changes
in the marketing landscape to enter the U.S.
market by leveraging the Asian-American
consumers.

3. The Asian-American goldmine

and its role in launching cultural
brands
Asian-Americans comprise 6% of the U.S.
population but are the fastest growing ethnic
group. Since 2002, Asian-Americans have grown
46% to 19.4 mil- lion people, a growth rate that is
four times faster than that of the total U.S.
population (Nielsen, 2015). Chinese, Filipinos, and
Asian Indians are the largest Asian groups in the
U.S., and represent over 60% of the Asian-
American population (Nielsen, 2012). Of all ethnic
segments in the U.S., Asian- Americans are the
most affluent, with purchasing power projected to
reach $1 trillion by 2018. The median Asian-
American household income is
$72,472, which is higher than the U.S. national
average of $52,250. Of the various Asian-American
groups, Indian-Americans have the highest median
household income at $100,547. Additionally, Asian-
Americans are also the most highly educated
ethnic segment. Asian-Americans are more likely
to have a college degree (49%) compared to the
U.S. popula- tion in general (28%). Again, Indian-
Americans show the highest educational
attainment levels among the Asian-American
groups, where 68% of Indian- Americans age 25
or more education and 37% had a graduate or pro-
fessional degree. The corresponding numbers for
Vietnamese-Americans were 24% and 7%, respec-
tively.
Asian-Americans are also socially empowered
and technologically savvy. Relative to other ethnic
seg- ments, Asian-Americans have the highest
rate of social media and mobile technology
adoption (Nielsen, 2015). In addition, Asian-
Americans are prone to use digital media to
augment entertainment and shopping. They are
60% more likely than Hispanic Americans to stream
or download music. Younger Asian-Americans are
also leaders in the online shop- ping space, where
they outspend white Americans by 22% on a
monthly basis. Finally, Asian-American media
consumption has moved beyond physical media
(e.g., TV, DVDs, BluRay) into multimedia streaming
channels (e.g., smartphone, computer). From a
business perspective, all these factors make Asian-
Americans a particularly attractive market.
But going beyond this, we believe Asian-
American consumers can be leveraged as the
launchpad for introducing new global brands into
the U.S. market. Due to their relative wealth and
education, Asian- Americans represent the classic
early adopter in Everett Roger’s diffusion of
innovation curve. Early adopters make up the group
that is the first within a social circle to adopt, has
low risk aversion, and is considered trendsetting.
Early adopters are impor- tant to the adoption of
new products, because their word-of-mouth will
determine whether a product will (or will not)
reach the mainstream. Word-of- mouth can diffuse
quickly amongst Asian-Americans because many of
them reside in ethnoburbs: neigh- borhoods that
have a high Asian-American density. Additionally,
their adoption of social media can facilitate online
word-of-mouth. For these reasons, Asian-
Americans are perfect ambassadors of prod- ucts
and brands from their home countries.
This role dovetails nicely with the culturally ad-
venturous nature of the rest of the U.S. market,
which is willing to try new products and easily
accepts new experiences. If smaller global brands
are able to motivate the Asian-American consumers
to introduce the brands to their variety-seeking
friends, the brands will be able to penetrate the
non-Asian mainstream market effectively. In addi-
tion to its culturally accepting nature, the U.S.
market’s receptiveness to foreign trade partners
also makes it an attractive market for global
brands. For instance, in 2014, the U.S. engaged in
significant foreign trade partnerships with about 25
countries (trades valued at more than $25 billion).
In contrast, China, which represents a bigger
market, only en- gaged in foreign trade
partnerships with about nine countries during the
same year.
96 S. Chen et al.

4. Executing the strategy Chinese-Americans; Philadelphia and Chicago have

Businesses can adopt two strategies with respect
to Asian-American consumers. On the one hand,
Asian- American consumers can represent an end-
goal for foreign businesses (henceforth, Strategy
I), which we conceptualize as a baseline strategy.
The Asian- American population in the U.S. is
rapidly growing, so it represents a sustainable
market within itself. On the other hand, Asian-
Americans can be used as a launchpad in the U.S.
market with the ultimate goal of appealing to
mainstream American consumers (henceforth,
Strategy II), which we consider a more challenging
strategy but one with higher profit potential (see
Figure 2).
4.1. Strategy I: Targeting
Americans as the end goal
4.1.1. Ethnic segmentation approach
In executing Strategy I, how can marketers target
Asian-American consumers as the end-goal? The
most intuitive method is to segment Asian-
Americans based on their ethnicity (e.g., Chinese,
Indian, or Korean). To execute this strategy,
marketers can first discover geographic regions
that have a dense concentration of the chosen
Asian segment. Asian ethnoburbs are springing up
all over the U.S., par- ticularly around high-
technology clusters that at- tract educated
workforces, which in turn, create multicultural
suburbs (Nielsen, 2015). For example, San
Francisco and New York have high densities of
significant proportions of Indian-Americans; and
Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have large Korean
populations. To target specific Asian segments,
mar- keters could open retail stores or distribute
their products within the appropriate ethnoburb.
For example, Jollibee, the Filipino fast food giant,
adopted Strategy I as a means to grow its business
within the U.S. Jollibee opened its first store in
1998 in Daly City, California, to cater to the city’s
Filipino residents. Since then, Jollibee has opened
32 other locations, many of them in neighborhoods
with large concentrations of Filipino-Americans.
4.1.2. Acculturation approach
Marketing to Asian-American consumers based on
their ethnicity is sensible, but ethnic segmentation
Asian- does not capture all the variance in Asian-
American markets. Even within an ethnic group,
individuals drastically differ in their consumer
behavior. For example, a second-generation
Korean-American may make vastly different
consumption choices than a first-generation
Korean-American. Instead of using ethnic groups,
scholars have suggested the use of acculturation
levels as a predictor of consumer behavior (Kumar
& Steenkamp, 2013). Acculturation refers to the
simultaneous process of adopting elements of the
host culture (e.g., the U.S.), while retaining
aspects of one’s native culture (Pen˜aloza,
1994). The Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity
Acculturation (SL-ASIA) survey and the Vancouver
Index of Acculturation (VIA) survey

Figure 2. Asian-American marketing strategies

Launchpad Strategies (Strategy II)

Leverage Relational
Pan-Asian Approach
Ties with Asian- Leverage New
Target a specific Asian- Americans Platforms Total De-Ethnicization
American group and slowly
de-ethnicize and diversify Target products and Leverage expertise in Remove cultural elements in
products and brands to brands to gain traction technology marketing to products and brands.
reach other Asian- with Asian-Americans, and facilitate market entry.
Americans. then diffuse to non-Asians
through word-of-mouth.

Ethnic Acculturation
Segmentation Approach

Target products and Reorient products and

brands based on
brands in appropriate
consumers’ acculturation
ethnoburbs.
levels.

Baseline Strategies
(Strategy I)
A Korean, a Chinese, and an Indian walk into an American bar: Tapping the Asian-American goldmine 97
are examples of scales that measure an
individual’s acculturation level. Based on
responses to the sur- veys, an individual can be
categorized as low accul- turation, high
acculturation, or bicultural. The implication is
that marketers may need to change up their
marketing approach, depending on consum- ers’
acculturation levels.
Low acculturation Asian-Americans have not
adapted fully to the host culture. They are more
comfortable speaking in their native language and
their social circles are comprised primarily of
people from the same ethnic group. In terms of
consump- tion, low acculturation Asian-Americans
hold more positive attitudes toward products and
brands from their culture of origin than products
and brands from the host culture. For some low
acculturation con- sumers, the consumption of
culture-of-origin prod- ucts is a means by which
they can maintain their cultural identity
(Pen˜aloza, 1994).
To reach low acculturation Asian-Americans,
marketers can adopt a localization strategy that
emphasizes and reminds consumers of their native
identities. In the marketing literature, this ap-
proach is known as local consumer culture
position- ing (LCCP), a strategy that associates a
product or brand with local cultural meanings
(Alden, Steen- kamp, & Batra, 1999). LCCP may be
more effective in reaching low acculturation
Asian-American con- sumers because it reminds
them of their cultural roots (Guzma´n & Paswan,
2009). Localization strat- egies hold that the
retention of ‘cultural odor’ is necessary to attract
consumers to cultural products and brands
(Iwabuchi, 2002). Certain products and brands may
benefit from anchoring themselves to a place or
their culture of origin. For example, iTalk Global
Communications, Inc., a Chinese internet and
television service provider with over 1.2 million
users worldwide, recently released iTalkBB
Chinese TV, a digital box that offers streaming
Chinese- language entertainment, in the U.S.
market. The product is a hit amongst first-
generation Chinese- Americans who wish to
consume television shows and movies from their
homeland. As of 2016, iTalkBB is the number one
telecom provider for overseas Chinese-Americans.
On the other hand, high acculturation Asian-
Americans have adapted fully to the host culture
(e.g., the U.S.). They are comfortable speaking
English, and their social circles are inclusive of
people from the host culture. Many high accultura-
tion Asian-Americans may be second- or third-
generation Asian-Americans, and lack the ability
to read, speak, or understand their native
language, which makes the consumption of
cultural products difficult. High acculturation
Asian-Americans may still consume products and
brands from their native
culture as they are integral aspects of their
cultural identities. But they still prefer products
and brands from the U.S., as many view American
brands as symbols of modernity and economic
progress.
In marketing to high acculturation Asian-
Americans, a de-ethnicization strategy may be
the most successful approach. Essentially, a de-
ethnicization strategy calls for the neutralization
of cultural elements, such as symbols,
iconography, or logos that link the product or
brand to its culture of origin. In the marketing
literature, this approach is known as global
consumer culture positioning (GCCP), which
involves the removal of cultural odor from
products and brands to facilitate adoption to
global consumers (Alden et al., 1999). The
consump- tion of de-ethnicized products remind
Asian- American consumers of their global
identities: they are American consumers but also
Americans of eth- nic background. Certain
products and brands may benefit from adopting a
de-ethnicization approach. For many decades, Lee
Kum Kee has been China’s market leader in food
sauce and condiments. In 1983, it established a
U.S. subsidiary to distribute its products in the
U.S. The Panda brand, a low cost version of Lee
Kum Kee’s premium oyster sauce, was introduced
and marketed through the subsidiary to target
young Asian-American and non-Chinese con-
sumers. The Panda brand de-ethnicized its
products by modifying its product packaging and
labels to shed its strong Chinese identity. In
contrast to Lee Kum Kee products, which feature
traditional images and Chinese characters, Panda
products use a more globalized brand mark
(picture of a panda) and English (the lingua franca
of the business world). Panda products were an
instant hit amongst young Asian consumers and
restaurants and successfully penetrated the U.S
market.
Finally, bicultural Asian-Americans have
adapted to American culture, but still have strong
ties to their native cultures. Biculturals may speak
primarily in English, but can also speak, read, and
understand their native language. Overall, they
are in-tune with American culture as much as they
are in-tune with their ethnic culture. With respect
to their consumption, bicultural Asian-Americans
have positive attitudes toward both American
brands and brands that originate from their
culture of origin. Through consumption, they
oscillate be- tween their American identity and
their Asian identities on an as-needed basis. The
literature offers limited insights into marketing to
bicultural Asian-Americans. Some scholars studying
Hispanic acculturation suggest that biculturals
have positive attitudes toward products and
brands that originate from their native culture
(Zolfagharian & Sun, 2010). On the other hand,
other scholars indicate that
98
bicultural may be susceptible to cultural frame
shift- ing. That is, if bicultural Asian-Americans
are primed to think about their native culture,
they will hold more positive attitudes for localized
products and brands. If they are primed to think
about their host culture, then they will hold more
positive evalua- tions toward American products
and brands.
In terms of marketing execution, this means
that marketers have the opportunity to invoke
either Asian-American consumers’ native or global
identi- ties depending on their goals. Certain
products and brands may benefit from taking a
cultural frame shifting approach. Talod Gruh
Udyog produces Indian instant mix products, such
as khaman and dhosa, which have cultural
originations in Gujarat and South India. In 2002,
Talod shipped its first export orders to the U.S.
and the work of globaliza- tion began. Talod
predominantly distributes its products to Indian
retailers located in Indian-dense communities.
Many Indian-Americans consumers are bicultural,
second-generation Indian-Americans who still
desire cultural products. Talod provides the raw
materials to create traditional dishes, of- fering
product packaging in both English and the native
language. In doing this, Talod appeals to bicultural
consumers’ local and global identities.
4.2. Strategy II: Using Asian-
American consumers as a launchpad
Asian-American consumers can also be used as a
launchpad in the market with the ultimate goal of
reaching mainstream American consumers. This
strategy recognizes the buying potential and social
power of Asian-Americans consumers, as well as
their ability to introduce products to their non-
Asian peers. We lay out key components for
successful execution of this strategy.
4.2.1. Start with the pan-Asian markets
Unlike Hispanic-Americans, who are unified by the
Spanish language, Asian-Americans have different
written and spoken languages, which makes it
diffi- cult for marketers to reach all Asian-
Americans with a single marketing campaign.
Thus, one goal of marketing practitioners now is to
develop a pan- Asian approach in the long run.
One expression of the pan-Asian approach is
targeting a specific Asian- American group (e.g.,
Chinese-Americans) and use them as a starting
point, and then slowly de-ethni- cize and diversify
products and branding over time to reach other
Asian-American segments.
As mentioned in the beginning of the article,
99 Ranch Market did exactly this, and successfully
transitioned from a ‘Chinese’ store to an ‘Asian’
store, and more recently to an ‘ethnic-American’
S. Chen et al.
store. And, as they did so, they shifted to using
dual language (English and Chinese) in their
marketing communications to reach non-Asian and
bicultural consumers. In certain markets, 99 Ranch
Market would also incorporate a third language
(e.g., Vietnamese) to better serve residents in
those mar- kets. The pan-Asian approach helped
99 Ranch Market extend into marketplaces that
have diverse populations, such as Henderson,
Nevada. Having gained brand recognition and
traction with a variety of ethnic markets, it is now
in an enviable position to broaden its appeal
slowly to an even more inclusive, mainstream
market.
4.2.2. Leverage relational ties with Asian-
American consumers
Marketers can also leverage Asian-American con-
sumers’ relational ties with non-Asian consumers.
With this approach, marketers can target their
products and brands to gain traction with the
Asian-American community and then slowly diffuse
to non-Asian Americans through word-of-mouth.
A testament to this strategy is sriracha sauce
produced by Huy Fong Foods. Sriracha is a spicy
sauce that has originations in Thai culture. In the
U.S., sriracha is synonymous with Huy Fong Food’s
trademark red rooster brand, which is found on its
sriracha sauce bottle. Sriracha started out in 1980
as a staple ingredient found in Asian restaurants
and markets. It was used predominantly by Asian-
Americans. Non-Asian consumers gained exposure
through their Asian-American friends who took
them out to Asian restaurants or by visiting Asian
restau- rants of their own accord. Over time,
sriracha dif- fused outside of its Asian consumer
base, and by the mid-to-late 2000s, it was a
sought after ingredient used by cooks in haute
cuisine restaurants and food trucks. In other
words, sriracha sauce gained a high level of
cultural capital as an authentic, ethnic ingredient
that could be integrated into many types of non-
Asian foods. Now, sriracha is considered a
mainstream product, and major U.S. corporations
such as Applebee’s, Jack in the Box, Frito Lays,
and Heinz offer products with sriracha flavor.
Consistent with Holt’s (2002) cultural branding
model, the mainstream diffusion of sriracha was
augmented primarily through intense word-of-
mouth and grass- roots campaigns, as opposed to
national advertise- ment campaigns.
4.2.3. Leverage new platforms, social media
Businesses can leverage new technological plat-
forms and social media to augment branding
efforts. Many Asian countries have a high internet
penetra- tion rate and mature smartphone
market. For example, South Korea has an internet
penetration
A Korean, a Chinese, and an Indian walk into an American bar: Tapping the Asian-American goldmine 99

rate of 84%, which is one of the highest in the ethnicized

world. As a result, Asian brands heavily
incorporate tech- nology or social media in their
marketing efforts. For instance, Xiaomi, Inc., a
Chinese electronics com- pany (and the world’s
fifth largest smartphone mak- er), makes extensive
use of social media to receive feedback for its
products, communicate with con- sumers, and
spread electronic word-of-mouth. The recent
phenomenon of Poke´mon Go also demon-
strates how technology affects the adoption of
products.
Poke´mon Go is a location-based
augmented- reality application game. The
application game is based on the Poke´mon media
franchise, which in- cludes trading cards, video
games, print comics, and animation. Following its
release in the summer of 2016, Poke´mon Go
became immensely popular among its users,
regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or nationality.
In addition to the success of the application game
itself, it also helped various busi- nesses drive
consumer traffic into their retail loca- tions by
allowing them to capitalize on the game’s geo-
based marketing system by becoming Poke´-
Stops, where users can access items in the game.
The success of Poke´mon Go exemplifies how
tech- nology can be used to reach consumers
quickly and effectively. Similarly, Asian brands can
facilitate their entry into the U.S. market by
leveraging their expertise in technology
marketing. First of all, it will be easy to reach out
to Asian-American consumers who are already avid
technology adopters that use social media as a
means to communicate and con- sume (Nielsen,
2015). However, it will also be easier to reach the
mainstream American consumers since technology
is less affected by cultural barriers and more
affected by technological savvy.

4.2.4. Total de-ethnicization

Using this approach, global companies take a leap
from the Asian-American consumers and go for the
mainstream market. This strategy may require
dras- tic de-ethnicization of products and brands
to facil- itate global market entry. This may
include the removal of cultural elements in
products and brands to mitigate low quality
perceptions that are associ- ated with the country
of origin.
This is a strategy adopted by Lenovo, the
Chinese technology giant, which currently enjoys a
19.8% market share, making it the largest personal
com- puter vendor in the world. Founded in 1984
in Beijing, Lenovo was originally called Lianxiang,
which means ‘legend.’ The company’s brand mark
incorporated the Chinese characters for Lianxiang
along with its English translation, Legend, until
the early 21st century. In 2002, as a part of
Legend’s global expansion, Lianxiang/Legend de-
its corporate identity by changing the firm’s
identity to Lenovo, a combination of Le- carried
over from Legend, and novo, which is French for
‘new.’ The name change was an integral aspect of
the com- pany’s global expansion strategy. In 2004,
Lenovo acquired IBM’s hardware division, and their
com- puters now carry the globalized brand, which
neu- tralizes allusions to the company’s Chinese
heritage. The de-ethnicization strategy was so
effective that scholars question if Lenovo can still
be considered a Chinese entity (Vidal & Meschi,
2013).

4.3. Combining Strategies I and II

Strategies I and II need not be exclusive. Marketers

can combine both into a multi-stage strategy
where they first focus on a homogenous ethnic
segment (e.g., Chinese-Americans), and
subsequently extend their focus to reach other
segments (e.g., mainstream American consumers).
Royal Enfield, an Indian motorcycle company,
has employed the multi-stage strategy to great
effect. While extremely popular in India with
almost an iconic status, Royal Enfield’s foothold in
the U.S. market is still nominal. Currently, Royal
Enfield motorcycles appeal largely to Indian-
Americans who have nostalgic attachments toward
the brand, but the company is planning to expand
into the mainstream U.S. market by targeting niche
seg- ments (e.g., millennials) that would desire its
lower pricing (between $3,000—$7,000) and
smaller sized engines (between 250cc—750cc).
Alternately, a business that employs a house-of-
brands philosophy has the luxury to pick and
choose between Strategy I and II. As previously
stated, 99 Ranch Market recently transitioned its
flagship stores toward a pan-Asian approach
(Strategy II) and appealed to mainstream
consumers by opening re- tail locations in
culturally mixed neighborhoods. In 2006, 99 Ranch
Market created an extension, 168 Market, a
‘fighter brand’ that is oriented around everyday
low prices. 168 Market has two stores in California
and two in Nevada, and uses an ethnic- segment
approach to target price-sensitive, Chinese-
American consumers (Strategy I). By alter- nating
between Strategies I and II with its two extensions,
99 Ranch Market is able to diversify its strategic
portfolio and capture different seg- ments of the
market.

5. Conclusion
With this article, we have outlined how the new
globalization paradigm has enabled small brands to
expand successfully into international markets. In
100
doing so, we believe we have demonstrated that
the confluence of three key factors–—the growth of
a strong and particularly appealing ethnic group,
the changing landscape of branding, and the
availability of new technologies to reach
consumers (as in social media)–—has set the stage
for the advent of smaller Asian brands to make a
mark in the U.S market.
While this article focuses on Asian brands and
their global market entry strategies into the U.S.
market, we are likely to see more smaller and
lesser-known global brands gaining prominence in
other non-U.S. markets as well. For instance, just
two countries (India and China) combined make up
more than one-third of the world’s population.
Even though the GDP per capita is relatively low,
the size of these populations still makes them
formidable markets, especially for mass-market
products. The rapidly expanding middle class in
new emerging markets, such as Nigeria, Indonesia,
Brazil, and Mexico, is also in search of relatively
inexpensive, yet good quality products that can
satisfy its newly acquired wants and need. As
small global brands continue to expand into these
markets, we are likely to witness an exciting shift
in the branded market- place currently dominated
by Western brands.
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