TransCity

Rupert Murdoch-owned Star TV is trying hard to attract UK subscribers with a South Asian background. Over a year ago, Star secured slots for Star News and the entertainment channel Star Plus in Sky Digital’s family package, taken by the bulk of the broadcaster’s 7.6 million subscribers. Of these, more than 350,000 are South Asian - but despite this advantage, competition for these households is tough and looks likely to get even harder.

Zee TV - Star TV’s major rival in the UK and India - already broadcasts Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Music and Alpha Punjabi. Last year, it launched the Alpha Gujarati channel and the international channel South Asia Network. Another broadcaster, Vectone, added Vectone World to its existing channels Vectone Tamil, Vectone Urdu, Vectone Bangla and Vectone Bolly at the beginning of this year.

Meanwhile ZMTV, a sales house that oversees Sony Entertainment Television Asia, B4U Music and other ethnic interest channels such as Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment (PCNE), has signed up Channel S, aimed at Sylheti-speaking Bangladeshis in the UK.

In addition, Star has expanded its portfolio of channels in the UK, introducing the movie channel Star Gold and the entertainment channel Star One, launched in India last year, which targets young urban viewers. Both provide content that appeals to second- and third-generation British Asians.

Star, which moved into profit in 2003, is available in more than 53 countries, has more than 50 television services and claims to reach 300 million viewers a week. Three years ago it was one of the first non-state controlled broadcasters to be given limited broadcasting rights in China.

Source: Marketing Week

With Romania and Bulgaria joining the EU in 2007, the debate on the pros and cons of immigration intensifies all over Europe. In the United Kingdom, one of the few European countries to conduct an open door policy for workers from eight eastern European countries that joined the EU two years ago, sharp language is being used.

Newspaper headlines speak for itself: ‘unchecked immigration put Britons out of work’, ‘migrants get Brit’s pay slashed by 50%’, ‘East Europe migrants help take jobless to six-year high’ and even ‘HIV children bringing timebomb to Britain.’ All of this as a result of the grave miscalculation of the British government, predicting an influx of only tens of thousands of migrant workers from eastern Europe after the expansion of the EU two years ago. The actual numbers of eastern European immigrants in the UK are now estimated to be around 600,000, while another 261,000 immigrants from outside the EU have also obtained work permits in the past two years - one of the highest numbers of immigrants in peacetime.

But does this huge movement of population into the United Kingdom indeed have a negative effect on the British economy, as several politicians and newspapers suggest? Not so, according to the British Independent newspaper (see picture). A new study suggests the British government would have missed its key economic goals without the boost of economic activity by the new migrants. The 600,000 eastern Europeans now account to 2 per cent of the UK’s 30 million strong workforce, contributing an estimated £ 2.5bn a year to the economy. Business leaders, according to The Independent, also called for Britain to maintain its open door policy for foreign workers. Business for New Europe, which counts the former Tory minister Leon Brittan as well as chief executives from blue-chip companies including Reuters, Carphone Warehouse, Sainsbury and the London Stock Exchange on its advisory panel, said further migration was a ‘cause for celebration, not cowardice.’ On a larger scale, Ernst & Young reports that immigrants make up 8 percent of the workforce and contribute 10 percent of the UK’s GDP, making migrants net tax contributors.

In the Netherlands, a coalition of populist right-wing politicians and often left-wing trade unions are opposing an open door policy towards eastern European migrant workers, while, just like in the UK, many business leaders actually welcome immigration of skilled workers from abroad. As a result of the Dutch government’s policy of discouraging immigration in recent years, many skilled workers from non-EU countries, such as India, had to wait for up to a year or more for their work permit for the Netherlands. As a consequence, they decided to move to other countries, such as the United Kingdom. Just recently, realizing these setbacks, the Dutch government has adapted its policy, making it easier for skilled workers to obtain work permits.

It is often suggested that the main reason for the United States being the world’s largest economic power are its roots as an immigrant nation. The boost recent immigration has had on the British economy, if true, might now encourage other European countries to look in a more balanced way to the pros and cons of immigration, while the British government might actually give in to popular sentiment and restrict immigration from Romania and Bulgaria when these countries join the European Union next year.

It remains a difficult balance. Views of the electorate sometimes prevent politicians making the right choices for the economy. As marketers would say: rightly so, because the consumer is always in charge. However, in the Netherlands, discussions on ‘who’s going to pay our pensions’ would not have brought Labour leader Wouter Bos to the defensive, had a more balanced immigration policy taken place in recent years, according to some experts. As they claim, with a more active immigration policy, encouraging skilled workers to work for the benefits of both the Netherlands and their home country, migrant workers will partly pay ‘for our pensions’.

The debate continues…

On wednesday morning August 30, TransCity and IRI will present the details of its ‘Diversity in Shopping’ research, to be conducted from September to December 2006. The event will take place in one of Western Europe’s largest mosques, the Mevlana Mosque in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Until now, over 60 participants have registered to attend the presentation, all of them major fast mover brands as well as retailers.

The extended and unique ‘Diversity in Shopping’ research will focus on the shopping behaviour in the Netherlands of the various ethnic cultural communities in supermarkets and drugstores. IRI and TransCity will give an insight view of the drivers behind the choices made by the ethnic consumer as well as factual data on brands and products bought in areas with a strong culturally diverse population in comparison with areas with a more homogeneous Dutch population. Based on the actual scan results of supermarkets and drugstores in areas with large migrant populations, it will be the first time that actual buying behaviour based on hard data will be analysed.

If you’d like to attend the breakfast meeting of August 30, please get in touch with IRI on + 31 (0) 418 57 08 00 and ask for Carin Stroeken or Henriëtte van Wijk, or get in touch with TransCity on + 31 (0) 10 414 04 64 and ask for René Romer or Nalini Hirasingh.

More information on IRI can be found on their global website and on their local website in the Netherlands.

Sumerah Ahmad and Humerah Khan, founders of London’s award-winning Asian radio station Club Asia, are in Management Today’s list of top business women under 35.

Three years ago, the two sister from Essex recognized the need for a dedicated station for young British Asians. Despite having no previous experience in radio broadcasting, Humerah, an accountancy graduate, and Sumerah, a law graduate with an NVQ in Film and Video production, managed to secure a highly sought after broadcasting license from Ofcom.

The station Club Asia was launched in September 2003. During its first year on air, it was the fastest growing commercial radio station in London, becoming a household name amongst the Asian community. The station has been instrumental in the emergence of rising Asian music stars and it is widely recognized as the UK’s leading brand in the Asian youth market.

By presenting in English and speaking about issues that affect the community, Club Asia seeks to unite people of all cultures and bridge the gap between generations and lifestyles. Musically, Club Asia is known for playing non stop hits from a wide range of musical genres, from Bollywood, Bhangra, Asian Pop/Rock to fusion, as well as the best from the mainstream.

Ahmad (see picture) and Khan recently received the Asian Woman of Achievement Award for Entrepeneur of the Year 2006. They were also finalists for the Entrepeneur of the Year Award 2006, and won amongst others, the Best New Businesses in the UK Award in 2005.

In Europe many advertisers and ethnic media interact in local European languages when targeting second-generation Turkish, Moroccan, Asian or other ethnic consumers. On the contrary, in the U.S. many advertisers and ethnic media are used to address consumers in specific community languages such as Spanish, Cantonese, Russian or Hindi.

But this trend is changing, according to Teresa Bouza of Agencia EFE. We have already seen that the new MTV TR3S channel will use a mix of the Spanish and English language as well as a mix of English- and Spanish-language music to target the Latino youth in the U.S. Now Toyota, McDonald’s and Reebok are among heavyweight companies increasing their use of English-language advertising when seeking to reach U.S. Hispanics, especially younger ones born in their parents’ adopted country. These companies are leading a new marketing trend that, according to some experts, has enormous potential.

“I worked at Univision for three years and I quit because I realized that most Latinos don’t watch television in Spanish,” said Robert Ross, president of AIM TV, which produces two programs a week in English for a young Hispanic audience. He said Hispanic young people “are very Latino, but they live their life in English.”

McDonald’s says it wants to reach out to second-generation Latinos and will be devoting a growing proportion of its Hispanic-targeted marketing budget to ads in English, even though the overall percentage remains small. “Speaking only in Spanish limits us a little,” Rick Marroquin, McDonald’s director of marketing for the Hispanic market, told EFE. He said that “85 percent of our media advertising budget for the Hispanic market goes to Spanish-language publications or TV.”

Executives with automaker Toyota, which recently filmed a new bilingual commercial, are also looking for the best way to reach out to second-generation Hispanics. Kim McCullough, marketing manager at Toyota, said that “Latino youth are multi-cultural” and move in two different cultural and linguistic circles. For that reason, she said the company often opts for bilingual commercials that have a universal message and in which the actors switch effortlessly from one language to the other. Shoe manufacturer Reebok is another company seeking to appeal to young Hispanics in English, having launched a Website in that language last year. The website is heavily focussed on popular music styles like reggaeton, currently hot among the Latino youth.

In 2004, 65 percent of Hispanics living in the United States had been born in that country, up sharply from the 1970s and 80s when most Latinos had been born abroad, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The Pew Hispanic Center, meanwhile, estimates that by 2020 75 percent of Hispanics will have been born in the United States.

Hispanics make up the biggest minority in the United States, numbering just over 40 million in an overall population nearing 300 million.

Main source: Teresa Bouza of Agencia EFE