For this Hindi newscaster and local New York television personality-turned-marketer, now is the time to fully introduce America’s South Asian population to corporations looking for lucrative markets in which to push their products. She hopes her agency can help foster relationships between corporations and South Asian media outlets, and persuade giants like BMW, American Airlines, and large health insurance providers to start tailoring some of their marketing to the South Asian community.
“I want American corporations to know the [South Asian] community and be part of the community,” says Bhasin. “Somebody has to reach out to them and educate them.”
Bhasin, who notes that South Asians spend on average $800 per month on their credit cards, says that part of this “education” process involves explaining to American corporations that while South Asians are a small U.S. demographic group, they are some of America’s most desirable consumers. In her view, the South Asian market is important enough and complex enough to warrant a specialized agency like her own. Western Union was ASB’s pilot client Bhasin speaks of most often.
“Western Union is my baby,” she says. ASB developed a campaign for Western Union, advertising the company’s services for money transfer to India.
Bhasin is now concentrating on capturing a tiny piece of major advertisers’ budgets. And she explains that this needs to be achieved in the next 18 months, while the 2000 census results showing South Asians to be an important demographic are still fresh.
According to Bhasin, some advertisers question the need for targeted marketing to an educated South Asian audience that may already be exposed to their marketing through a variety of different mainstream outlets. After all, don’t Indians watch CNN, or other experience other media outlets where they are bombarded with messages to buy a Lexus or a Honda?
But she contends that the return on investment for a company specifically targeting the South Asian market is huge, suggesting, “for [every] dollar from a client, we’re giving them $10.”
Bhasin, who at one time did a TV call-in show for a South Asian audience called “ITV Live with Neeta Bhasin,” says her experience in the media has informed her understanding of the South Asian community in the U.S. And as a result, unlike larger agencies, she doesn’t spend huge resources on research.
Bhasin has done focus groups, but relies most often on her own market intelligence — in a market where knowing which ethnic TV show is most popular is not a question of publicized audit reports or ratings, but rather word of mouth. According to her, this kind of grass-roots understanding is most effective for business. “You have to be part of it. Only then you will understand,” Bhasin says of marketing to U.S. South Asians. “True, they watch CNN, etc. But they watch their own programs too. If Honda advertises in South Asian media, people will like to buy Honda, because they feel that the trust is going to be there.”
As of yet, Bhasin admits, the larger brands’ interest is not there. “People are not approaching us that much yet because they don’t know that there are agencies like us out there,” she says. “Nobody is making an effort to get into our market. They don’t want to deal with ethnic agencies because they don’t have time for it .… But they don’t know how cost-effective ethnic agencies are.”
Bhasin highlights the marketing advantages of giving a South Asian look and feel to an ad for a mainstream product and delivering that message through ethnic media. “Give us a small budget,” she says confidently. “And just give me six months.”
