Reaching cable viewers in many languages

'Our
people don’t watch ESPN. English is often a second language. They’re not tuned into the mainstream media. They’re also not used to direct mailing where they come from. And appropriate radio stations are hard
to find.'

Reaching cable viewers
in many languages

Ethnic channels are turning to grass roots tactics

By David Everitt

     The ethnic audience is big. But it’s not necessarily the place for big marketing--provided you associate the word “big” with unwieldy and imprecise.
     Multi-cultural TV channels will grow through a selective, grassroots approach, as opposed to the usual mass-marketing methods.
    This is the idea behind a new electronic marketing tool introduced by the International Channel Networks. It’s also one of the ideas to be found in a recent study conducted by the Cable Television Advertising Bureau.
     “In basic cable, the traditional approach is to serve the greatest possible number of people at once,” says Jim Honiotes, the International Channel Networks’ vice president of communications.
    “Cable programmers all tend to do the same things: massive direct mailings, billings inserts, radio ads. But that’s not necessarily the most effective way to reach the multi-cultural market."
      To offer its affiliates an alternative approach, the network has launched a web site on how to promote both its multi-language International Channel and its various single-language premium channels. The site features sample flyers, postcards and posters as well as targeted campaign concepts.
      “Our people don’t watch ESPN,” says Honiotes. “English is often a second language. They’re not tuned into the mainstream media. They’re also not used to direct mailing where they come from. And appropriate radio stations are hard to find. They don’t listen to mainstream rock ‘n’ roll or adult contemporary.”
      The grassroots approach advocated by the network relies on the insular, tightly knit quality of ethnic communities.
    Often tactics are intended to capitalize on local organizations and events.
      “We tell our affiliates that they need to get the word out where these viewers work, play or worship,” says Honiotes. “Activating word-of-mouth is better than any advertising you can buy.”
      At CAB, Cynthia Perkins-Roberts believes that this approach is essential for a programmer like International Channel Networks.
    “The Asian community, for instance, has so many different subsets. If you were to market your channel in Flushing [in Queens] you can’t use a traditional mass-market approach because there isn’t one blanket language group. Mainstream marketing is not serving networks with ethnic targets.”
      As CAB’s director of network marketing development, Perkins-Roberts has conducted a study of ethnic audiences.
    “The best thing to do is to align yourself with people who know these audiences, whether they are community organizations, ethnic agencies or whatever.”
      The CAB study, she says, revealed cultural differences that media people have to keep in mind.
    “For African-American families, religion is very important, and a lot of effective marketing can be done having to do with church. For Hispanics, family is very important. For Asians, honor and working hard are important values. There are a lot of things to consider.”
      CAB has assembled all its information and posted it on its Multi-Cultural Resource Center web site. CAB and the International Channel Networks differ on one key point: how exactly they define “multi-cultural.”
      “We really don’t focus on African-Americans,” Honiotes says. “They already have access to a great deal of mainstream media outlets. We concentrate instead on Asian-Pacific Islanders, Middle Eastern and Spanish language.”
       Another somewhat different take comes from Jeff Valdes, founder of SiTV, a Hispanic culture/English language cable channel currently setting up distribution deals. He agrees that a grassroots community approach to marketing can be an effective way to reach a targeted demographic, but he adds, “I think people sometimes go that route for budgetary reasons.”
       He also believes that mainstream media still has its uses in this area.
    “In my opinion, Spanish-language channels, for instance, could advertise effectively in English-language media. That audience isn’t restricted to one language.”
       Like just about everyone else who has looked at recent census numbers, all the people we spoke to agree on how much we can expect from ethnic media.
       “The potential is huge and growing,” says Honiotes. Along with the recent expansion of the Hispanic market, he points to the Asian-Pacific Islander audience, “which is growing fastest of all the groups and has huge potential in terms of economic demographics.”
       Cable, in particular, should benefit from this kind of growth, says Perkins-Roberts. “I think in the future cable will really take off in reaching these audiences. It’s a logical extension of the niche marketing of cable.”

-David Everitt covers technology for Media Life, writing from Huntington, New York.

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