Nick Noorani Website

Six years ago the United Way of Greater Toronto engaged a few staff in fundraising across the city’s entire, diverse multicultural spectrum with unsatisfactory results. Since then, it has adopted a more focused approach to tapping into specific ethnic communities.
Previously, it raised about $20,000 to $25,000 annually from about seven or eight communities. With a more focused approach to three prominent ethnic groups particularly, it last year raised about $700,000 which represents about a 300 percent increase in donations within six years.
Daisy Tse, director of ethnic markets for the United Way of Greater Toronto, described the strategic shift in detail to delegates at the recent Canadian Marketing Association conference. She was part of an executive track panel on “Communicating to the Changing Canadian Market: A Road Map to Diversity Marketing.”

For 20 years the United Way had done multicultural fundraising in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to eight or 10 communities with three or four staff, she said. The educational effort was time consuming and the results were unsatisfactory.
“We had too little staff working in too many communities. A lot of the time the fundraising was hit and miss. We didn’t have the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with our donors.”
The United Way summoned a consulting firm A. T. Kearney in 1998 that used the 1996 census to come up with the eight largest ethno-cultural groups within the GTA with short, mid, and long-term goals mapped out for each, she said. They were prioritized based on attractiveness from population size and growth and other factors.
A second factor was propensity to contribute, she said. This was derived from average household income and the charitable donations per person. Another factor was how well a community already knew about and responded to the United Way.
Three groups to target
Three groups stood out. The Chinese community had upwards of 450,000 people living in Toronto. The south Asian population was about 500,000 and the Afro-Canadian community accounted for about 290,000 people. Together, these three groups amounted to more than one million people in the city.
The Chinese also had a long history with the charity, she said. They started the walkathon for the United Way in the late 1980s.
Establishing relevant connections to every community is important, she said. The targeted messages are different to each group.
“As an example, in the United Way’s mainstream brochure, we will feature homelessness on the front page. But in some of these communities, homelessness is not relevant to them because they don’t allow their own people to sleep on the street. They look after their seniors and these people.”
A focus group with Chinese participants found their top value was seniors, she said. They were inclined to donate readily to charities that cared for seniors. The disabled, youth and children were also of high importance.
The south Asians placed children and family as top priorities, along with health related issues. With the black community, youth and education came first.
United Way brochures and other literature are tailored to community priorities, she said.
It runs ads in the three or four largest ethnic newspapers of which there are about 250 in the city, she says. It also runs them in ethnic magazines of which there are a great many.
It helps reach people who may not read mainstream English papers or watch TV.
Translation twist
It’s desirable to translate a lot of mainstream United Way materials into promotions for specific communities, she said. However, the United Way employs a method it calls ‘transcreation’ as opposed to translations.
“We find that translation alone is not enough. We call it transcreation, meaning that we translate the message into a context that is appropriate to the particular group.”
The United Way also counts heavily on event strategies to build awareness among ethnic groups, she said. Many of these people are not in conventional workplaces and aren’t exposed to the employee pledges collected in many business offices.
The United Way has created councils from different communities to help with the events. It has staged events like the United Way Chinese gala, and the south Asian Bollywood/Hollywood dinner.
Fundraising from multicultural events has increased from approximately $10,000 to at least $150,000, she said. Donated ethnic media coverage has also grown from $200,000 to about $1.4 million in 2003.
Formerly, the United Way didn’t get many gifts or a big bulk of supplies from ethnic groups, she said. Now it is receiving loads of them from the three communities it has targeted in its marketing and a significant number of volunteers.
The United Way was entering the next phase of ethnic research to further increase its ROI, she said. Many challenges remained.
Finding donors in the south Asian and Chinese communities was still difficult because a lot of people didn’t use United Way services meaning there was no direct link for them, she said. The demographics shifted continuously making it necessary for the United Way to change its focus as well.
“It is quite hard recruiting someone with lots of connections in the community who can do the job effectively. When these ethnic recruits quit, it is difficult to replace them.”
ICICI Bank enters Canada
Panellist Kamaldi Badlu, national language sales executive, OMNI Television, presented a case study on the ICICI Bank entering Canada a few years ago. The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd. (ICICI) was established in 1955 in India by the World Bank and the Indian government. Its purpose was to provide project financing to Indian businesses. In 1984 it set up ICICI Bank, which is now the second largest commercial bank in India with about 470 branches across the country.
In December 2003 ICICI Bank arrived in Canada with two objectives, she said. The immediate goal was to generate awareness and build the Indo-Canadian customer base in Toronto and Vancouver, which had the highest percentage population of south Asians and Chinese. South Asians represent 27.8 percent of the total GTA population, which is anticipated to rise to 32 percent by 2017.
ICICI already had strong brand recognition among south Asians, she said. It was well known and trusted back home in India.
“This company was conscious of its strong brand loyalty. This is an example of an advertiser who capitalizes on their familiarity among south Asians in Canada.”
It stoked this recognition by running two TV commercials on ethnic stations where the creative executions were picked up from India and adapted to Canada, she said. They emphasized how as a customer your money was secure with ICICI Bank. There were instances where characters in the commercial placed their hands on their chest. It’s a gesture symbolizing security to south Asians.
They also talked about interest rates, she said. They have been running for the past three and half years here. The superimpositions on rates flashed on the screen were easily changed when rates were adjusted.
ATMs in six languages
Badlu described ICICI Bank as a client that invested heavily in serving its customers. It installed banking machines that operated in six languages–Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil. The last three were the south Asian sub-groups that were growing most rapidly.
ICICI Bank is now working on its longer term objective of generating awareness among other ethnic groups and the mainstream English population, she said. To do this, it created a commercial to appeal to these groups. The spokesperson was racially non-descript to appeal to all other viewers. It was produced in English, but created in a manner that could translate well into other languages with some voice overs.
This third piece of creative ran in south Asian programming as well as mainstream English shows, she said. Among the seven or eight subgroups that make up the huge south Asian umbrella, English is a strong second language.
While not divulging specific results, she said the client was extremely happy with the campaign. It has already realized an ROI and achieved a marked increase in new accounts opened. The bank estimated it had achieved 90 percent brand awareness among the south Asian community in the GTA.
She quoted ICICI Bank CEO Harry Panday as saying: “We’re hoping to make the multicultural community feel more at home in their new home.”
“That is what it is really about,” said Badlu. “Something as simple as a familiar brand can be very comforting to someone new to our country where everything except a familiar brand is new to them.”
Fido targets Chinese markets
Panellist Sharifa Khan, president of Balmoral Marketing & Advertising, related how Microcell, Montreal, launched its Fido cellphone service into the Chinese Canadian market in late 1997. It was just after the wave of 230,000 Chinese came to Canada fearing the takeover of Hong Kong by China.
Microcell entered the Chinese Canadian market five or six years behind many banks, insurance companies, housing developers and key competitors, most notably Cantel, now Rogers Wireless, and Bell, she said. French-speaking Microcell already faced the challenge of converting its marketing messages into English, not to mention Chinese.
“The advertising message is very easily lost in translation if you don’t do it carefully. And Microcell was the new kid on the block. Bell was five to six years ahead in ethnic marketing with a very, wide sales network.”
A national marketing campaign was developed from demographic, psychographic, usage and attitude studies. They tapped into the unique psyche, behaviour and buying habits of the Chinese market in Canada.
Most people in the market were aware of analogue and GSM/PCS systems, especially new immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were very cell phone savvy and had used them extensively, she said. The objectives in 1997 were to create a strong brand awareness of Microcell in this market and demonstrate Fido was an affordable, quality system with a global network. It focused on Hong Kong and Taiwan immigrants who had a strong knowledge of GSM/PCS and international roaming where through one phone and number you can reach anywhere in the world.
“It was necessary to reinforce into the Chinese community that Microcell was stable because back in the homeland there are just too many companies that are fly by night including banks, insurance and wireless companies. And of course, we had to establish Microcell was a very high tech company and set Fido apart as a superior digital system. “For further effectiveness, we had to do a Chinese version of the Fido name, not really to replace Fido, but rather to enhance the brand culturally. It was done to show that Microcell was aware of the cultural sensitivity and knew exactly what these consumers were thinking.”
The name FiDat was adopted, which was close phonetically to Fido, she said. In Chinese, it connotes speed, alacrity, sharp and on the ball. It also means most varied, and quick to reach.
Slogans changed
The Fido slogan of ‘You’re the master’ didn’t translate into anything in Chinese, she said. Attempting the translation risked creating the opposite impression if it wasn’t done properly.
So the slogan was replaced with ‘You are in command, be free with FiDat,’ she said. It rhymed and was catchy.
Another mainstream slogan promised ‘Satisfaction guaranteed, no bones about it.’ Again, there was no immediately transferable translation. It actually implied Microcell was treating the Chinese market as secondary in importance. So that slogan and imagery was scrapped in favour of terms that spoke directly to the Chinese.
In the original ads a German shepherd or terrier often appeared with the Fido logo, she said. But these were dogs the Chinese were not well acquainted with. So they were replaced in the Chinese ads with the more familiar Sha Pei breed.
The two target demographics were people 25 to 55, and 14 to 24 years of age, she said. Cellphone users were younger in the Chinese market and the parents were the buyers of the phones and service.
“The Chinese are very high users of cell phones. They use them for business, socializing, talking to their family. If you’re in a Chinese restaurant and hear a cell phone, 10 people will reach for phones thinking it is their phone that’s ringing.”
From the outset, distinct Fido product offerings were promoted like no long-term contract and 30-day money back guarantee, she said. Most attractive was the network of international roaming partners.
“Tapping into the resources of partner companies like Hong Kong Telecom was a good way of enticing switching among consumers who were perhaps with Rogers or Bell at the time.”
Homeland features studied
Microcell also studied what these consumers were used to in Hong Kong and Taiwan, she said. Features like no-limit constraints, flat rates and unlimited calls were phased in within a couple of years. Also introduced was billing by the second, a smart chip that serves as the smart card of GSM systems, bundling of services under a single fee like call forward, call answer and call waiting which at that time were commonly charged individually.
Word of mouth is the most powerful influence in the Chinese community because they check what their friends are buying, and the value and quality they are getting, she said. They rely highly on the recommendations of their friends because of their psychographic nature, which is conformity and collective achievement.
An Anglo Saxon appearing in an ad doesn’t relate effectively with the Chinese, she said. It was important to have Chinese imagery and creative. The FiDat ads carried a slogan at the bottom that read ‘All my friends have FiDat,’ which tapped into their conformity and collective attitude.
“Chinese consumers want to know a company is big and stable, and not going to disappear overnight. They like a lot of information and rely on their newspapers, radio and TV stations to see if your company is going to last. Do you have the money to advertise and reach us?”
You cannot do ethnic marketing from an ivory tower, she emphasized. You have to be out in the pulse of the community supporting their cultural events, and mounting advertising that speaks to them and celebrates their festivities.
The campaign helped increase Fido’s growth in western and central regions with high concentrations of Chinese consumers, she said. They accounted for at least 20 percent of total Fido sales.
http://www.dmn.ca/Articles/Articles/2005/june/focusedethnic.htm