Why target to Asian Americans ?

»	Growing faster than any other group in the United States
»	Highest average household incomes and levels of education in the US
»	Market younger than the general market
»	Larger Household size than other groups
»	Preference for Multi-generational households
»	89% of all Asian Americans are accounted for in 6 groups
»	Prefer to communicate and consume media in their native language

Consider the following:

BUYING POWER STATISTICS

With close to $254 billion in buying power, Asian Americans are a powerful force in the U.S. consumer market. In 2001, 11.7 million Americans-4.2 percent of the country's population-will claim Asian ancestry and their share of the market will attract increasingly more attention. (Asian refers to a person of Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino, or other Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry, and is considered a racial group, rather than an ethnic category.)

The Selig Center projects that the nation's Asian buying power will rise from $112.9 billion in 1990 to $253.4 billion in 2001, an increase of 124.8 percent in eleven years, or a compound annual rate of growth of 7.6 percent. The percentage gain is substantially greater than the increases in buying power projected for the U.S. as a whole (70.4 percent) and other racial groups, and is slightly higher than the 118 percent gain projected for Hispanics.

The group's substantially above-average growth in buying power demonstrates the increasing importance of Asian-American consumers and should create great opportunities for businesses that pay attention to their needs. Because the group includes consumers of so many national ancestries and such diverse cultures, firms that target specific subgroups may find niche markets particularly rewarding. Indeed, many entrepreneurs may first begin with goods or services aimed at a specific national group-Chinese or Filipino, for example -and then branch out to the Asian market in general.

Probably the most important forces supporting the substantial and continued growth of Asian buying power are the strong economy and abundance of jobs. Asians also are better educated than the average American, therefore a large proportion of Asians hold top-level jobs in management or professional specialties. The increasing number of successful Asian entrepreneurs also helps to expand the group's buying power. Positive demographics also contribute: the Asian population is growing faster than the total population, mostly because of strong immigration, and this trend is expected to continue. A relatively young Asian population, with a relatively large proportion of adults in their early career stages, also argues for additional gains in buying power.

Estimates of the absolute size and rate of growth of Asian buying power are two firm indications of market potential in specific areas. This market is much more focused on a few states than are the total, black, and Native American consumer markets, but less so than the Hispanic market. The five states with the largest Asian markets account for 64 percent of the group's buying power. In contrast, the five states with the largest total consumer markets provide only 38 percent of total national buying power. Similarly, the five states with the largest black and American Indian consumer markets account for 38 percent of black buying power and 43 percent of Native American buying power, respectively.

Courtesy of the Selig Center for Economic Growth, The University of Georgia