The Magic of Diasporas[Immigrants]

The Magic Of Diasporas

The following views are based on this Harvard Article: https://hbr.org/2013/10/diaspora-marketing

Immigrant networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them.

Diasporas are groups living away from their birth countries such as first-generation immigrants. The idea is to market your brand to a group that is familiar with and has an affinity for offerings that come from their home country. When that group provides a sales base, it gradually expands to people connected to the diaspora and finally to a broader market. This strategy avoids the often unfeasible attempt to build a brand on foreign shores from zero.

This is not a good time to be foreign considering the growing economic importance of diasporas, and the contribution they can make to a country's economic growth. – The Economist

Old networks, new communications

• Diaspora networks have always been a potent economic force, but the cheapness and ease of modern travel has made them larger and more numerous than ever before. 
• There are now 215m first-generation migrants around the world: that's 3% of the world's population. If they were a nation, it would be a little larger than Brazil. 
• There are more Chinese people living outside China than there are French people in France.
• Some 22m Indians are scattered all over the globe. 
• Small concentrations of ethnic and linguistic groups have always been found in surprising places—Lebanese in west Africa, Japanese in Brazil and Welsh in Patagonia, for instance—but they have been joined by newer ones, such as west Africans in southern China. 
• These networks of kinship and language make it easier to do business across borders. 

They speed the flow of information: a Chinese trader in Indonesia who spots a gap in the market for cheap umbrellas will alert his cousin in Shenzhen who knows someone who runs an umbrella factory. 

• Kinship ties foster trust, so they can seal the deal and get the umbrellas to Jakarta before the rainy season ends. 
• Trust matters, especially in emerging markets where the rule of law is weak. So, does a knowledge of the local culture. That is why so much foreign direct investment in China still passes through the Chinese diaspora. And modern communications make these networks an even more powerful tool of business. 
• Diasporas also help spread ideas. Many of the emerging world's brightest minds are educated at Western universities. 
• An increasing number go home, taking with them both knowledge and contacts. 
• Indian computer scientists in Bangalore bounce ideas constantly off their Indian friends in Silicon Valley. 
• China's technology industry is dominated by “sea turtles” (Chinese who have lived abroad and returned). 
• A recent study carried out by Duke University showed that, while immigrants make up an eighth of America's population, they founded a quarter of the country's technology and engineering firms. And, by linking the West with emerging markets, diasporas help rich countries to plug into fast-growing economies.

Brand Extension and Market Disruption

• Diaspora marketing has long been a strong route for expanding into international markets especially for emerging economy firms. 
• As people from emerging economies have migrated to different parts of the world, firms from their home countries have followed them to develop global footprints. 
• This phenomenon has especially been prevalent in categories where consumer choices are deep rooted in culture and traditions. 
• The diaspora strategy not only provides a solution to a tough problem for many brands but firms attempting to engage in brand extensions can learn from these ideas. 
• Look first to customers who are already using your brand in another context and let them provide a base business and build from there. 
• Furthermore, diaspora marketing may signal another form of Clayton Christensen’s market disruption whereby a new competitor gets a foothold that goes unnoticed until its brand builds a wider following. In any case, it’s a strategy worth understanding.

Image Source: https://medium.com/@tom_bartman/confronting-a-new-market-disruption-when-disrupting-the-disruptor-is-the-only-way-to-succeed-f02355ad919b

Bahubali 2: The Conclusion

• The recent success of S.S. Rajamouli’s movie Bahubali 2: The Conclusion is a new episode in diaspora marketing saga. 
• The international collections of the movie in Indian languages crossed Rs. 200 crores(a little over 30 million USD) amounting to around 20% of total box office collections within first one week of its release. 
• Several popular Indian movies have had International releases; however, these kinds of figures have been unprecedented.
• This is an indication of significant improvement in the entertainment value as well as increasing inclination of the diaspora towards traditional Indian content. 
• This highlights the potential of diaspora marketing not only to follow the migrants in global locations but also as a mode to capture global customers. 

Several popular Indian food chains followed the Indian diaspora for their global expansion. 

Anand Bhavan, Kailash Parbat, and Sarvana Bhavan are some popular food chains that have established their outlets in countries like Singapore, and Dubai that have substantial Indian population. 

Firms in packaged food category like Haldiram, Bikaji, Amul etc. have also followed the similar path. Haldiram was perhaps among the first few players to go to overseas locations like Dubai where there is a strong demand for Indian food among migrants. 

Dairy products firm Amul went all the way to set up its operations in the USA where its product occupy shelf space not only in Indian stores but also with leading retailers like Walmart giving a taste of Indian foods to global customers. 

Fabindia, the retail chain known for Indian textiles and accessories, however, innovated itself to become relevant not only for the second generation of Indian diaspora but also for global citizens. 

It has its presence not only in diaspora countries like Singapore, Dubai, Mauritius but also in the global fashion city of Rome. 

Fabindia expanded its footprint to global markets by offering traditional Indian wear, as well as merchandise adapted to the tastes of host country customers including styles, colours, sizes, and fits. In fact, the company went a step further by acquiring companies in host countries with synergies like EAST in the UK.

Be careful in Targeting a Diaspora

• Diaspora have roots in a particular culture even while situated in a different one. This is significant since messages are always received in a cultural context. With the right approach, you can get a loyal diaspora market whose sense of identity can work for you. 
• But if you aren’t careful, you can also restrict the size of that market unnecessarily by using cultural cues that exclude others with a slightly different sense of identity—something that happens often when businesses target large groups with considerable diversity within them.
• When Morbie first started, they made an error for business marketing to diaspora: they pitched the cultural appeals too strongly. It quickly garnered us a market among ethnic affirmers, but it also made their messages a little more difficult to consume for the biculturals. 

• For example, in filling their marketing with terms taken from the consumers’ homeland, they were making an appeal to their nationalistic sentiment. However, they were also assuming comprehension of the terms they used. It ostracized those who weren’t entrenched enough in their homeland’s culture to understand them at a glance. 
• So, by going too heavily “Filipino” in their marketing, we ended up sending an inadvertent message that they were only for the “exclusively Filipino,” marginalizing biculturals. The ideal should be to strike a mean between the two diaspora types: to find a medium for the message that both can accept, in other words. 
• We need to identify what influences a community and what affects it. 
• Influences are cultural notes that can be used as “hooks.” They work because of the lure of the homeland and the sentimentality of heritage. 
• Affecters, on the other hand, are things that touch the diaspora directly in their environment. 
• The former should then be the meat of the message while the latter show how best to word that message, given that both ethnic affirmers and biculturals occupy and are affected by the environment hosting them. 
• For example, in marketing to Japanese diaspora based in NYC, we could use Japanese values and concepts for the cultural “hook.” But the language we use to communicate these references can’t be exclusively or even primarily Japanese. It should be English – not just any English, but NYC English, the language that now affects the target market and which they use to affect their surroundings as well.