kidmercury

I recently heard the song "Down," which is apparently a popular song by some guy calling himself Jay Sean. Some of my family members and I naturally observed that he is an Indian guy. At first we weren't sure (maybe he was Columbian or Dominican?), because an Indian guy doing a pop-R&B song featured in mainstream media is unlikely. The dance moves though give it away, clearly there's an Indian influence there. Below is an acoustic version of the song; to watch the official video with the dance steps, you'll need to click this link to go to YouTube, because of how stupid VEVO works. I'll do a blog post on how stupid VEVO is. If you're itching for some VEVO hate though check out Fred's blog post .

Anyway, talking about Jay Sean with my family got me thinking about race and marketing. With my trading site, my co-founder was originally the "blog star" of the site -- the face and brand spokesperson -- from the site's launch in November of 2007 until his departure in the summer of 2009. Due to business changes, I am now doing that work. He's a White guy, I'm an Indian guy. How does that change impact the business? A few thoughts:

1. Race definitely plays a factor, but it cuts both ways. You'll attract what you exude -- what you are. Would it be easier to sell Jay Sean to middle America if he was a White guy? Or to urban locations in the southern part of the USA if he was a Black guy? Probably (though collaborating with folks like Lil Wayne will of course help with marketing to other demographics). But being an Indian guy makes it easier to sell to an Indian audience too, and being an Indian guy from Britain makes it easier to sell to Indian people living in Western cultures.

2. Personally, I get racist comments for pretty much any video I do for my trading site. I found this surprising; the site attracts many currency traders (as that is the background of myself and my co-founder, so we are most easily able to attract currency traders), and currency trading is obviously an international game. One would expect an audience that is more cultured, or at least open to the idea of being more cultured. Not so (of course, we probably shouldn't draw too much from just a few comments, as it only takes one person to make a comment, and the effort required to do so is fairly minimal, with the downside being just as low). So, this does make me wonder if my site is suffering from a business perspective; i.e. if I am at a net disadvantage overall from a marketing standpoint.

3. Certainly, race is not the only factor; the charisma of the "star" is hugely important. As an example: Will Smith is an African American guy, but he has a lot more crossover appeal relative to many other African American stars and can sell to many different cultures, both in the United States and abroad. There are probably a number of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is that Will Smith is simply a very talented and charismatic guy -- regardless of race.

4. Generally when we think of race we think of a person's physical features -- i.e. bone structure, skin color. When we think of culture, we think of the context of their life; i.e. whether they are dancing to bhangra music after going to the Temple or rocking out to the Seattle grunge sound on their way to Church. There is generally a correlation between the two -- i.e. Indian kids dancing to bhangra, White kids dancing to Seattle grunge -- but as the Internet enables greater internationalization and cross-cultural exposure, we will increasingly see people of mixed cultures. Personally, I am a by product of Caucasian Catholic American culture (I grew up in suburban Philadelphia in a predominantly Caucasian Catholic neighborhood, and went to Catholic school for elementary and high school) and Indian American culture. I still find it easy to get along and relate to both cultures; I could say they both feel like home. Although, interestingly, I feel at times that neither of them feels like home as well; I've felt ostracized at lots of Indian events, particularly when I was in college at NYU, for "not being Indian enough," and of course the same was true but from the opposite perspective during my time at Catholic school in suburban Phildelphia. While all of this was (and still is) a bit disappointing, it did force me to find my own way, do deep introspection on who I really am and what I value, and learn to be comfortable without social validation -- that my own personal values, not social norms, are what I need to focus on to have a secure sense of identity. Hence here I am, decked out in my 9/11 truth wear, blogging about weird spiritual stuff. And as for Internet marketing, the blessing of being culturally alienated is that helps me see how the web can be used to create new cultures.

5. Of course, just as cultures are getting mixed, the trend towards interracial marriage is rising as well. The microeconomics book Superfreakonomics notes that in the USA, the most common interracial marriages are Black guy/White woman and White guy/Asian woman. It is worth noting that "Asian woman" includes East Asians, Filipinos, and South Asians (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan). Accordingly, there are subcultures developing as a result of this; picture the White guy trying to learn Mandarin so he can better get along with his in-laws, or the kids who will find it easier to identify with other bi-racial, bi-cultural kids like them. A cousin of mine married a White guy and they have bi-racial kids -- I definitely think a brand that focused on relating to them could capture their mind share and wallet. I think online social networks will be a great vehicle for organizations looking to create such a brand.

6. Because of the dollar system and the economic advantage it gives to the US, the US has been able to export its culture throughout the world. Hence it is common to see American entertainers have a global fan base. However, the dollar system is coming to an end, and internationalization is here. I think increasingly, personalities that can have an international, cross-cultural appeal will be the most valuable ones. As an example, Mallika Sherawat, who is probably the biggest female sex symbol of Indian pop culture (analogous to Angelina Jolie in the USA), is in some stupid fictionalized movie set during Obama's presidential campaign. LOL, the Obama propaganda never ends, and even has an international component now. But anyway, economic shifts dictate everything, so I expect media to reflect greater cultural diversity in the years ahead, as the dollar system declines. This is good news for publishers in foreign countries, but for media personalities in the US.....the market is in the process of getting a lot more competitive.

So, in sum, I think race is still hugely important in marketing. I'm not saying whether this is right, wrong, or indifferent from a moral perspective; I'm simply saying it's going to have a marketing impact, regardless. Personally, I see a lot more diversity developing on all fronts, which I think is good -- students of the Internet know that the web enables diverse ecosystems, and biologists know diverse ecosystems are the strongest and most likely to survive.

kidmercury

actually i think you can embed vevo videos, so let me try with the jay sean video here:


check the video, and then check the link below from vigilant citizen:

"A-Ok" Hand sign: Sign of the Occult Music Industry? | The Vigilant Citizen

in the video, the black guy in the chair towards the end of the video is definitely a big part of the occult meaning in the video. like he symbolizes the devil, and lil wayne has recruited jay sean into their world....something like that. the dude in the chair is flashing masonic hand signs, lol, i know this stuff is so weird, it's hard to believe until you see all the proof behind it, which unfortunately i can't get to it all here. but anyway i don't know what hte full story is, there is something there though.