GETTING TO KNOW PLANET EARTH’S NEW URBAN MAJORITY (Written and illustrated by a bunch of economic migrants)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Just a few months ago, the world went from majority rural to majority urban. Migrants are flooding into cities around the world. For many of them, this new urban life is a springboard into prosperity. They become different people, with new aspirations, new visions of their place in the world, and new demands from goods and services. We believe that getting to know them is becoming the defining challenge for 21st century global marketeers.
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Foreword “What will be remembered about the twenty-first century more than anything else except perhaps the effects of a changing climate, is the great and final shift of human populations out of rural, agricultural life and into cities.” So says Doug Saunders in his compelling book, Arrival City, which delivers a vivid picture of some of the human stories behind these shifts and their important implications. We think that it’s one of the biggest global issues - if not the biggest today. Increasingly, global marketeers will be selling their products and services to people with a new view of their place in the world. As we explore in this issue of FYI, what we sometimes lazily refer to as consumers will be people who have broken out of the restrictions of their village setting. People who are shedding the bonds of caste and creating their own visions of themselves. People with village, family ties, but also dynamic and complex city ties.
People whose unique specialisations and skills find much larger markets close at hand in their new tightly-packed urban settings. People who, be they moving to a Mumbai slum or a Singapore HDB, have a hope of achieving more. Humanity has always been on the move, but never more so than now. In this edition of FYI - written and illustrated by Flamingo’s own resident migrants, we take a whistlestop global tour taking in African diaspora TV, the life of a new migrant to Jakarta, photo essays from the front line in New York, Shanghai and London, and a visit to some residents of Mumbai’s biggest slum - we hope that our readers will gain some inspiring food for thought about their brands and the new kinds of people they are selling to.
LONDON · SINGAPORE · TOKYO · NEW YORK · SHANGHAI
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Contents Defying Destiny Akshay Mathur (Singapore)
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The White Holes of India: Dispatches from a sub-continent on the move Animesh Narain (Singapore)
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Living the Dream Sidi Lemine (London)
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Small Perspectives, Big Durian Andy Connor (Tokyo)
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Let’s hear it for [insert city here] Sam Hornsby (New York)
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More ish than Jew: the new modern Diaspora identity Annie Auerbach (London)
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Migrant Media Sidi Lemine (London)
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Wiping away the tiers of modern China Jackson Lo (Shanghai)
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Marketing to earth’s new Urban Majority James Parsons (Asia)
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About Flamingo
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AND ON THE DISC IN THE BACK POCKET Petticoat Lane, London. A study of a market’s transformation in pictures. By George Byrne, Jeannie Foulsham, Emily Kelly, Amanda Powell (Flamingo London) Brand Mules. What Chinese migrants take back to the village, a journey of images. By Yan Keyue (Flamingo Shanghai) Cutting a fine American Figure. A picture poem of a modern New York barber’s shop. By Dee de Lara (Flamingo New York)
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Defying Destiny WORDS: Akshay Mathur (Flamingo Singapore)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
South Asian religion on destiny Hinduism believes in karma and the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds. And through the course of reincarnation, carries this destiny from one life to the next. And it’s one’s duty to keep at the karmic cycle in the hope of attaining Moksha. How many of you recognise this gentleman? He might not be as famous as a Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, but in India he is probably more famous than the Taj Mahal! The late Dhirubhai Ambani was the Chairman of Reliance Industries, one of the largest conglomerates in the world. His sons (Anil and Mukesh Ambani), who inherited the company from him feature prominently on the Forbes top 50. Born to a schoolteacher in rural Gujarat, he was brought up to live in the confines of his village and follow his father’s footsteps, but he had his own dreams to follow and realize. The oil boom of the 70’s was a big opportunity for skilled Indian workers to leave India and get a chance to earn money. He did precisely that. He is the example par excellence of how hard work, enterprise and migration can change an individual’s fate… re-write his destiny. And all the more compelling is his story when one considers how fundamentally counter-cultural the idea of rewriting your destiny is, in India.
The interesting thing about destiny is that it’s bound by so many tenets; thus being born human is destiny, and one has to live with it. A Shudhra born on the lowest rung in the caste ladder - would remain a lower caste worker all this life and possibly the next, should he/she not fill his karmic jug. “All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states.” (Gautam Buddha) In a society where there is an undisputed and clear correlation between caste rank and income, we are told that that’s just the way it is, and that’s the way it should be. South Asians have traditionally lived in a fatalistic world whose only escape hatch is death ….till now. Education and migration are arguably two of the most powerful tools for arguing back against one’s destiny. The very act of migration forces the individual to ponder: what is the skill I have to sell,
and where will that take me?
“All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states.” (Gautam Buddha)
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The very act of migration forces the individual to ponder: “what is the skill I have to sell, and where will that take me?”
Moving out, moving up There is enough and more evidence of lower caste Indians, Pakistanis and other South Asian communities moving to the West. Of the top 10 countries in the world for emigration, three are from South Asia. These people, in moving, in enriching themselves, are by necessity having an argument with the destiny imposed on them at birth. This is why Dhirubhai Ambani’s odyssey from petrol pump attendant to head of the 2nd richest family in the world has such resonance. But there are other, perhaps less momentous, but no less significant stories being played out all over the world; migratory workers leaving their homeland, arguing back against their caste, armed with the ultimate social equalizer - money and its various avatars. In my current home, Singapore, every day I pass Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and mainland Chinese labourers hard at work on construction projects; multi-billion dollar resorts and new homes for a population that the government plans to grow by 1.5 million. They get paid peanuts, but they’re highly valuable peanuts. For the truth of the matter is, that making a minimum dollar wage is a still a multiple of what they would earn in their native land.
For countries like Bangladesh, where foreign remittances form a major chunk of GDP, immigrants are not only affecting their family or village but also literally changing the destiny of the country. Since 1976, over 3 million workers have gone abroad and have remitted close to $21 billion. Worker remittances are currently higher than foreign aid and foreign direct investment.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
From village to town and back And this is why if you go into the house, back home in the village, of a migrant in rural India or Bangladesh, you are quite likely to find some unexpected consumer goods, from the high-end Japanese cosmetics for wives and cousins to the electronic blood glucose monitor for a diabetic grandparent. What we see in these new relationships being formed with branded goods and services, is a subtle but pervasive shift in the way individuals see their place in the world. Above all, they see an ability to change, to become someone a little different, to define themselves. What was that about karma differentiating beings into low and high states?
Akshay Mathur is an Indian emigrĂŠ to Singapore.
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Dispatches from a sub-continent on the move WORDS AND PICTURES: Animesh Narain (Flamingo Singapore)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
The White Holes of India Ram Avtar sets his grimy satchel down as his eyes scour the length of the railway platform at Mumbai Central for a glimpse of his big city brother. A fresh arrival from the impoverished hilly village of Rabang in Madhya Pradesh in central India, he represents the faceless thousands that stream into cities everyday in search of livelihood. ‘Ae Ramu, idhar!’ (Ramu, here!), comes a shout from the Wheeler magazine stall. Before Ram Avtar aka Ramu can even register this discovery, his satchel has been hoisted and he is being dragged by the arm of his shirt into a sea of early morning commuters. India is briskly urbanizing. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2030, cities will account for 590 million or 40 percent of the country’s total population. An hour-long train ride later, the brothers arrive at Cheetah Camp, a bustling slum settlement off the suburb of Chembur and Ramu’s would-be address. A home that will, hopefully, launch him into some vocation and earn him enough to feed himself whilst supporting his family of three back in the village. Asia’s largest slum Dharavi, home to at least half of Mumbai’s population, also houses an estimated 5,000 businesses and 15,000 single-room factories. As the big cities loosen their girth to accommodate these burgeoning additions to their denizenry, new peripheries come into being. Peripheries that are ‘white holes’ firing up the metabolism of the city as they become production hubs for the near totality of goods and services floating there.
In the shadows of the established sections of every Indian city lurks a shantytown underbelly. Eyesores to the urban aesthete but organic to the cityscape, they provide essential services to commercial and residential areas alike. Slums afford sanctuary to a mostly migrant floating population of ‘Class IV employees’ (office orderlies, canteen boys and the like), domestic helps, construction workers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, drivers, tailors, artists, craftsmen, factory workers and sundry semiskilled or unskilled labourers. In the brave new world of the slum city, amidst all the squalor, opportunities abound, narratives of gain and transformation are scripted and identities are recast. The city, a safe haven of anonymity, allows for a jettisoning of identity baggage like caste (the dominant vehicle of oppression in rural India) and allows the worker to realize his role as provider. While work performed directly determines the money earned anywhere, demand for work here, unlike in the village, is not dependent on weather cycles and income generation avenues abound. Even physical survival is more of a certainty with the city offering a superior array of medical options and services, in contrast with the village where they are often at the mercy of quacks and inaccessible or ill-equipped facilities. Over time, workers create a niche and role for themselves and generate some amount of security as far their earnings go. But while the acquired city identity is empowering and liberating at many levels for the migrant, the source identity remains a big part of who they are. Proud of their entirely selfcreated new and successful identity, they become role models for their village brethren to look up to.
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In such a field of play, brands and marketers can and sometimes do assume a powerful role. They lend the migrant a new, non-discriminatory and equal urban identity, but can also acknowledge and celebrate his roots. The transition made by the migrant from the village to the city is as epic as the hero’s journey and, as such, brands that accompany him on that journey will always have a key role in his life. Telecom services like mobile banking, through which people remit money to the village in the absence of formal banking channels are already doing so.
Big opportunities for engagement await for brand able to take on roles as stewards of the new communities that are springing up. While conventional CSR initiatives can include rehabilitation and resettlement support, education and vocational training, these begin to offer profits to corporates, if the same migrant populations are recruited as potential marketing channels for FMCGs back to rural markets. As the son of the soil drops anchor in the city, new dilemmas and anxieties come into being. The key to brands and marketers unlocking his mind and establishing a deeper connection with him lies in understanding his diasporic avatar.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Driven to penury as small maize farmers in Chhipra village, Bihar, Manju and her husband Babulal moved to New Delhi four years ago. Babulal is a recycled goods buyer while Manju is a maid in an affluent West Delhi suburb. They live in the ‘kabadi basti’ (junk recycling hamlet), an ugly appendage to the suburb they work in. Most of the women in the basti are employed as domestic help in neighbourhoods nearby and commute to work on foot; the men are mainly
Pakkeya, 31, a construction worker and father of two, hails from Tasgaon in southern Maharashtra where though his family owned 2.5 acres of land, repeated crop failure compelled him to make his way to Mumbai along with his wife and kids. Pakkeya works and lives at a construction site in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai. His tiny shack is part of the compound of a building under construction. He is today a master worker who supervises the work of others and
Animesh Narain is a migrant many times over. From India to Libya, back to various places in India, and most recently to Singapore.
self-employed kabadiwalas. The basti has a distinct hierarchy: residents collect plastic bottles, bags, and other kinds of waste, and sell this to the mahajan (trader) through a thekedar (middleman). For Babulal, an undercaste who has seen much exploitation in the village owing to his position in the social caste hierarchy, the move to Delhi and his mobile have proved to be blessings in disguise. Here, he is not just one of his caste but Babulal Kabadiwala (junk collector) mobile number 9818*****. His Airtel number is not just his identity, it is the platform through which he has been able to transform from a junk collector to a “profession”. It helps him function as a virtual office/ shop, with his clients contacting him through it.
sources labour from his native village. Pakkeya joined hands with other residents on the site some time ago to build proper slum housing in a shanty area close by. Recognising his mettle, Asian Paints, a partner in his current construction project, came forward to fund the initiative. Work has already kicked off and Pakkeya supervises construction every weekend when he is off work. He came to the big city to earn a livelihood and has earned himself respect in both the city and his village.
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Living the dream in new Africa
WORDS: Sidi Lemine (Flamingo London)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Today’s world is quite fond of self-description. We have an ever-increasing number of expressions with which to describe ourselves; we describe whole eras in nebulous terms like ‘post-modern’, we divide our populations into generations, styles, classes, ethnicities, industries, and all the other divisions that our media love to remind us of. So we resist these descriptions, but here in the developed world, there is one descriptor that we are more likely to accept for ourselves, even if it has acquired some increasingly negative connotations. I am talking about the word ‘sedentary’. It is easy to accept because it feels like the accomplishment of a process. Like it’s the natural conclusion of our evolution. There has been lots of talk in the last few years in Western media criticizing ‘sedentary lifestyles’. The term speaks not about the lack of physical activity, alone; it has become a description of life in a broader sense: a life that is stable, comfortable, simple and positive – if possibly without much challenge. Look to Africa and we see that lives are far from sedentary.
No time to sit around in Africa To many of us, the combination of the words ‘Africa’ and ‘migration’ conjures up one of two ideas: necessity on the one hand, dreams of unparalleled success on the other. Legions of refugees fleeing famine and strife, or waves of dreamers, rushing to a glittering el dorado. But there is another version of this story, a vision that is steadily emerging in the great cities and countrysides alike. “I came to Nairobi when I was a child. I go back home sometimes but there is so much potential here that I have to try to make it.” Omondi Omafwemi, 24, works as a freelance graphic designer and is involved with several leadership development programs aimed at training and supporting young entrepreneurs like himself. “I don’t know what the future holds or where I’ll be in 10 years. But for now I need to make the most of every moment and this is where I am”.
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Doing your own thing All their great models of success are fundamentally adventures: all include risk and determination, and are rooted in a journey. “Look at Jay-Jay Okocha, says Carol Nganga, 22, student. When he started he played in the street of Enugu with a tin can. Later he moved up, and he went international, became a legend, and now he’s back home, he keeps going. But the whole time he was living the dream. Not just in that sense that he was successful: more, he was living the dream because he wanted to play football; he wanted the right stage for his unique talent. It’s the same for us. We all want to make it big, but really what we want is to be able to do our own thing”. To an outsider, so much positivity can seem surprising. Africa has not been spared the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis. Conditions are still hard, and for a young person with limited capital, starting a business on the continent requires a remarkable degree of enthusiasm and optimism. Increased political stability and steady economic growth have created a climate where for the first time in many years, it seems highly possible to achieve some degree of success with only a good idea, solid skills and hard work. And now enthusiasm and optimism abound here more than anywhere else.
The optimism of New Africa Bim Adewumni tells it like it is in an article about Nigeria’s ranking as the most optimistic country on earth earlier this year. “There’s a spirit of entrepreneurship – people seem bewildered if you admit a lack of ambition. Nigerians want to go places and believe – rightly or wrongly – that they can. That drive and ambition fuels their optimism; they’re working towards happiness, so they’re happy.” P-Square are another example of a rags-to-riches story intimately tied to a journey. Starting up in Jos, the twins Peter and Paul Okoye moved to Lagos in 2001 after winning a local talent contest and a sponsorship from Benson & Hedges. Today they are considered legitimate international superstars, topping the charts from the Westernmost point in Dakar, to the Eastern shores of Mombasa. But here again, the story is not about coming or going but about moving. Gabriel, a fan from Douala, Cameroon, argues it’s neither the humble, local origins or the current international recognition that really make them meaningful to him, but the combination of both. “They have grown before our very eyes, they have evolved, they came up with new stuff and took on what we like about hip hop and American music, but they never forgot about where they came from, they kept the music of Africa at the centre of what they do”.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Music and sports are easy to conceive as requiring extensive travel, transformation and optimism. But these two areas are just salient points in a much bigger trend that really reveals itself in the business attitude of young entrepreneurs. “I have just created my own IT firm. In ten years, I would quite like to see it listed on NASDAQ” says Chibuzo, 26, working as an accountant in Lagos. “Nowadays there is no reason not to dream big. Everything is happening right here in Nigeria”. This is now the prevailing attitude when starting off in Lagos. A mere decade ago, uncertainty prevailed in just about any area of life. Today stability is opening countless new doors, and lets dreamers and darers project themselves increasingly far – without the need to separate themselves from their birthplace. Giving back has always been a mainstay of success all over Africa – you don’t become great by accumulating for yourself alone. Typically, building one or several wells back in the village while enjoying the well-deserved comfort of the city was the thing to do. But where giving back was at one point considered as the sign of having arrived, this moment is now seen as one part of the journey. “I have just invested in some land near my village. I will go back now to see that it is put to good use. I think there is a lot of money to make with the right crops if you know the markets, not just Nigerian but international”, says Esther, a 42-year-old event manager from Lagos.
Sidi Lemine is the descendent of Mauritanian, Irish, South African and Russian migrants.
Brands capturing the spirit Major brands have started capitalizing on this attitude and adapting their language to align with their consumers’ attitude. Guinness’s “Greatness” campaign, has delivered uplifting executions with the line “There’s a drop of Greatness in every man”. Skye bank identifies itself as “The bank that knows how to say yes”, going beyond the obvious solutions-providing message to a point where “yes means no more worries”. The Johnny Walker “Walking With Giants” campaign found a natural environment in which to thrive, with characters like Haile Gebrselassie or Manu Dibango who both came from rural areas and achieved worldwide fame of the highest level before pursuing their journey in their home countries, never finding themselves at the destination, always enjoying the ride. Beyond local communication strategies, perhaps there is a lesson here for brands trying to address new environments, be it adapting to new markets, or a changing consumer culture. The lesson is simple: life is a journey. And perhaps more than just adapting in a confusing world, more than just being competitive, it’s about keeping an eye on the ever changing horizon.
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Small Perspectives, Big Durian
An open letter from Jakarta to all you Bule WORDS: Andy Connor (Flamingo Tokyo)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Dear Bule I wish someone would tell all you bule (Westerners) I see, flying in and out for work, what Jakarta’s really all about. It might actually help them to understand my country. They don’t seem to stick around very long to find out… This place is called the ‘Big Durian’ for a reason. It’s large and spiky and smelly on the surface – and sends most new arrivals running right back to Soekarno-Hatta airport. But crack it open, give it time, and you’ll come to understand just how complex & delicious this place really is. The smell, well, you’ll just have to live with that. Jakarta’s diverse, it’s the archipelago in a bottle. You can find us all here, all the regional stereotypes: I’m the typical outspoken Batak man from North Sumatra, married to a soft & sweet East Javanese girl (her family win very few arguments); my boss is a local Chinese guy who’s got his fingers in many pies, and the money to show for it, which he spends on a private chef from Sulawesi who whips up some spicy Manadonese cuisine. My ‘local’ Betawi friends are a mix of Sundanese, Balinese, Javanese, Chinese, Malay and even Arab & Dutch descendents (no wonder they’re confused about being the locals). Bet you hadn’t even heard of some of those ethnicities. We’ve all been coming to Jakarta for opportunities for decades and decades. Given how fast things are progressing though, the numbers are just going to rise & rise. What it means to be a ‘Jakartan’ is being constantly reinvented, as we all bring our regional and ethnic mindsets into the melting pot. Our national motto is “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”, or ‘Unity in Diversity’. And where there’s diversity, there are stories to be told, nuances to appreciate, differences to debate, fusions of new ideas to explore. It can be easier to digest the ‘united’ story, the big picture, the notion of ‘one Indonesia’, but it doesn’t do this place justice. It’s amazing how open bule are now to appreciating diversity in places like China & India, yet the sleeping giant Indonesia slips quietly by. ‘Rediscovering our archipelago’ is the new trend here, especially in Jakarta – you’re more than welcome to get involved. So next time the bule ask why their advert is loved in Medan but bombs in Surabaya, point him to our regional differences. When they ask why we’ve got more Facebook users than the population of Canada, and as many Twitter users as the population of Singapore, consider – what joy there is in communicating with friends from across the archipelago for free. And when they complain of a sore head and ask do they need to travel all around this place to understand our country… …Tell them, well, preferably yes! However, next time they come to Jakarta, take some time to appreciate the smaller details. It’s all here to be seen. Broaden those perspectives and who knows – they may not just come to understand the Big Durian better, but also Indonesia itself. Regards, Disgruntled native, Jakarta
Andy Connor is the descendent of 19th Century Irish migrants to Liverpool; he recently emigrated to Tokyo from Singapore.
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Let’s hear it for [ insert city here ] !
WORDS: Sam Hornsby (Flamingo New York)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
What is ‘The City’? Is it Natural, as we see in the influential writings of Lewis Mumford, “like a cave, a run of mackerel, or an ant heap”, or is it Cultural? Are cities first and foremost “thoroughly physical places” as in the writing of Jane Jacobs in ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’, or something else? The range of interpretations would suggest The City is as much concept as material construct. And as a concept, an idea, The City is ever evolving and – perhaps by association – growing. The dominant narrative around the global city is about growth, expansion. In 2007 we passed a major demographic milestone, migrating headlong into the ‘Urban Millennium’ when the earth’s population became more urban than rural. In China they have built a five-by-five office cubicle for every man, woman and child in the country; ghost buildings, cities, stand silently waiting for the influx that is considered inevitable. In Mumbai, demand has pushed downtown apartments to $1,400 per square foot and in Saudi Arabia, a series of brand new cities are rising, mirage-like, from the sand. The whole world wants to live in The City.
The Detroit Electronic Music Festival, 2011
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The seemingly unfair and uncontrollable mechanisms of global commerce can take down an entire city brick-by-brick and leave it for cows to graze on. Motor City But looking beyond this dominant narrative of growth and expansion and of progress, is especially important when we consider one of the most powerful ‘Idea Cities’ in contemporary America; Detroit, Michigan – The Motor City. Detroit occupies a central place in the American national psyche precisely for its counter-narrative about what the City is. While the cities of Asia and developing markets burst at the seams, Detroit is the epitome of urban abandonment and reverse migration. Home to around 2 million people in the 1950’s, Detroit is now less than half that size and authorities are embarking on systematic downsizing, knocking down whole neighbourhoods and returning them to pasture. In physical terms Detroit is small compared to other American cities, but its idea is monumental. For a while now, and even more so since the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism has been the ‘old fear’ in America. Today it is global
competition, the markets, outsourcing – and above all it is China, investing the plentiful fruits of its low wage manufacturing economy in America’s ‘out of control’ debt . So what if Al Qaeda can take down two sky-scrapers? The seemingly unfair and uncontrollable mechanisms of global commerce can take down an entire city brick-by-brick and leave it for cows to graze on. Detroit is the postcard for reverse migration, but it’s not the only city emblematic of this counter-narrative. Eight out of ten of the largest cities in the U.S in the 1950’s have lost at least a fifth of their population in the last fifty years. Nor is Detroit the only mono-industry hub in the country today. Since America is not out of financial deep water yet, the question, “whose city will be next?” is a very urgent one. And so it is that American cities and their renewal is a galvanizing, collective and emotional rallying cry – a fundamental matter of National Insecurity.
American cities and their renewal is a galvanizing, collective and emotional rallying cry – a fundamental matter of National Insecurity.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
City brands Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the context, urban renewal has a more introspective air than in previous eras. Foreign immigration is politically unpopular and rarely seen as the solution to the rejuvenation of cities now, though many would do well to remember President Lincoln’s Homestead Act and its role in driving U.S. prosperity. Urban renewal tends to have more the air of an Arts movement – a creative enterprise as much as the deployment of cranes. When houses in Detroit could be bought for a dollar, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and the otherwise ingenious took boards off windows and moved in. And at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival a crowd of temporary migrants, House and Electro fans, feel they are defibrillating the city’s heart back to life as they dance. And perhaps they are. The Fedde Le Grant song lyric, “Put your hands up for Detroit…our lovely city” never carried so much meaning. To love what seems broken takes more courage, and has more cachet.
Sam Hornsby was born in California, migrated to Scotland as a child and is now an Englishman in New York.
Where emotion, cultural change and creativity flow around urban renewal in America, brands must find a voice - and they are. In telling this story there is opportunity to participate in the local, the personal. In this story, small is big. Nearly one-and-a-half times as many Americans live in smaller cities as in larger cities, and while Detroit is now only home to 700,000 people, every American lives the idea of Detroit. Which other cities are there, and what will their story be in the hands of artful brand managers? How will these stories contrast with their realities? Will they do little more than manage these cities’ decline, or will they catalyse their return to former glories? An extraordinarily powerful commercial by Detroit-based Chrysler played earlier this year to a Superbowl TV audience of 111 million Americans - “…It’s probably not the story you’ve been reading in the papers...the one being written by folks who’ve never even been here... who don’t know what we’re capable of”. It shows that if nothing else, (and for some it may well be nothing else) America’s cities are capable of a powerful, alternative response to the question ‘what is The City?’
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More ish than Jew: the new modern Diaspora identity
WORDS: Annie Auerbach (Flamingo London)
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
Migrants the world over are adapting to the new ethnic and cultural contexts in which they find themselves. And the success of Jews in diaspora cities across the world may tell us something about how new migrant communities will adapt, some of the challenges they will face and the dynamics that will emerge. Diaspora Jews are trying to retain their identity while playing a full part in society. However, their success in assimilating seems to threaten their survival as a distinct culture. In Britain, on the surface, the story appears to be one of a dwindling community. In 1990, there were estimated to be about 340,000 Jews in Britain, but the population had declined by a fifth to only 270,000 by 1996. According to the 1996 Jewish Policy Review, nearly one in two were marrying people who did not share their faith. Synagogue membership in the UK has been in steady decline over the last 30 years (from around 110,000 in 1983 to around 80,000 last year.) All of this points to a drop in ‘institutional religiosity’: people aren’t allying themselves with synagogues or taking the steps usually required for a Jewish lifestyle (including, notably, marrying fellow Jews). One explanation for this is that the model of Diaspora Jewish identity has simply become less relevant to a new generation of modern Jews.
Old and new Jewish identities Jewish identity used to be based on a mixture of Zionism, the memories and narratives of the Holocaust, and of course by religious adherence. But Jews are no less touched by the general global decline of trust in institutions. And in turn, young Jews are starting to question the big economic, political and - most importantly, religious narratives. To young Jews, the vision of the world that those narratives presents doesn’t reflect their need for a more flexible, fluid Jewishness. Living digitally-fuelled lives, adept at developing ‘multiple faces’ via their social networking sites, they look for an alternative model of Jewishness which reflects all the components of their identity. But what they don’t want is simply to assimilate; they don’t want to fade into the broader spectrum of British cultural life. Many feel that there needs to be a strong but inclusive alternative identity: one based on hybridity; the repurposing of narratives; irony; inclusion; and community.
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More ish than Jew Thus an identity emerges that is more ‘ish’ than Jewish. Dr. Anthony Bale of Birkbeck, University of London, describes it as “being interested in all the different (and sometimes conflicting) identities young modern Jews have; celebrating what is shared in Jewish culture, but recognising that Jewish people don’t have just one shared experience and don’t speak with just one voice.”
Another sign of this new Judaism is a revolutionary new synagogue in Notting Hill whose USP is to embrace gay, lesbian and patrilineal Jews. “The least look around the Jewish communities of the world will tell you that we are a very diverse people, and that our diversity takes many forms. It is time the Jewish community again recognized its true diversity, as it once did,” said Rabbi Sheila Shulman of Beit Klal Yisrael.
There are specific ways in which this ‘ish-ness’ is manifesting itself. For a start, leading Jewish figures are recognising that strict adherence is not the way to protect and grow the Jewish community. Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Senior Rabbi at the West London Synagogue, wants to embrace a group that in the past would typically have been excluded. She argues that people who have ‘married out’ often retain a residual sense of their Jewish heritage, which grows as they approach starting a family. “A lot of people are looking for some sense of roots, belonging and community. They have fond vestigial memories, particularly of Passover, and they want to bring up their children with something to believe in.” The trigger of having children often encourages nostalgia which is a route back into the fold.
Jews are also embracing their religion in a nontemplar context. Jewdas is an East London collective who call themselves ‘an alternative diaspora’. Their Half a Shekel events offer rabbinical lap dances, a bespoke Jewish tattooing service and DJ sets featuring Yiddish tracks, yidcore and Barbara Streisand. This spirit exists in America too. In New York, documentary maker Jesse Zook Mann celebrates those who express Jewish culture and religion in unconventional forms, from the author of Cannabis Chassidus to a grandmother who teaches Yiddish yoga. His series is called ‘Punk Jews’ and Mann describes it as: “people owning their heritage, being creative with it, having fun with it and doing so at any cost.”
Jewdas is an East London collective who call themselves ‘an alternative diaspora’. Their Half a Shekel events offer rabbinical lap dances, a bespoke Jewish tattooing service and DJ sets featuring Yiddish tracks, yidcore and Barbara Streisand.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
The amphibious Jew Dr Alex Gordon, Semiotician and long-time friend of Flamingo, agrees that this shift is taking place. He sees it as the refusal to be defined by authority organizations, whereby grassroots spirituality has come to replace institutional doctrine.
All of this amounts to an identity which places more emphasis on the ish than the Jew. Jonathan Margolis, in a recent article in the London Guardian, has a less kosher approach which embraces Jewish humour and allows him to be “an amphibious Jew, half in and half out of the water”.
Gordon points to the rise of non-synagogue-based worship in the form of pop-up prayer services in homes. “These are trans-denominational, filled with a creative spirit and flexibility which embraces spiritual renewal within the framework of identity exploration.” Wandering Jews is an example of this kind of informal, spontaneous and semi-organised form of worship. As they put it: “A little bit Fight Club, a little bit minyan, almost 100% good.” Gordon argues that this is not about a decline in religion as such, but more about a decline in institutional religion.
Rabbi Sheila Shulman can empathise with the rising tide of ishness. She says: “People want to express a sense of affinity even if they are secular; a sense of being a people however fractured and attenuated.” In the past the only route into Judaism was a religious one, and the great thing about ishness is that this is no longer the case. How other migrant peoples around this new urbanising world will navigate the tricky course between assimilation and preservation of their cultural identity and indeed whether they will even try, remains to be seen, though what we can be sure of is that they will never be quite the same again.
“People want to express a sense of affinity even if they are secular; a sense of being a people however fractured and attenuated.”
Annie Auerbach is the descendent of Austrian Jewish emigrés to London.
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Migrant Media
WORDS: Sidi Lemine (Flamingo London)
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Proportional Interest-Availability Decrease (PIAD) is a phenomenon well known to TV audiences: The more channels you have, the less you care what’s on. This has nothing to do with the often discussed phenomenon of information overload: half the channels have a good chance of showing Friends re-runs at any given time anyway. No, this particular problem has more to do with finding something that feels right for you, when near-endless possibilities make expectations higher and choice more difficult. Identifying with one channel is easy – everyone does it, and as you’re part of everyone, you do it as well. But which programme to pick from a hundred? From a thousand? And suddenly the more channels you have, the less relevant they are to you. When on top of that you find yourself thrown in a foreign country, with a different culture, a different language, peculiar customs and a whole array of (probably hilarious) references and in-jokes you can’t make head or tail of, finding something to watch becomes a pretty daunting task – no need to have watched late-night Korean TV to understand that. For millions of migrants around the world, things are changing rapidly.
A different type of TV Accessing your country’s “back-home” channels, specially the major ones, is nothing new. Western countries have been broadcasting globally for decades. Satellite TV has added another layer of possibility: in the last ten years it has become increasingly common to hear and see exotic languages on the screen when entering a Turkish, Chinese, Greek or other restaurant or shop. But we’re talking about a different type of television, one that actually addresses its audience in a uniquely personal way, talking not only to specific cultural and ethnic groups, but addressing them in
their specific environment.
Today, a slew of TV channels around the world are offering information, entertainment and educational programmes conceived specifically for migrant communities around the world. In 2008, the Minnesota Ethnic and Community Media Directory counted 16 such channels, with 12 dedicated to African communities alone. The number of African channels comes as no surprise. The communitarian attitude of Africans (at home or abroad) is well-known, and always expresses itself in many forms. For years the medium of choice to fit that purpose has been associative radio, official or underground, but digital technologies have opened a new window to targeted broadcasting.
Today, a slew of TV channels around the world are offering information, entertainment and educational programmes conceived specifically for migrant communities around the world. ...these pioneering communities are likely to be the first ones with adults above 40 years old making the transition, offering a fascinating first test of robustness for a format that until recently has only really been embraced by teenagers and young adults.
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In 2002, Ghanaian-born Nana Kwaku Agyeman was a young innovative entrepreneur in Toronto, with a strong sense for both social understanding and investment. Looking at his own family and those around him, he realised that parents and communities always want to transmit their most important values to the following generation. In his own words, “It takes a whole village to raise a child”; projecting a comprehensive identity to children requires more than the influence of the parents and occasional neighbour. With that in mind, he went ahead and founded the African Entertainment Television (AETV), a channel dedicated to the African community of the Greater Toronto Area. When doing so he had three main objectives. The first was to connect the community to their roots, and reclaim a positive vision of their heritage. “The granting of the television license shows that the African community is growing in Canada. The negative should give way to the positive. If Africans have anything to support now, it is AETV.” says Nana Juantuah, 62, a Toronto heavy-duty mechanic.
Know your roots for better integration
The second responded to a growing feeling that a distinctive, publicly accessible personality is the best way forward to dispel misconceptions and become really integrated. According to Dr. S.K. Addah, family physician, “There is so much information now that we miss the trees from the forest. AETV should let us see the African trees from the Canadian forest. It is in AETV that for the first time Canadians will be seeing Africa in positive light. Only Africans can project Africa positively.” The third and last objective was perhaps the most obvious: to serve as a news outlet for and produced by the community. Albert Boamah, a local factory worker, said he believes AETV can bring the African community together. “If it succeeds it’s good for the African community. A lot of things happen in our community we don’t know. Also AETV will help build Africa’s new generation here in Canada.” Taking a step further in this direction, local associations such as N’Zete, the UK Congolese community, are seeing their websites crossing from simple message boards and discussion forums to full-blown multimedia broadcasters. It is increasingly normal for any website with a significant membership to host rich content, be it user-, self-, or externally generated. What makes this phenomenon particularly worthy of mention is that this is happening right at the moment when Internet usage is outgrowing television viewing across the Western world.
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Multimedia for diaspora Increasingly, the traditional TV model of a continuous, fixed stream of programs with advertisement breaks is being replaced in younger generations by a pick’n’mix format where relevance and interest is not a nice surprise but a definite expectation. In a world of YouTube clips of one to five minutes, no one sits through an hour of anything unless they actually care about it. On the other hand, the levels of sustained engagement means most if not all are perfectly happy to see a targeted advert or a relevant banner ad for each clip they view. This is of particular interest for anyone with a strong desire to reach particular audiences around the world, for two reasons. First, these communities, isolated through the force of circumstances, find themselves at the forefront of a movement that is likely to sweep through the mainstream in the coming years. Communities of interest will be of greater importance than national institutions and media targeting these diaspora communities look set to adapt accordingly.
Sidi Lemine is the descendent of Mauritanian, Irish, South African and Russian migrants.
But even more than that, these pioneering communities are likely to be the first ones with adults above 40 years old making the transition, offering a fascinating first test of robustness for a format that until recently has only really been embraced by teenagers and young adults.
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Wiping away the tiers of modern China
WORDS: Jackson Lo (Flamingo Shanghai)
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Anyone who has ever been involved in marketing in China will be familiar with the city tier system. A typical research brief might well state ‘include both Tier 1 and 2 in sampling and consider also Tier 3’ or some such. We are going to argue that this is no longer terribly helpful. That it is a restrictive frame of reference, and obscures the dynamism and increasing importance of the lower-tiered cities. It promotes a sense of Tier 1 as ahead, fashionable, advanced, Western even, and Tier 2 and 3 as miles behind, provincial country cousins. In a China where patterns of migration are shaping the very fabric of the nation, we need a more nuanced understanding. Using the tier model to understand differences in consumer behaviour and attitudes worked well in the past. Back when it all started in the early 90s, the great coastal cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing spearheaded rapid economic growth. Migrants came in their millions, spurred on by Deng Xiao Ping’s exhortation to ‘enrich yourselves’. A spill over effect saw development in surrounding cities – Xiamen, Dongguan and Hangzhou in the South and East; Shenyang and Tianjin in the North. This formed the foundation of the city tier system familiar to marketeers today.
Migration reversals Today, things have become a little more complicated. Shenzhen, a city long regarded as Tier 2 or even an honorary Tier 1, has stopped growing. As Doug Saunders points out in Arrival City, the city administration cracked down on the establishment of slum settlements, so housing costs are high and in turn wage demands are going up. In turn, labour is in short supply and expensive. Businesses are going elsewhere. The cities that are still growing are those that are findings ways of accommodating the migrants; the cities that are allowing them to establish a foothold on the edge of town, the Chongqings, the Chengdus and the Wuhans and any number of other burgeoning cities in the hinterland. And as the hand of labour finds its ways to the readiest markets, where they can actually afford to live, the white collar follows. Last year, China Daily reported that nearly 60% of white-collar workers planned to leave first-tier cities, with cities in Central and Western China among their top choices. As well they might be... Foxconn is looking beyond Shenzhen to expand and they plan new factories in Chengdu, Wuhan and Zhengzhou. HP and Intel are also making plans for production facilities inland. The government has also stepped up efforts to develop infrastructure in inland cities.
Last year, China Daily reported that nearly 60% of white-collar workers planned to leave first-tier cities, with cities in Central and Western China among their top choices.
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Shenzhen, a city whose population went from 25,000 to 14 million in 30 years, taught us that a Chinese city can be transformed in the blink of an eye. Some of the cities now glibly referred to as Tier 2 and Tier 3 are undergoing similar changes as we speak. We would do well to keep tabs on them. Whilst some persist in the belief that it’s the big Tier 1 cities where consumers are most sophisticated and cultural trends hatch out, there is all sorts of growth happening elsewhere. One well-known Swiss watch manufacturer reports that the vast majority of their growth is coming from these newly developing “Tier 2” cities. Calling them Tier 2 perhaps leads us in the wrong direction. Luxury, fashion and automotive brands are making their presence felt in these central cities. And with the boom in online shopping, there is very little that these new cities are not able to offer. As cities develop, some more rapidly than others, there is a need for a more nuanced understanding of things. Take Langfang. Officially designated Tier 3, a walk around the city shows a Tier 1 infrastructure in the
making. The city is in a state of renovation but it’s easy to catch a glimpse of what’s to come in the next one year. Already, there are wide roads, new residential buildings and latterly, the emergence of hypermarkets. Mianyang in Sichuan province is another city labelled Tier 3. But with the benefit of millions of RMB of state investment in electronics industries it’s misleading to think of it as one of a kind with all Tier 3 cities. And when places like Langfang and Mianyang are attracting not only cheap labour but highly skilled labour too, to think of them as culturally behind the great coastal cities does not quite paint a true picture. Last year, McKinsey predicted the growth of 8 supercities by 2025 (with a population of more than 10 million) – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan and Tianjin. What’s interesting is that they believe that satellite cites will surround each of these. How these satellite cities will turn out is anyone’s guess, but it is hypothesised that they would have a prominent function or feature - an industry base, an education speciality, or even an arts focus.
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Implications for Marketing and Research Here again, the approach to research and marketing based on ‘let’s include a bit of Tier 3 in the sample’ won’t quite cut it. It has often been said that China is more than just a country with different cities. Different regions differ in their cultural background and their taste buds. With population movement, it is worth understanding each region and its cities. If a frame of reference is required, tagging cities according to pace of development pace may put marketeers in a better place to understand the market.
Jackson Lo is the descendent of Fujian emigrés to Singapore; he is himself a Singaporean emigré to Shanghai)
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Marketing to earth’s new Urban Majority
WORDS: James Parsons (Asia)
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On a honking hot and dusty road in a sprawling Indian city a scruffy kid on a bike draws up alongside a shiny black Mercedes stuck in traffic. “Where do they all come from” the plutocratic Merc driver tuts as he winds up his window, as if to shut out the smell; and sneering at this guttersnipe he selfimportantly adjusts his silk tie and fingers the Mont Blanc in his top pocket. Suddenly inspired, boy on bike whips out a tie from his threadbare satchel, smooths down his shirt and tucks it in. To top off his dapper look, he jauntily plunges a biro into his top pocket. With a look of evident pride, he looks askance at the driver and tells him “It’s just a matter of two more wheels; I’ll get them.”
On yer bike If there’s one thing a new migrant to the city wants it’s to be able to get around town easily. To take advantage of his or her particular skills and take them to markets where they’re needed. If you’re in Mexico City, home to a third of the country’s economy and strung out over 1500 square kilometres, then a motorbike comes in very handy. All the handier if it only costs $675 and can save you time waiting for buses and lifts that never come. This is the genius of the Italika. It’s not just that it takes advantage of cheaper Chinese parts, whilst having them assembled in Mexico to avoid import tariffs.
When your ambition shines so much, why should your clothes be any different? Presenting New Rin.
It’s the fact that the whole sales model is geared towards making it readily available to the new urbanites.
A shining clean shirt goes a long way A fanciful story, perhaps. And a story which deploys a little bit of poetic license - the struggles to get ahead in India are, for sure, not always quite as clean-cut. But it’s a story that has caught the imagination of Indian TV audiences up and down the country and achieved tracking scores for laundry detergent Rin that many brand managers can only dream of.
“It’s just a matter of two more wheels; I’ll get them.” The ad’s hero is confident that one day, he can get ahead, and just as he is literally and metaphorically going places on his bike, millions who have come to the city are seeing possibilities that their rural existence never gave them. This story is a great example of a brand that has tapped into the new urban Zeitgeist and, by creating a highly resonant imagery world, persuaded its target of its absolute contemporary relevance. Elsewhere, we see brands getting it right with this new aspiring urban target in other ingenious ways...
They have plans and aspirations and a desire to put the individual talents God gave them to work, but they’re not cash rich. It makes sense therefore to create easy credit terms for the bike – weekly payments can be spread over two years. And, here’s the really clever part, if you want to get the credit but you don’t have proof of income (which you won’t if you’re in the informal sector) the finance company will visit your home to set up the deal. The nearest competitor – the Indian Bajaj – is said by some to be a better product, but it’s far harder to get the finance. With a million Italikas sold in Mexico, and expansion into Argentina, Peru and Central America already underway, Brazil is the next prize. If this looks like impressive growth, then how about a category whose worth has gone from $10 billion to $88 billion in the space of 12 years?
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For a whole new cohort of people who are anxious to have something to leave to their children, and protection for their family against their own death, these products, whilst not high performing, are massively welcome. In a country where state social insurance is nowhere near as all-embracing as it once was, this means a huge new emerging market. Some are predicting growth of 20% a year. Getting into these communities and selling face to face, building relationships of trust may be where brands are doing best.
Making the sale Many here in the West imagine that China’s emerging middle classes are all happily playing the housing and stock markets and getting fat on it. Certainly some are, but there are many many more who, new to the advanced urban life and decidedly working class only a generation or so ago, are only just becoming affluent enough to invest. And for these people, insurance products – which in China provide a small guaranteed return of a maximum of 2.5% - are attractive, even if banks can offer far better returns on fixed term deposits. Even more attractive are they if they are sold by armies of neighbourhood salespeople who develop face to face relationships of trust with customers and their families and the referrals that follow. Zhongguo Renshou Baoguan (China Life) is reckoned to have 700,000 such agents countrywide.
These are just three examples from three corners of the world, of the staggering opportunities for organisations who are able to find ways of connecting with these people. Connecting by building imagery that taps into their needs and aspirations. Connecting by providing products that fit their needs at the right price. And connecting by finding channels for selling that suit their customers’ circumstances. May the journey continue.
If this looks like impressive growth, then how about a category whose worth has gone from $10 billion to $88 billion in the space of 12 years?
James Parsons is a recent migrant to Singapore.
FYI / Getting To Know Planet Earth’s New Urban Majority
About Flamingo Flamingo are a global qualitative research and brand consultancy with offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Our success has been built on the talents of our people; people from all over the world, most of them migrants themselves; people whose individual and highly diverse experiences, skills and talents make us the company we are. We look to partner with our clients to provide expertise in People, Culture and Brands. The stories of the People to whom those Brands are being proposed, the Cultures they live in and the dynamics informing their lives and their aspirations.
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Visit our websites: www.flamingo-international.com www.flamingoshanghai.com Follow us on Twitter: @flamingolondon @flamingochina @flamingosg
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CONTRIBUTORS Authors Annie Auerbach (London) George Byrne (London) Andy Connor (Tokyo) Dee de Lara (New York) Jeannie Foulsham (London) Sam Hornsby (New York) Emily Kelly (London) Sidi Lemine (London) Jackson Lo (Shanghai) Akshay Mathur (Singapore) Animesh Narain (Singapore) Amanda Powell (London) Yan Keyue (Shanghai) Editorial team James Parsons (Asia) Adam Chmielowski (London) Johanna Funnell (London) Alex Pollock (London ) Dave Kaye (London) Art Direction and Design Delivery of Thought
The information and images contained in this publication may not be reproduced, duplicated, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without our written permission. Where source material has bee reproduced, the copyright remains the property of the copyright owner and may not be sold or disposed of by trade in any form. ©Flamingo 2011
LONDON · SINGAPORE · TOKYO · NEW YORK · SHANGHAI
THREE PHOTO ESSAYS ABOUT THE PHOTO ESSAY AUTHORS
Dee de Lara is a Philippina migrant to New York via Canada.
Yan KeYue is a Singaporean migrant to Shanghai, the descendent of 20th Century Cantonese migrants to Singapore.
Jeannie Foulsham has migrated all her life – from Brunei, to Lagos to Europe to Canada and next to the USA.
George Byrne is the descendent of 19th Century Irish migrants
Emily Kelly is the descendent of 20th Century Irish migrants.
Amanda Powell is a rural to urban migrant from Norfolk to London
Petticoat Lane, London. A study of a market’s transformation in pictures. By George Bryne, Jeannie Foulsham, Emily Kelly, Amanda Powell (Flamingo London) Brand Mules. What Chinese migrants take back to the village, a journey of images. By Yan KeYue (Flamingo Shanghai) Cutting a fine American Figure. A picture poem of a modern New York barber’s shop. By Dee de Lara (Flamingo New York)
LONDON 路 SINGAPORE 路 TOKYO 路 NEW YORK 路 SHANGHAI