Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began April 1 to run newspaper, radio and television advertisements in Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Houston, hoping to lure more Asian American shoppers to its stores. Print advertisements are also running in Taglish, a combination of Tagalog and English spoken by some Filipinos.
Asian Americans are coveted consumers, with an estimated buying power of $363 billion a year, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.
Wal-Mart has more than 3,600 stores in U.S. and 1,600 stores outside U.S. including 44 in China
and 16 in South Korea. The discounter also owns 37% of Japanese retailer Seiyu Ltd.
In Los Angeles, the advertising campaign will include seven Chinese-language TV and cable
stations and two Vietnamese TV stations. (Source: Rong-Gong Lin II, The Los Angeles Times,
Apr. 2, 2005)