Focus
on Filipino Americans: The Best Kept Secret
Philippine Culture 101
By
France Viana
Last
December 2003, the Asian Business Association,
Inc., in partnership with Wells Fargo, Filipinas
Magazine, IW Group, Inter Trend Communications
and Dae Advertising presented a seminar "The
Growing Importance of the U.S. Asian Market:
Focus on Filipino Maericans-The Best Kept Secret."
This seminar was presented to different business
groups to help them understand and tap into
this growing ethnic market.
Filipino
Americans have been in the United States since
the 16th century, yet very little is known about
them. Why do they seem invisible? With $50 billion
in buying power, what makes this 2-million strong
community tick?
Textbooks
say that the Philippines is composed of 7,100
islands. The truth is, no one knows exactly
how many there are at any given point, it depends
on the tide. So it is with Philippine culture.
There are so many different influences that
come into the mix that a homogenous culture
is hard to define and I am not going to even
attempt to do so. Instead, what I will do in
the next 10 minutes or so is give you a quick
psychographic handle on the culture by speaking
on the top 4 influences on our culture and some
marketing dos and don'ts. To do so I am going
to have to make some sweeping generalizations
to which there are many many exemptions, so
please keep that in mind. I will end by teaching
you two tricks to find out if someone is Filipino
and to actually pass for one yourselves.) You’ve
heard our historical backdrop: Four hundred
years under Spain, 50 years under the U.S. and
4 under Japan. In fact, our being named one
people is a fairly recent artifice. The term
Filipino originally referred to Spaniards born
in the Philippines. To understand what all this
colonization has done to us as a people, imagine
what is like spending 400 years in a convent
followed by 50 years in Hollywood. This is why
as a culture we have so many contradictions
and are both sophisticated and superstitious,
conservative and flamboyant, sheltered and sexy.
We wear the latest sexiest Victoria’s
Secret lingerie to bed but under the pillow
we will hide a rosary.
To become a quick expert on Filipino culture
all you have to do is remember is our top four
influences: the four F’s in Filipino:
Family, Face, Faith, and Fiesta.
Family and Friendship
If there is one value universal to the Filipino,
it is Family. From our tribal heritage, we still
place prime survival importance on our families.
Respect for elders is one of our big rules.
A customary greeting for the elders is the mano.
(demonstrate). Family comes before the individual.
Older children are expected to sacrifice their
personal goals to put their younger siblings
through college. Everyone is expected to chip
in if any family member needs anything. Parents
generally set up their children with whatever
they can afford, schooling, a stake in business,
buying them their first car and first home is
very common. In turn, adult children take care
of all their parent’s needs. Separation
is very difficult thing for Filipinos. Moving
away before one is married is generally frowned
on, in fact many newly weds continue to live
with their parents.
The concept of the most successful member of
a family taking care of all the rest follows
the Filipino when he migrates to America. He
is expected to share his newfound wealth with
the family back home and he does. You’ve
heard how we send back over $5Billion dollars
in remittances each year and about our infamous
balikbayan box, our cultural care packages.
. We send somewhere like a whopping 500,000
boxes back home every year. And what do we fill
them with? Products only a culture seriously
afflicted with colonial mentality could love:
Dove soap, Wesson oil, Reebok Shoes, Charmin
toilet paper, Pantene shampoo, and yes, we admit
it. Spam. Cans and cans of Spam along with corned
beef, Hormel’s Vienna sausage and Tang.
Those companies would have gone out of business
long ago but for the favor of the Filipino.
And who do we send these all too? Just how big
is our family? You can’t begin to imagine.
We count as family members our nuclear family
of 3 and often 4 generations, each with an average
family size of 4.2. Then our inlaws each of
which is acknowledged with a term, much like
Eskimos have 20 words for snow and Asians 20
words for rice. Terms like balae, biyanan, bayaw,
manugang, hipag and bilas ." Next we embrace
our parents close friends into the family by
calling them all Tito and Tita, or Aunt and
Uncle.
Then we have godparents. At baptisms, confirmation
and wedding ceremonies, prominent friends are
recruited to serve as godparents forever binding
them to the welfare of their inaanak or godchildren.
In the Philippines, it is not uncommon for a
smart Filipino parent to get a friend doctor,
lawyer, or dentist as a godparent for their
child ensuring free services for life.
Added to that is the relationship created by
two godparents, two people who say meet at a
wedding ceremony where each has been chosen
as a godparent. Now these two people claim a
relation to each other as kumare and kumpadre,
again binding them to rituals of giftgiving
and socializing.
We are very close. According to a Lifestyles
report, 95% of all spouses remember their spouse’s
birthdays, the highest proportion in Asia. 66%
phone their spouses everyday . The familial
terms of endearment show themselves in our naming
conventions. Husband and wife refer to each
other as "Mommy" and "Daddy".
We never outgrow our pet names like Bong Bong,
Ting Ting, Pong, Ping, Totoy Boy Girl, Pinky
or simply Baby. It doesn’t matter what
position we rise to we keep these names. In
the Philippines we actually have a Governor
Ting Ting, a Congressman Bong Bong, a Senator
Tito and Judge Pinky.
The strength of the family unit is mirrored
in the economic structure of the Filipinos.
Most of the 1000 top corporation in the Philippines
are family owned and are synonymous with family
last names. Filipinos use this extended family
as an employment network. If one Filipino lands
a good job, all his relatives, inlaws, godparents
and godchildren, titos and titas, in fact anyone
he knows feels entitled to ask his help to get
them a job their too, and they do!
Let me talk about uniquely Filipino family related
values known as utang na loob, pakikisama, and
kababayan. Utang na loob means literally, inner
debt or debt of self, it is a debt which can
never be repayed and it is owned to parents
and patrons. One is expected to show complete
loyalty to a fault because one has somehow been
mentored by an elder.
"Pakikisama" is a value of going with
the group’s wishes, another outcrop of
our tribal origins, and the complete opposite
to the American glorification of the individual.
Right or wrong, the Filipino is thought to be
rude and badly behaved when he goes against
th egroup’s wishes.
Then we have what Rene Ciria Cruz dubbed the
kababayan impulse. When we meet our countryman
or kababayan overseas we immediately acknowledge
the connection with special treatment. Meet
a fellow Filipino and might get an extra slice
of pizza, be put at the head of a waitlist at
get a better room at check in, or a speeding
ticket waived get your speeding tickets waived.
We like to help each other when we can.
As you see, we have a very broad concept of
family, all of whom we celebrate with, shop
for, send money and balikbayan boxes to. That
is one reason we are such enormous consumers.
It is a marketers dream.
Face
The second big F as in Filipino is the concept
of Face. Similar to other Asian cultures, the
Filipino puts great emphasis on saving face
and looking good. He goes through great lengths
to avoid being shamed, or "hiya" and
he tries to save other people’s face too.
This results in an extensive use of euphemisms
in our conversation. The most common misunderstanding
between a Western and a Filipino is the latter’s
use of the word "yes". When invited
to an event a Filipino will easily say yes even
if he has no intention of going—to save
the inviter’s face. A Filipino yes may
mean I’ll try, I don’t know, I don’t
want to talk about it any more, or even no—all
depending on the situation. In the workplace
or in social organizations, he will not voice
a contradictory opinion directly, instead phrasing
his opinion as a question or just keeping silent.
This is where Fil Ams, or American born Filipinos
reveal the greatest difference to their native
counterparts: they are not afraid to speak their
own opinions and voice dissent.
Face dictates that the person puts on a big
show, always looking good regardless of economic
circumstances, which can result in going into
debt. We have the "Pakitang tao" mentality
which means literally means "show people",
and is our version of keeping up with the Joneses,
putting on a big show even if we cannot afford
it.
The Filipino is " the most fashion conscious
in Asia and eagerly adopts whatever the latest
Western style is. We call this in slang "paporma"
or posturing.
Face makes us very name brand conscious and
huge consumers of status brands. It is interesting
to note how immigrants change their brand loyalties
depending on their degree of acculturation.
When he first comes, the Filipino is adorned
in Gucci, only to realize that Gucci is passe
and so it doesn’t take long for him to
figure out that now he has to buy Prada. The
Filipino born immigrant is most likely to drive
a Mercedes Benz, the status symbol in the Philippines,
whereas the FilAm will drive a Lexus, the local
symbol.
Face also makes us identify and claim the triumphs
of our countrymen as our own. We feel immensely
proud when a Lea Salonga wins a Tony or a Josie
Natori makes it to Fortune magazine. We are
as proud as though they were our relatives---oops,
I guess for sure if we dig back they are. This
makes us really listen to famous Filipinos as
spokespersons, something marketers might note.
I am using the category of Face to talk about
identity and I want to point out two importance
things about the Filipino today.
First the older generation, from the boomers
on, are more identified with Hispanic than Asian
customs, just an offshoot of our history. What
researchers are finding is that there is a resurgence
among the second generation, the younger FilAms,
of identifying with their Asian heritage.
And finally another thing to remember about
how we like to be identified and addressed:
Researchers report that Filipinos in America
often do not respond in surveys to the label
Filipino. They do not check those boxes, do
not claim they are Filipino even if Filipino
American. We like to be talked to as Americans,
as citizens, however we appreciate our heritage
being acknowledged. So remember you are marketing
to a Filipino American, or as Emil Guillermo
is trying to popularize the term, American Filipinos.
Faith
Then there’s FAITH. Four hundred years
is a very long time to spend in the convent
and no wonder we haven’t quite shaken
the habit if you forgive the pun. Faith is the
400 pound gorilla in the room of the Filipino
social structure. At least externally, we faithfully
observe all Catholic holy days, rituals, and
feast days mixed in with our own folk rituals.
The Catholic church is a big influence not only
on our spiritual life but in our political and
economic affairs.
One of our unique attitudes can be summed up
as the "bahala na" syndrome, meaning
"God will take care of it." Filipinos
do not generally plan ahead or make take precautions,
feeling that somehow things will work out in
the end. Our Muslim citizens in the South are
equally staunch about their faith, allowing
it to define much of their identities. Much
like the church plays a big role in African
American communities. It is interesting to note
that many Catholic churches in the Bay area
and even in Europe like in Vienna would have
shut down if not for the patronage of immigrant
Filipinos.
If you want to reach a Filipino, going through
his Church is a very good way.
Fiesta and Food
Finally the fourth F is Fiesta or a feast, which
of course means food. Filipinos are a happy-go-lucky,
life-loving celebratory group and will give
a party at the drop of hat. We are optimistic
to a fault. There is no occasion to the Filipino
that is inappropriate for feasting. Even at
funerals we set up a mahjongg tables and drink
beer. Funerals are not one day affairs to us,
immediately the coffin is in the ground we all
drive to a restaurant to cry into our lumpia.
Then there is a 9 day novena following where
everyone is well fed each night.
The height our propensity to feast, as seen
nowhere else to my knowledge, is that we can’t
even have a coup d etat without a fiesta. During
the people power revolution, the tanks and soldiers
were literally crowded out by venders hawking
green mango, fish balls, and pork barbecue and
the crowd munched and slurped happily in between
ducking bullets. A great sense of humor is how
the Filipino copes with tragedy.
To us the lechon, the roast pig, the ultimate
symbol of lavish wealth. Researching this talk
I came across an article that said that eating
pork is not just a custom, but because Muslims
and Jews do not eat it, perhaps it so important
because it is actually an act of Christian faith!
Every Filipino event is overflowing with food.
We tried to bring some here today but they wouldn’t
let us. Fiestas in the Filipinos are so opulent
and decadent that one congressman literally
tried to pass a bill outlawing them to save
the countrymen from spending all their savings
and getting into huge debt just to put on a
good feast.
Lynda Barry the celebrated Filipina cartoonist
once wrote:
"My grandmother is from the Philippines
and she is the master of pork preparation. When
she lived with us, we always had stacks of her
cooked pork chops in the kitchen. She marinated
them in the holy trinity of vinegar, soy sauce
and garlic, fried them until they were dry and
then piled them on a plate. My brothers and
I ate them like cookies during the happiest
years of my childhood, a time I sometimes think
of as the Pork days. There we the dozens of
people who drove up in packed cars and walked
through the front door without knocking because
they were family, which in the Filipino sense
of the word meant my grandmother had known them
for at least 15 minutes. They came because they
knew that Grandma plus a heck of a lot of pork
equaled party time. There were no set meal times.
We ate whenever anyone come over and I mean
anybody. The paper boy, the Avon Lady, even
the fire inspector whom one of our neighbors
called onus. They all had a plate of pork pansit
noodles in their hands before they could get
six words out. Our windows were clouded up with
the steam rising from huge pots of food and
the smell of pork was everywhere. "
Just how often do we feast? A survey showed
that FilAms entertain a whopping 10.6 times
a month! A huge marketing opportunity.So those
are the four F’s in Filipino: Family,
Face and here are some marketing dos and donts.
Family
• Do package goods and services in family
sizes. If Costco didn’t exist a Filipino
would have to invent it.
• Do realize that the Filipino buyer is
often not the end user of the product. We shop
more for others than we do for ourselves. Appeal
to the family patron.
• Don’t underestimate the influence
of Seniors on their families.
• Do use word of mouth and referral tactics
• Do use multigenerational marketing
• Do pitch multiple products—the
something for everyone in your family approach.
• Do offer products or services that can
be sent back to the Philippines, do global marketing.
• Do use messaging that praises the Filipino
for his ability to take care of his family
Fiesta
• Do heavily market food products and
restaurants, remember we entertain and average
of 10.6 times a month
• Do serve some kind of food if you invite
Filipinos to an event, even if it is a funeral.
• Do accept food whenever it is offered.
• Don’t be surprised if when you
invite a Filipino over to dinner or marketing
event, he shows up with family or friends. If
it is a sit-down dinner, specify.
• Don’t be surprised if Filipinos
show up very late for an event. They are on
Filipino time.
• Don’t use fear messages, use optimistic
messages with party scenes.
Face
• Don’t be surprised if a Filipino
says yes but means no.
• Don’t market in a hard sell manner-
it is considered impolite and you will be avoided.
• Don’t assume because a Filipino
is shy or will not speak up at a meeting that
he does not have strong opinions or great ideas;
Do urge him to express them.
• Do use Filipino spokespersons and role
models where possible.
• Do support immigrant brand loyalties
if you want them to remain.
• And most important, do address the local
population as Filipino Americans, not as Filipinos.
Faith
• Do incorporate the Catholic and Muslim
calendars into your marketing calendars, seeing
what is seasonal and appropriate.
• Do support parish activities.
And now lets have some fun I told you I would
teach you how to identify and pass for a Filipino:
Greeting: Do greet each other by raising both
eyebrows.
Pointing: Do point at something with your lips
There
now you’ve all passed your Filipino course.
Salamat.
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