A Middle Class Is Discovered : Asia suddenly seems so appealing to marketers

Nowhere are the aspirations to join the ranks of the middle class greater these days than in Asia. Nowhere is the climb up the economic ladder faster than in that region of the world.

To be sure, members of the middle class in developing countries like China, Thailand and Malaysia don’t enjoy the economic rewards carried by that economic status in the United States: Middle-class wages in most of the developing Asian nations are well below the U.S. poverty line. Nevertheless, the incredible economic growth of the Asian-Pacific region, particularly in East Asian nations, is catapulting huge numbers of people to a better life.

These consumers represent a vast new market. The World Bank projects that over the next decade half the addition to world trade and half the addition to world output will come from East Asia, excluding Japan. The Clinton Administration has its sights correctly set on the region as a source for future U.S. economic growth.

New technology and communications systems are providing shortcuts for developing Asian nations to foster a middle class. In China, for instance, life may still be rural and agricultural but a surprisingly big population is connected to the world at large via televisions and satellite dishes. Fax machines, satellite transmissions, portable phones and cable television all expedite the propagation of ideas and lifestyle images.

Private businesses already are staking out the territory in an effort to cash in. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently bought a 64% interest--valued at more than $500 million--in the Hong Kong-based Star TV, the biggest and first satellite broadcaster in Asia, a region that accounts for two-thirds of the world’s potential viewers. Star’s five channels--BBC News, Prime Sports, MTV Asia and English and Mandarin entertainment--reach 45 million people in Asia and the Middle East. Media firms such as Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting also are active in Asia.

But some deep-seated ways of Asian governments are not compatible with cultural notions from other regions. To varying degrees, many governments remain closed and exhibit behavior deemed reprehensible in the West. Beijing, for example, with no explanation has blocked the distribution of the critically acclaimed Chinese film “Farewell to My Concubine.” And the Singapore government, upset with the British magazine The Economist, has moved to curb its circulation.

But a more modern, prosperous Asia-Pacific will eventually be a more open place. The world’s fastest-growing region offers a huge market for American goods--if U.S. policy-makers forge a coherent, well-integrated approach to Asia.