Would You Trust Someone to Run Your U.S. Marketing from Seoul?
Would you trust someone to run your U.S. marketing from Seoul — without speaking English, and having never lived in America?
That’s exactly what’s happening in reverse, every day.
What many U.S. companies call “Asian marketing” is often built on assumptions, not understanding. Campaigns are run by people who don’t speak the language, have never lived in Asia, and don’t understand its history, education, or values.
Real Asian marketing requires cultural fluency — and fluency is built through lived experience, not theory.
People reference “North and South Korea” like it’s a piece of trivia. But for many of us, it’s family history. A scar. A truth we carry.
You can’t feel that from a PowerPoint slide.
And the ground keeps moving. Asia’s policies and markets shift by the day. Marketing without real-time geopolitical and cultural insight isn’t a strategy — it’s guessing.
Cultural fluency is not a certificate. It’s something you earn by living it.
Let’s rethink what it really means to connect with Asian audiences — not just represent them.