Changing Kendo combobox placeholder text in javascript has no effect

• MVC 5.2.2
• Razor 3.2.2
• Kendo MVC UI v2014.2.903

In Javascript, when I want to change the ComboBoxFor placeholder text, I thought I could do:

@model MyNameSpace.Models.Address

@(Html.Kendo().ComboBoxFor(model => model.ZipCode)
    .Placeholder("Select Zip...")
    .DataTextField("Text")
    .DataValueField("Text")
    .Suggest(true)
    .BindTo(Model.MailCodes)
)

      

        
        
        
      

    

using javascript ....

 $("#Address_ZipCode").data("kendoComboBox").options.placeholder = "Select Postal...";

      

        
        
        
      

    

But that doesn't seem to affect the dropdownlist placeholder text at all.

How to do it right?

Here is my Kendo UI JSFiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/devfingers/qy85emc8/5/