Your agency has been growing by double digits by helping it clients reach a growing Hispanic market in Connecticut. What type of growth have you seen in gross revenue over the last few years?
Actually, our growth is also coming from serving the Hispanic market throughout the region as well as nationally. The Hispanic market is growing fastest, both in terms of population and purchasing power, in secondary markets that most people wouldn’t necessarily associate with being Hispanic areas. Our revenues are also up as we’ve cut costs, such as consolidating our operations to Hartford last year. We’re looking to make a few hires this year and opened an office in Boston and our creative department in Puerto Rico.
Can only Hispanics market to other Hispanics? That seems to be the underlying message.
Marketing to Hispanics has more to do with having a fundamental understanding of how culture impacts a Hispanic’s purchasing decisions and not your ethnicity. It also takes an understanding of marketing strategies that work in the Hispanic market, many of which don’t necessarily work in other markets. Not being Hispanic has nothing to do with it; as the opposite is also true: just because you are Hispanic doesn’t make you an expert in Hispanic marketing. This isn’t an industry where you can expect to thrive just because you’re a Hispanic or you’re a Caucasian who took Spanish classes in high school.
What are some of the common misconceptions folks make about marketing to Hispanics?
The biggest is that marketing to Hispanics equals speaking in Spanish. This is why most organizations and general market advertising agencies who claim to do Hispanic marketing for their clients rely mainly on translations. You can’t market to Hispanics like non-Hispanics anymore than you can market to a 65-year-old man the same as a 12-year-old girl. The second is thinking you’re marketing to Hispanics through English media because Hispanics are bi-lingual and may understand English. While you may literally “reach” them, you aren’t necessarily connecting with them because, again, culture has much more prevalent role than does language or acculturation level.Â
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What are some of the mistakes non-Hispanics make when marketing to Hispanics?
The most common is applying general market approaches or thinking to the Hispanic market. It never ceases to amaze me how much time and money companies and general market agencies invest in research and planning to create strategies, messages and approaches for campaigns in the general market, and then think they can market to Hispanics without the same approach. You can’t take short cuts such as translating or casting a Hispanic in the TV spot. The other is not being prepared for success in the Hispanic market, meaning not having the resources to service the market. Another is that some companies rely on their bi-lingual staff to translate for them. As I mentioned before, Hispanic marketing is an art and a science and simply being a Hispanic or speaking Spanish is not enough.
What is the most effective medium for reaching Hispanics?
It really depends on the objectives of the campaign and the budget. Generally speaking, it tends to be broadcast as we consume more television and radio than any other demographic. Print is also important, and is the Internet since we have now surpassed any other demographic in time spent on line. For some campaigns we’ve only done out of home and grass roots events. There is no silver bullet.You must understand the audience you’re trying to reach and understand the media mix as well as programming that is most effective for that specific campaign.
How do Hispanic marketers deal with the issue of “Spanglish?” For example, second and third generation speakers (and some first generation) mix the two languages. Do you market to them in their mother tongue or their learned language?
Generally speaking, we use a neutral form of Spanish. Hispanics come from 21 different Spanish-speaking countries each, so it’s imperative that the message is understood by all, especially since an innocent word in one country can be vulgar in another. With respect to Spanglish, it’s a phenomenon more common among youth. We have used Spanglish in some campaigns aimed specifically at young Hispanics because it’s a cultural phenomenon and there is a retro-acculturation taking place among Hispanic youth who are more English dominant.
