June 01, 2005
Keynoter addresses marketing to Hispanic audiences
Edward Rincon, an expert on marketing to Hispanic audiences, said we should spend more time on the front end diagnosing what our intended audiences need. Make sure to check out his web site for additional information.
For example, we need to identify the audience's needs and values. However, with objectives unclear, little or no research, limited staff expertise, little budget $s, knowing that our resources are limited, often results in lots of guesses. And we tend to make mistakes along the way:
For example:
I'll worry about Hispanics manana (but tomorrow is already here!).
Rincon said there are more Hispanics in the U.S. than the total population of Canada, Peru, Venezuela or Chile. Nearly 35.3 million live in the U.S. currently. And, procrastination is not a good thing...people need information now to improve the quality of their life, for health and safety information.
We shouldn't take shortcuts to understanding the needs of Hispanics. Too often we rely on friends, coworkers (who are not trained to give us expert advice), use stereotypes, or media portrayals to gather this information.
Translation is not the key to Hispanic marketing. Often times we over look message, comprehension, appeal.
We shouldn't ignore what Hispanics think, or their lifestyles. For example, native vs. foreign-born Hispanics vary in consumer-related attitudes. And Latino life-styles impact public sector progress.
Don't believe that Hispanics are not civic-minded. Their voter and registration rates are increasing steadily. Many serve in the military.
Hispanics buying power in increasing
How do Hispanics want to be referred to? Over half have no preference: either Latino or Hispanic. Native-born prefer American; foreign-born prefer their country of origin.
It is a myth they prefer to communicate in Spanish. Many prefer English advertising. Also, differences between native and foreign-born.
Don't blame the consumers for an ineffective advertising campaign. Usually the fault is lack of research, faulty strategy, or bad or ineffective product.
Finally, don't ignore key steps in the marketing process. Analyze the marketing opportunities and select target markets.
In a followup session, Rincon went into more detail on marketing strategies. Some of his advice was very straightforward.
Steps to take: hire bilingual staff; employee incentives to learn Spanish, simplify forms, internet access in multiple-languages, bilingual signage, use direct eye contact with clients, use customer satisfaction surveys, learn greetings in both languages, pronounce Spanish names correctly, minimize computerized voices and maximize the personal touch, have courteous staff, monitor employees, and work to reduce waiting time.
Elements of sound advertising:
-clearly identify target consumer through research
-use a positioning strategy that talks to target consumers (we need a strategy to encourage our intended audience to buy into our organizations)
-incorporate people and images that enhance our message credibility (don't just change the words when translating a document, make sure the images work as well)
-place your messages in media used by target consumers (current research shows only about 30 percent of Hispanics use the internet)
-focus on pricing and packaging that appeals to target consumers, identify points of distribution accessible to your intended audience, reinformation production adoption through PR, evalualte periodically its effects on conusmer behavior.