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Network helps brands reach Hispanics
A sales associate helps Carmen Anzo shop for clothing in a store located in Chicago's largely Hispanic Little Village neighborhood in Illinois.
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Kai Ryssdal:The Census Bureau said today it's got 573,000 people on its payroll. When their work is done, and this year's census is in the books, it's expected to show that the Latino population in the United States has topped 50 million. That's a market worth as much as a trillion dollars. Businesses, obviously, want a piece of it. But getting there is way more complicated that just translating your ads from English to Spanish. So, some of America's biggest brands are collaborating to try to win over the Hispanic consumer.
Marketplace's Jeff Tyler reports.
Jeff Tyler: The Latinum Network includes about 30 companies -- brands like Clorox, H&R Block, Subway and McDonald's.
Mike Klein is co-founder of Latinum.
Mike Klein: What we're most interested in is understanding this consumer and how they are similar and different from consumers in the rest of the economy.
The network combs through Hispanic demographic data. Then, it shares best practices with its members, like the NBA. Earlier in the season, the New York Knicks put the data into practice.
Sound of announcer at a New York Knicks game
Across the country, teams staged "Noche Latina," or "Latin Night," to honor Hispanic fans. Their numbers have grown 10 percent in the last year. An ad for the NBA shows just how devoted some of those fans are.
NBA ad
That's the sound of two Hispanic guys who screamed so much during the game that they lost their voices. To give Hispanic fans their own voice, the NBA developed a second brand, called ene-be-a.
Saskia Sorrosa: Essentially, what ene-be-a is, is how our Hispanic fans already refer to our league, la ene-be-a. We basically took it and made it official.
That's Saskia Sorrosa, senior director of U.S.-Hispanic marketing for the NBA. She says research shows Hispanics like to be acknowledged, but don't like to be identified solely by language.
Sorrosa: When we were deciding how to rebrand our league -- did we want to call it "NBA en espanol"? Did we want to call it "NBA Latino"? And that was calling them out, or singling them out a little too much. But ene-be-a was almost like a wink.
Some of the distinctions are subtle. Others challenge conventional assumptions.
Mike Klein with Latinum says Hispanic families do tend to be bigger, with more kids.
Klein: But it's also true that half of all Hispanic households in the U.S. are childless.
Cultural traditions are not uniform either. In the past, Hispanic mothers tended to cook meals from scratch. Klein says that's changing.
Klein: More and more Hispanic women are beginning to work, and there may be dual-income households. And so, like the non-Hispanic consumer, Hispanics are beginning now to spend more on frozen foods.
How does this research play out in the real world? In Chicago, 7-Eleven is putting Latinum's data to the test. The convenience store chain has a pilot program aimed at blue-collar Hispanic consumers. That means new bilingual signs over the coffee bar and different products.
Irene Sibaja is senior director of Hispanic marketing for 7-Eleven.
Irene Sibaja: So here we are in the snack section. And there's a whole bunch of snacks that we can bring in here, like chili-covered tamarind, dried shrimp.
But she says the network's research shows Hispanic customers don't want all the Mexican products bunched together in an ethnic section.
Sibaja: That sends a message that says, "Here, this three-foot section is for you. And the rest of the store is for everyone else."
Kunal Nakodkar knows what it's like to be homesick for food. The owner of this 7-Eleven franchise emigrated from India to Chicago.
Kunal Nakodkar: We had to travel about 20 miles to an Indian neighborhood to get all our Indian food.
His experiences help him appreciate the needs of his immigrant customers. Even before the pilot program started, he would stock refried beans and hot sauce.
Nakodkar: So that way they don't have to travel as I did.
His efforts have paid off. Nakodkar says his Hispanic customers have been fiercely loyal, and they increase his business by bringing their friends.
I'm Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.
For the last 20 years I've been creating marketing campaigns targeted to U.S. Latinos on behalf of large and small advertisers. During this time I've witnessed many changes that have made us re-invent the way we engage with this important segment of the market. For starters, we Latinos have become much more aware of how we have affected the American landscape in profound ways with our music, our foods and our culture, just to name a few. In a way, mainstream America is becoming more and more Latino! And many Latinos have become more acculturated too. But, what tends to remain the same, is the value we place in our roots, the way we relate to each other and how we still believe in the American Dream. The contributions that Latinos make to the U.S. are huge. We can't talk to a general segment and to a Latino segment separately anymore. A new America is emerging and we need to culturally relevant in the way we engage with it, regardless of the language.
Michael - Considering that I work for a Hispanic Agency I have some food for thought myself. Hispanics are the largest minority, over passing blacks. I do a lot of P&G Research for the Hispanic market - and is P&G reaching out to Hispanics because they are interested in their money - it is not the average Mexican calling P&G corporate offices begging for product translation. If there where 50 million French spending a trillion dollars on the market - I, as a brand manager, would be thinking in translating and developing initiatives for the French speakers! I am from Spain, and don't consider myself Hispanic, but I understand these businesses logic.
I tend to believe that the hispanic population is treated differently from immigrants coming from other countries...Why is that?
I am French/and I don't expect businesses to cater to me by advertising in French, but hispanics do !
I have known Germans, Vietnamese,Croatians , who all came here, learned the language and sent their children to school KNOWING the basics of English language, so that we, the taxpayers wouldn't have to hire bilingual teachers for their children!
The hispanics don't bother, They know that the school will take care of that !
(school AKA the taxpayer, keep that in mind !)
If they (the hispanic population) want so much to hang on to their language...they should have stayed in Mexico !
If I go to Mexico, I am sure that I will get all kinds of help understan ding the language of the land, RIGHT?
Food for thought !
Julia - As a response to: "we live in the United States and although I am aware of our global economy, I resent paying for those who live in OUR country to have advertising in their language (and the consumer DOES pay) how many languages are we going to go for?" Hispanics spend about a trillion dollars a year on consumer goods, that is more than the African American community. So, out of respect to these people, the least we can do is communicate back to them in their own language. FYI: The amount they spend pays over the amount companies spend on advertising in their language.
It's nice to see that big brands are finally recognizing that the Hispanic population in this country is no longer an insignificant minority. It's also nice to see that at least someone out there doesn't think we need to be compartmentalized and pointed out like we aren't a part of the community. While (at least I do) some of us do like to listen to Spanish, that is not a deciding factor in whether we purchase a product of not. Within my community, we like to blend in and not cause any problems. While anybody loves a good ego stroke, we like to be treated as equals, because we are as human as any other human, whether some like it or not, even if our skin tone is a little darker (or lighter) than others.
Not every hispanic person out there is here undocumented, in fact, a good chunk of the Hispanic population is 2nd generation (like my husband and I, who know no other country than the U.S.A.) or 3rd generation (like our son) or nth generation. Thank you for a good piece!
we live in the United States and although I am aware of our global economy, I resent paying for those who live in OUR country to have advertising in their language (and the consumer DOES pay) how many languages are we going to go for? - I mean, if we leave out the Asian population, the Indian population, we are creating a monster - I say, when in Rome - let them learn English!
