latino lingo

Supermarket News recently wrote about how sampling has become an effective way for brands to gain loyal Hispanic customers. They reference the 2005 Food Marketing Institute's study that Hispanic household spend 20% more on in-home foods than other households. They also discussed how Latinos will spend to maintain loyal to certain brands.

Sampling was an effective way Hostess helped to reach Hispanics during last weekend's Feria de la Familia that I attended with my familia. They sampled their new "Las Delicias de Hostess" brands I love the guava puffs, by the way at the event organized by Telemundo.

In addition to the sampling and their associated promotions and events, retailers who are serious about marketing to the Hispanic consumer are going way beyond this tactic. An IGA near where I grew up offers a nice selection of cabeza (pig's head) for the many Mexican consumers. In case you're wondering, Mexicans make tacos from the meat and skin in the face. There's not much of the pig we don't consume.

A September cover story in The Progressive Grocer also outlines other ways to get serious about the market and, no, a Goya aisle and putting Ortega products on sale during Cinco de Mayo doesn't really count.

What these articles highlight is marketing 101 material ... know your audience and define messages and means to reach them. These supermarkets have realized that they can either 1) keep fighting the weekly battles to take market share from competitors while trying to retain their customers or 2) go after the mainly untapped Hispanic population, a demographic which come from bigger families and spend more on food.

Food and eating are part of the culture. The take away is Hispanics will go to those that cater to them in a relevant manner and pay more for products ... after all, we have to get our cabeza from someone ...

Buried under the 6 billion Hurricane Wilma stories, the Miami Herald has a story today about the growth of Hispanic specialty/niche paid channels. Reporting on the Hispanic TV Summit, writer Christina Hoag quotes Leland Westerfield, managing director of Harris Nesbitt, who says more Hispanics will sign up for cable and satellite because, ''there's a hunger for culturally-relevant programming. There is ample demand among viewers for choice of programming.''

He added that advertiser support for these channels is likely to be concentrated in the nation's major media markets where Nielsen Media Research operates its Local People Meter.

As a viewer of specialty progamming like Caracol (de Colombia) and Wapa America (even though La Comay drives me crazy), this further illustrates the point that the Hispanic market is very nuanced and Hispanics can't be marketed to as a homogeneous group.

OK, I know I've beat the "you can't just translate English messages to Spanish" horse to death, but there's an important analogy here. Namely, if cable and satellite companies followed this logic that many marketers take in trying to reach Hispanics, wouldn't they simply offer English programming with subtitles? Instead, they are becoming more sophisticated in what they offer; and will continue to see an increase in viewership as a result.

Colleges and Universities from as far as North Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut and Ohio are recruiting Hispanics in Texas as a way to "diversify" their campuses, according to a Houston Chronicle story. That fact was covered in a Hispanic Business story, that also mentions Ohio State University trying to up its Hispanic enrollment to 3 percent by 2010 ... up from 1.75 percent in 1999 ... by recruiting in Texas.

This begs the question ... are these schools doing enough to recruit Hispanics in their own states? In North Carolina, for example, Charlotte and Greensboro were among the cities with the highest reported population increases in the 2000 Census. So, what's the excusa North Carolina?

Hispanic Business also did a piece this week about an International Demographics, Inc. audit that showed there is an increasing number of college graduates. From 2002 to 2004 the Hispanic population increased 16 percent in 87 markets they audited while Hispanic graduates increased by 22 percent in those markets (4.4 million graduates, including more than 1.3 million with advanced degrees).

Lack of knowledge is part of it. Take for instance a Mason-Dixon survey commissioned by The Sallie Mae Fund found that 95 percent of Hispanics (and 80 percent of African Americans) in Florida not in college said they would have been more likely to attend if they had better information about how to pay for it. The fund is spending $1 million in Florida on educating students and parents about financial aid to help close this knowledge gap.

While it's a complicated subject, it seems universities and community colleges can improve their Hispanic applicants within their own state borders with some effective marketing communication. Looking to areas of traditionally high Hispanic populations to recruit seems like the easy way out to me.

"Tiempos del Mundo" (World Times) is on a quest to become the "USA Today" for the Americas through an overhaul to its design and content, so reports The Miami Herald.

Tiempos del Mundo is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has bureaus in Miami, Bogota, San Jose (Costa Rica), Mexico City and Santiago. The 9-year-old newspaper has a circulation of 105,025 in three U.S. cities and 17 Latin American countries (according to an audit by BPA Worldwide).

The article also discusses a recent readership audit showing their typical reader is upscale Latino professional ... which should "bolster advertising sales and shape editorial content..."

¡Buena suerte!

California State Controller Steve Westly announced he's running commercials of him speaking entirely in Spanish as he looks to woo the Hispanic vote in the gubernatorial race against el terminator. The article in the San Jose Mercury News cites the negatives (Latinos potentially thinking he's pandering for their vote) and the positives (we give more leeway to Anglo politicians speaking Spanish than to a Latino who suddenly finds his or her roots for an election run).

It does tend to work in most cases. One of memories growing up was listening to Frank Purdue talk about his fresh and moist chickens on the radio. My mom loved Frank because she felt he was speaking to her on her terms. As a result we certainly put away our share of his pollos.

Listening to Arnold speak English is tough enough ... let's just hope he doesn't follow suit.