Translating for the Hispanic Market

Habla Espanol? Do you know the best way to reach the booming Hispanic market? If you think it involves more than getting a handle on Spanish, you’re right. Tapping the best marketing and promotion techniques, getting a good media mix, learning about in-culture marketing, and understanding acculturation are all key.

Isabel Valdés, a partner in niche marketing firm Santiago & Valdes Solutions, San Francisco, notes that “language segmentation” teaches a lot about Hispanic consumption behavior. Latinos may be bilingual, speak only Spanish, prefer English, or mix Spanish and English in a unique language called “Spanglish.”

“In soft drinks, language makes a huge, huge difference,” says Valdes. “It’s often true that Hispanics who are bilingual more often embrace light beers and diet drinks.” One possible reason is that they’re more acculturated to American low-calorie preferences.

In contrast, those who speak only Spanish (generally recent immigrants or the less acculturated) are generally great fans of sugar, says Valdes, whose studies for the ACNielsen Homescan Consumer Panel will be published in 2002 in part two of Marketing to American Latinos: A Guide to the In-Culture Approach (santiagovaldessolutions.com).

Countries of origin are also significant. The majority of Hispanic-Americans regard Mexico as their ancestral homeland. (Fourteen percent identify Central or South America, 10 percent Puerto Rico, seven percent Spain, two percent the Dominican Republic, and four percent Cuba.)

Why is this important? Because beans are not always “beans.” They’re “frijoles” in Cuba and “habicheulas” in Puerto Rico.

There still is much common ground, however. Sears Roebuck and Co. advertises in a generic form of Spanish, but tailors regional markets to fit the local population, adopting a Mexican flavor in the Southwest and a Caribbean bent in the East.

Sears was one of the first companies to develop a Spanish-language customer magazine: Nuestra Gente (Our People). Procter & Gamble does the same with Avanzanda con tu Familia (Advancing Your Family). Neil Cumber, director of P&G’s Hispanic corporate relations, says the publication reaches 4.5 million Latinos in the metro areas where they are concentrated: Chicago, New York, South Florida, Dallas/Houston, and Southern California.

Other companies have learned the value of Hispanic media. In a two-city (Chicago and San Antonio) test project, Sara Lee’s hosiery division increased sales of its Hanes nylons eight percent using a mix of Hispanic print, radio, TV, and Web sites, says marketing manager Cathy Jo Espinola. “And this was just advertising, without other promotions.” (A guide to more than 1,700 listings is available in SRDS’s Hispanic Media & Market Source.)

The Corázon of the Matter

Understanding that family, children, tradition, and religion are important is another must in capturing “share of heart” in a culture which values aesthetics and emotion, says Valdes.

Helping companies wade through cultural waters are groups such as the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (ahaa.org), chaired by Horacio Gomes, president of San Francisco-based HeadQuarters Advertising.

Latino holidays and cultural events present tremendous marketing opportunities. Religious passageways — christenings, communions, and anniversaries — are significant events, as are holidays and holy days such as Los Tres Reyes (the feast of the Three Kings) in January and the pre-Christmas Las Posadas celebration. The 15th birthday of a girl — Quinceañera — ushers in a need for makeup, high heels, nylons, gowns, cards, gifts, and other items for the new debutante. Catering halls and churches are booked months in advance. Segmented Marketing Services Inc. developed and executed a Quinceañera teen sampling program for P&G’s Secret deodorant with a bilingual-targeting publication featuring female Hispanic opinion and service group leaders.

Other mainstream companies have launched ethnic marketing promotions. Autumn Boos at General Mills says the company’s bilingual circus, Trix Circo Mundial, comes complete with a Spanish-speaking Trix Rabbit. American Express developed a credit card program to help fund the rising number of Hispanic entrepreneurs.

The Hispanic boom is here to stay. “Between 1997 and 200l, an estimated 18.6 million babies will have been born in the U.S. Over one in six of these (roughly three million, or 18 percent) will be born to a Hispanic mom,” says Valdes. “In high-density Hispanic markets, the birth rates can be as high as 52 percent of the population.”

All this adds up to tremendous buying power — especially in California, where $138 billion of the total $452 billion in U.S. Hispanic buying power resides, according to the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth. (Texas is second with $75 billion, followed by Florida with $44 billion and New York with $43 billion. Next in line are New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia.)

With the median family income now at $30,700, the population boom in progress, and entrepreneurs on the rise, there’s no question that the only way to describe this market is que bonita!

Lafayette Jones is president and ceo of Segmented Marketing Services, Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C. Reach him at [email protected].