This Week in Hispanic Marketing

Hello readers! Once I again, I plan on mixing things up for today's post. Instead of analysis of a specific topic, I'll include links and summaries of this week's Hispanic marketing news so you can stay up to date on what's happening! 

Attracting the Hispanic Voter (or Consumer)

Glenn Llopis of Forbes discusses Obama's "win" of the Hispanic voter. Llopis argues that it was likely not his success at relating to this group, but Romney's failure, that led to this lead. His recipe for success in reaching the Hispanic voter, or for that matter the Hispanic consumer? Pay attention to their motivations and cultural differences as opposed to their impact on the bottom line-- success will follow.  Companies are making a big mistake by targeting Hispanics separately as an entirely different demographic unconnected from their brand or their standard consumer base. Instead, the growth in the Hispanic population should be reflected in creative strategy and in brands themselves. Instead of jumping through all these hurdles to make an irrelevant brand or message meaningful to Hispanics, why not make brands and messages inherently relevant to this demographic from the get go?

Head & Shoulders to Woo Hispanic Males

The Creative Department writes of Head & Shoulders' attempt to target young, Hipsanic males through use of football player, Lionel Messi, as a spokesperson. The article points to the increased use of Hispanic symbols and icons to target this group.

Rolling Stone Targets Acculturated Hispanics

Perhaps one of the most interesting articles on this subject was written by Andrew Adam Newman of the New York Times. Newman discusses the trend away from outlets using Spanish language in exclusively Hispanic contexts. In particular, this month's issue of Rolling Stone features Hispanic rapper, Pit Bull, on the cover and includes articles written in both Spanish and English. Instead of writing the same article in two separate languages, each segment covers new material. This has the effect of allowing acculturated Hispanics to consume media as they do in their personal lives, often in Spanish and English simultaneously.

This Election Season, Spending on Spanish-Language Ads Increased....a Little

Veronica Zaragovia wrote for Fronteras about a recent report released by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, detailing ad spending this election season. The report found that spending across the country was extremely disproportionate-- while not a single dollar was spent in Arizona to target Hispanics, "$3,897,404 was spent in Las Vegas alone (Zaragovia, par 2)." Further, while spending on Spanish language ads increased overall, many experts believe it did not increase enough to account for the growing Hispanic electorate. The majority of spending on Spanish-lanugage ads took place in Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando and Tampa. While I am not surprised that spending would be high in Floridian cities, I would think at least one Texan or Californian city would make the list. This finding is further evidence that both campaigns seemed to concentrate their efforts on swing-state Hispanics, leaving the population as a whole feeling misunderstood and neglected.

Fox Targets the Hispanic Market with New Version of Paranormal Activity Four

This week, I've decided to implement a bit of a shift in the direction of my blog, away from politics, and toward something that ties in closely with what I've been learning in my Hispanic marketing class.

According to a Fox News Latino article, Paramount's Paranormal Activity will be the latest in a string of Hollywood attempts to woo the elusive Latino audience. A Latino version of Paranormal Activity 4 (which opened about a month ago) will be released next year. The reason behind this sudden interest in Hispanic viewers? According to the article, Latinos attend films almost twice as much as any other group, making up 25 percent of moviegoers (at only 16 percent of the population) (Sager, par 5).

It's worth noting that the text we are reading for class, "Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Consumer," provides a slightly altered statistic; "Hispanics account for 21 percent of tickets sold, while they constitute about 17 percent of the population (Korzenny 315)."

Additionally, the article points out that Hispanics are more likely to attend a film's opening weekend when records are made, making them an even more desirable target for savvy marketers.

In light of the information I've gained this semester from my class, I'd like to take a stab at analyzing some of Paramount's marketing efforts outlined in the article.

Subject Matter: "Latino and Catholic Themes Based on Paranormal Mythology"

While it's unclear how this would be carried out, I don't know how effective this strategy would be. While a Latino audience will likely be more familiar with the themes presented in the movie, it is debatable whether they will be more scared of them. What makes a scary movie is often the unknown; while Latino audiences may appreciate the cultural recognition, they may be too familiar with the subject matter to be genuinely scared.

Advertising in Both Spanish and English:

While the movie will be in English, this tactic makes sense based on what I've studied so far. There are many who may watch the movie in English, while they may prefer to consume media in Spanish. Additionally, some messages appealing to the shared culture of the target and those in the film may be lost in an English-language ad.

Analysts also explain the wisdom of marketing to this group to the increased spending power of Hispanics (Sager, par 12). My book would say that these Hispanics, having become acculturated, are more inclined to participate in the American economy.

While Fox appears to be doing everything right as they target this group, based on my studies I recommend that they continue to study the Hispanic market and avoid using generalizations or assumptions to inform their advertising efforts. In addition, because there is such variety within this market, Fox should be flexible when determining what media to use.