Do not translate, communicate
Very interesting new piece by NPR on how to market to Hispanics. More and more sources of information, including the Census point to the clear trend of the Hispanic population and the Latino Buying Power. Of course the question for businesses and companies is how to become part of that community, how to identify their brands, products and services with that community, and how to appeal to that buying power in a win-win relationship.
Both the research mentioned in the article as well as the experiences by many companies that are starting to concentrate on reaching Hispanics, make it clear that if companies focus enough marketing on this particular segment, they’ll have “a group of loyal consumers ready to buy their product”. On top of that, add the fact that their average population is at least ten years younger than the one of the general public, and you have a customer that will stay with you for the long run.
The challenge in our opinion is that most companies stay just there, at the marketing level. They invest millions of dollars in flashy campaigns and collaterals to deliver their “Brand Promise”, yet they forget that reaching Hispanics also means understand their CULTURE.
And by Culture we mean all the aspects that make Hispanics what they are – their costumes, their way of thinking, value what they deem important, speak their language (in all methods of communication), appeal to their interests, understand their needs, contribute to their community, etc. (No stereotypes please!)
For example, amongst Latinos it is a well known fact that at home, Latinas are the decision makers when it comes to deciding what gets bought in the home. Therefore, companies such as IKEA have specific processes in place to understand Latinas, such as having “Hispanic advocates” in most of the stores. It is just a shame that such hard work gets somewhat lost when you follow up on their brand promise, stop at a store, and realize that in those “moments of truth” the stores were not as careful and did not place that much attention to details on Hispanics and their culture. For example, part of a culture is the written language, yet many places throughout the stores – including restaurant menus, maps, information pamphlets, instructions, even the Company Mission! – have grammar and spelling errors. It may sound like a trivial thing in the overall context, but that’s why most Hispanics tend to revert to information in English when they realize the Spanish information is many times useless.
So now you know why you need to care about this market, but most importantly, how to target them the right way. Three words of advice: “Don’t translate, communicate.”
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