How to reach the Hispanics?

The Hispanic market in the USA

What about the ethnic group Hispanics? Hispanics is a term that refers to the people with a historical and cultural relationship either with Spain and Portugal who live in America. The Hispanic culture is a set of customs, traditions, beliefs and art forms (music, literature, dress, architecture, cuisine or others) which are generally shared by peoples in Hispanic regions. For example in Los Angeles you have a whole district where a lot of Cubans live. This is often used as stereotype in American films.

This ethnic group is also a really important market to be active on for several American companies, however to reach them it is complex to understand the cultural nuances and differences among all of the multicultural markets in the USA.

How can you attract them? It’s proven that 95 % of Hispanics consume some form of Spanish language media. Hispanics prefer their media in the language first learned so this means that Hispanics actively seek out Spanish language media because it is really attracts them. According to a consumer survey published in Ad Age, 42% of Hispanics said they are more loyal towards companies that show appreciation for the culture by advertising in Spanish. Like we all know, family is the most important aspect for this group; therefore, it is important to produce products as well as marketing events which address this issue. For example a company can create a family day to introduce new products. This example can make sure that this ethnic group will respond well to people/companies who, "make them feel part of the family.

We can conclude that the ethnic group Hispanics are really family minded and loyal towards companies who make sure they also advertise in Spanish. So if you are interested in advertising towards this ethnic group: think as a family and you will be doing just fine.

                                                                                 Wout De Fruyt

Hispanics - the future of America

Hispanics are the future of America. Why? The Hispanic market is considered as growing faster than the general market. Hispanics or Latinos constitute 16.7% of the total United States population, or 52 million people, forming the second largest ethnic group, after non-Hispanic White Americans. So why do many businesses still don’t target this audience. This might be due to a lack of understanding about the audience and how to reach them…

According to econsultancy.com more and more Hispanics are using the web. They are spending more time and are interacting more online than any other ethnic group. 

There are three key reasons wye this ethnic group is over-indexing the web.

They embrace technology at a faster pace, the median age of US Hispanics is younger than the general population and perhaps the most important  reason is that they are culturally more social. This article sums plenty of facts wye Hispanics are social minded. One of them is that they find it important to stay connected to family and friends at all times and the Web is an easy way to do this.

So leave Traditional marketing besides and start to make use of Online marketing -which is growing rapidly since the rise of the internet- to reach this ethnic group. Eventually you will see that the benefits of Online marketing will outshine the disadvantages. 

 Still not convinced? Watch this:

 

sources: 

http://econsultancy.com/be/blog/9466-digital-marketing-to-hispanics-in-the-us#comments

http://www.socialmediadelivered.com/2012/05/07/social-media-in-the-hispanic-market/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrlEZ-mb_L4

blog 2 Hispanics

Last week it was all about people in the Middle-East. This week it will be about the Hispanics in the US.
Hispanics are the largest immigrant group in the US to exhibit significant sustainability of their culture and are not disappearing into the American melting pot.

So it’s confirmed that Hispanics find sustainability very important, that’s why companies have to see them as people and not only as consumers. It’s a fact that Hispanics buy brands that empower their cultural relevancy

Hispanics in America are tired of being the target of new marketing campaigns by brands that are not creating cultural connectivity. They will more likely turn away from brands that are only interested in selling to them, because they really don’t like the commercial aspect.

The Hispanic people are more interested to build relationships with people and companies who are willing to listen to what they have to say, because those people/companies take the time to understand what they really want and how they want it.

That’s why the Hispanic market can no longer be seen as a short-term expense, but more likely as a strategic long-term investment.

Today most of the brands are missing a lot of Hispanic customers, because they misunderstand their market opportunity. They are trying to sell at a traditional way that focuses on selling benefits.
What they really should know is that Hispanics represent a new type of consumer who is connected to their own cultural nuances that support the needs of their family, because they want loyalty with brands that represents their voices.

This means marketers must allow the Hispanic consumer to influence how they brand their brands.
that’s why it’s very important that marketers listen to what the people want, rather than continue the stale monologues they usually do. In other words, they need to have a two-way conversation.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/05/14/dont-sell-to-me-hispanics-buy-brands-that-empower-their-cultural-relevancy/

Etnomarketing for Hispanics

Last week we talked about etnomarketing for people of the Middle-East. This week we will talk about the Hispanics. When I looked up some information about the marketing that is used for this ethical group, I encountered on an article at the site of Forbes. 

Hispanics are the largest group of immigrants in the world. So we see that a lot of companies are aware of that and that they create marketing campaigns and brands, just for them. But what they don’t realize is that the Hispanics are not really happy with this. When Hispanics live in another country, like America for example, their culture remains very important to them. The companies have a lack of knowledge about their culture and so they create marketing campaigns who don’t have a connectivity with the Hispanic culture. 
Companies must become more educated if they want that this ethical group buys their goods. The most important for them is that a brand empowers their cultural relevancy. The mistake a lot of companies make is that they use mainstream stereotypes in their advertisements and that really upsets the community. They are aware of the fact that they are seen as potential profit, in other words, they don’t feel any respect for their culture or traditions. We can see that studies confirm this statement because Latino’s turn away from these brands that are only interested in selling to them.

What the companies need to do, is to understand their culture and don’t use the stereotypes. They have to understand what a Hispanic wants to see in a brand. They prefer brands and advertisements that speak their language and embrace their cultural heritage. 

This is something Volkswagen understood and we can see that in their ad below. 

We can conclude that the marketing world is using etnomarketing more and more to attract certain groups, but that they don’t always do it the right way so they push these groups more away than they attract them.

 Sources:
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/05/14/dont-sell-to-me-hispanics-buy-brands-that-empower-their-cultural-relevancy/

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oOVqUInA6w

Blog 1 by Loic Brootcoorens

http://www.etnomarketing.nl/2011/08/18/lidl-en-plus-spelen-in-op-ramadan/#respond

the first article I have chosen is one about the shops lidl and plus, who started selling food for the Ramadan.

So the supermarket chain lidl and plus are selling for the first time food that is taking into account thinks for the Ramadan.

One week before the start they are putting all kinds of extra food in their brochure like baklava mejou, dates, halal pizza’s and frikandels.

This was a very good idea, because a big part of their customers are people of Islamite countries.
So the demand for this kind of products was very big.

Every year during Ramadan, LIDLE  has an innovated assortment of products that meet the requirements of food during that period.

Written by Loic Brootcoorens.

Etnomarketing (Ethnic groups in Belgium)

 How can companies increase their profit by attracting foreign customers?

Etnomarketing is a possible solution because etnomarketing is all about reaching ethnic groups through advertising.

In this first blog we take a closer look to Iraqis who live in our country and how companies can convince this ethnic group to buy their products. We all know that there are living a large number of immigrants in Belgium, so where will they buy their food, products and such? Companies need to ask themselves: “How can we make sure this group buys goods from us?”. The companies can conclude that they are not just interesting, but also a complex target. They can try to attract this ethnic group by the media. The most popular way of advertising is television advertisements so it’s important for the different companies to make sure their campaigns are so clear they can be understood for anyone who lives in the country where the campaign is launched. For example you can use non-verbal advertisements that will be clear to anyone by watching the ad, you can use a slogan in English because this increases the chance that more people will understand the ad because English is a world language.

An advantage of etnomarketing can be that the ethnic group that is attracted to your advertising campaign, feels personally addressed. This way can create that the target group experiences a positive feeling about the brand / product and so they will start up a certain relationship with your product or service. But it remains a time-consuming job because the companies will again have to invest in market research to find if the ethnic group will actually buy your product or service.

A personal note: I think that etnomarketing is a good strategy to increase your profit, but this strategy will only work when your company is located in a country where there are a lot of different ethnic groups / there is an ethnic group.

Written by Wout De Fruyt.

Etnomarketing in the Middle East

Marketing according to ethnicity is a technique often used in case of large cultural differences within a country. However, it can also be applied to cater to the specific needs of an entire region, if that region does not show large differences in culture or religion. In the case of the Middle East, most people share both religion and culture, as the Islam often dictates lifestyle too.

This proved to be a challenge for many a marketeer. Obviously, there was no way of marketing a western brand the way they usually would. And with so many cultural differences, they often felt out of depth trying to market a western brand to an eastern target audience. However, there are examples one can follow, examples of western brands that have successfully marketed their brand in a middle eastern country.

One notable example of such a brand would be McDonald's. As fast food became more popular throughout the world, they decided it was time to expand towards the Middle East. As a first effort to market the brand, which was generally conceived badly, this US burger chain appealed to the Arab tradition and the importance of family in Arab society by broadcasting a series of commercials called 'Family Time'.

These commercials seem to have a positive effect on the general opinion of McDonald's, as they continue to grow in the aforementioned regions.
The 10-15% growth was considered to be so substantial that they decided to open more than 100 stores in the Middle East, increasing the number of stores in Saudi Arabia by 20%.

McDonald’s has also made some changes to the menu, as to adapt it to the local culture and habits. In Arab countries, they serve a McArabia, a shawarma lookalike consisting of two chicken or beef patties in pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onion and garlic sauce or tahini sauce (a sauce made of sesame seeds).

All by all, McDonald’s has successfully penetrated the food branch of the Islamic market, thereby proving that it is most definitely not impossible to market a culture wholly different from your own.

Sources:
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/features/mcdonalds-co-expand-in-the-middle-east_7021
http://www.albawaba.com/business/mcdonalds-reports-growth-middle-east-despite-anti-us-sentiment

 

Etnomarketing is big business

Ethnic minority groups are expanding rapidly in western countries like Belgium, England, The Netherlands and so on. This is wye Marketers are anticipating to this growing market.  When you are targeting at an ethnic group, they will be personally addressed and by this you can create a positive feeling and a certain bond between your group and product/service. Below you can find an example of a successful etnomarketing campaign.

Mecca cola- mixing business economics and profit with religion

In 2002, Taoufik Mathlouthi, a French entrepreneur, created his own soda named Mecca-cola aimed at Muslim consumers. Mecca refers to the holiest city in the religion of Islam located in Saudi Arabia. This product was an alternative to the American well-known soda brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It was believed that Mecca-cola was an anti-American product made to prevent the Middle East of  America’s imperialism. However this statement was rejected by Taoufik Mathlouthi. Sales boomed and Muslims were very pleased by the ethnic product. Originally launched in France, the distribution was shortly afterwards expanded to Britain, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain. Later on the Scandinavian countries Sweden and Denmark  joined the club and the Middle East met the product for the first time. One of the major reasons of its success was that Muslims felt closer connected to this soda drink then to other drinks like Coca-Cola or Pepsi. 

Yet 'ethnic brands' also have a downside:  they have a limited shelf life. For example:  the first generation of "new Belgians" has often ethnically tinged consumption, but among young people - born and raised in Belgium – this tinged consumption will disappear gradually.  

Sources: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2640259.stm

 

http://philosemitism.blogspot.be/2011/08/mecca-cola-anti-american-and-anti.html