Research Shows Need to Look Deeper When Targeting U.S. Hispanics
Marketing to Hispanics is an extremely lucrative proposition. Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the past ten years, and are projected to control $1.5 trillion dollars in spending power by 2015. It should be no secret that the Hispanic marketing has the opportunity of a huge payoff for U.S. businesses.
At the same time, advertisers have to better know exactly who in the Hispanic market they are aiming for because a recent report from the Pew Research Center shows Hispanics have very different views of their identity based not only upon country of origin, but also upon acculturation levels.
In fact, even the labels of “Hispanic” and “Latino” that were thrust upon those of Spanish-speaking countries by the U.S. government haven’t been fully embraced. Rather than Hispanic or Latino, 51% say they most often use their family’s country of origin to describe their identity. That includes terms such as “Cuban” and “Mexican.”
Acculturation levels accounted for differences in how Hispanics saw themselves:
• Only 34% of foreign-born Hispanics saw themselves as similiar to other typical Americans, while 66% of U.S. born Hispanics said they were a typical American.
Who cares?
Using a pointed and, frankly. brilliant social experiment/recruiting gimmick, the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) rolled out a campaign addressing the lack of value that is inherent with social media armchair activism. While clicking the like button or sharing the issue does increase awareness of the issue and give the sharer the warm fuzzies, it does not actually do anything to solve the issue.
The very core of the SAF campaign addresses this passive activism and asks the audience to give up something real, to not just pass the word along. Why is this important? At the very heart of what the SAF is looking for in a recruit is someone who is willing to take real action, not just remain idle from a safe distance. A soldier is someone who is willing to sacrifice their comfort and convenience for the sake of another.
The Experiment:
A small room was built in central Stockholm and a man was seated inside, waiting. The rule was that he could not leave until there was someone there to replace him. Print and digital ads accompanied the campaign, explaining that the liberation of one means the sacrifice of another. A live stream was set up of the one-chair room with nothing for viewers to do but monitor the single volunteer. For a campaign that intentionally left out any social media prompts, it reached 100,000 visitors in only 4 days and sparked a tremendous amount of online conversation.
Latino Marketing in the Fast Lane
Ka-ching. The branding juggernaut NASCAR “Gets in Full Gear for Latinos”. Looking to broaden the sport’s base of supporters, NASCAR has its eye set on a new demographic with marketing strategies highlighting Latino teams and drivers.
With the potential of reaching more than fifty million Hispanics in the U.S., NASCAR is increasing its advertising and public relations efforts in order to reach this market segment.
Multicultural awareness and interest is not a new marketing push for NASCAR; in 2004 it launched Drive for Diversity, an initiative aimed at attracting minorities and women to ownership, driving and as crew positions in the sport. NASCAR’s investment has had a direct impact on Hispanic consumer interest, which has increased proportionately with the employment of Hispanics in the sport. Further boosting Hispanic interest is the recent transition of Columbia’s Juan Pablo Montoya from Formula 1 to NASCAR.
How many companies could follow NASCAR’s example by increasing a plateaued audience by refocusing marketing dollars on multicultural efforts?
Generational Differences Extend to Economic Challenges and Retirement
I’ve spoken at length about the differences between Matures, Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Y Generations and the need to tailor your marketing message when you’re targeting a generational demographic. As our country slowly comes back from the worst economy since the late 1920s, changes in the economic challenges each generation faces are emerging.
Matures entered and exited the workforce with pensions and social security. For the most part, they have enjoyed a comfortable retirement. So too, have the Boomers. Many are retiring or about to retire and have had the luxury of owning their home, along with social security and if not a pension, a pretty fat 401k plan.
Retirement and getting older isn’t looking quite as prosperous for Generation X or the Gen Y.
Tough times hit Generation Xers beginning in 2008. Used to borrowing from their 401k plans to pay down debt, Generation Xers saw those 401k plans lose up to 45% of their value. As if that wasn’t enough, the housing bubble burst, leaving many owing more than the value of their homes.
Marketers to Spend More on Online Advertising than Print in 2012
A recent study from eMarketer has found a pivotal shift in the way marketers spend their advertising dollars. For the first time ever, marketers are projected to spend more money advertising online than on print magazines and newspapers in 2012. Revenue from online spending is expected to be over $39 billion, compared to just under $34 billion for print spending. In fact, double-digit growth percentages are projected in online spending through 2014, as more marketers become comfortable advertising online. Online ad investment is expected to hit $62 billion in 2016.
To those who haven’t yet dipped their marketing toes into online advertising waters, it may be time to start boning up on the basics of online advertising. You don’t have to know HTML or any programming language to start, and there are plenty of how-to guides and articles about Internet advertising to get you going. However, you DO need to do four things:
1. Develop an online marketing plan that details your goals for marketing online. Do you want to increase brand awareness, increase web traffic, or increase actual purchase of products and services? Do you have another goal entirely? Defining your goal will help you figure out the best advertisement to acheive your goal.
Atención Kmart Compradores
Former Sam Walton inspiration and discount giant, Kmart has lost its audience and is in the midst of looking for a way back. Now lost in a crowded market in the category it created, Kmart and its parent company, Sears Holdings Co. are shuttering dozens of stores.
How did this happen?
The setbacks are numerous, from recent incidents to decades-old decisions. They range from the very basic failure to upgrade stores to a lack of clear positioning in an extremely competitive discount chain market. All of which doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the many issues plaguing its parent company, Sears Holdings Co., which has failed to produce revenue growth in six consecutive years since their merger with Kmart.
Can Kmart recover?
Focusing on Kmart’s core base of low-income Hispanics in its urban markets would be one route out of this decline. Kmart is already growing its multicultural marketing efforts by partnering with Univision on a televised in-store game show.
Storytelling
As one of the more interesting movie marketing campaigns embarked upon, Ridley Scott’s latest cinematic work, Prometheus, turns its marketing campaign into part of the narrative through the use of transmedia storytelling. Check out the viral lynchpin of the campaign here.
Transmedia storytelling is the telling of a singular coordinated narrative over multiple media platforms. The advertising for this campaign becomes part of the movie — with the bonus that it is tailor made for social media and can easily be spread through the numerous platforms.
By combining the creative and the marketing, the campaign interacts with audiences on more than just one level and permeates their daily lives, thus expanding the film’s story by encouraging fans to fully integrate themselves in the narrative.
The Prometheus Campaign covers the basic principles of transmedia storytelling:
1. The line between creative and marketing is blurred
2. It engages on multiple levels
3. It transforms the marketing into an extension of the story itself
Just Pin It!
Testing out ways to best utilize social media’s female-skewing new kid on the block, Pinterest, feminine hygiene perpetual-bridesmaid, Kotex, identified 50 influential Pinners and sent them each a virtual gift box. Each “gift” contained items based on the individual’s Pinterest boards, and Kotex asked recipients to share the virtual gift box with their followers. If “pinterested” parties shared the gift, Kotex recreated the items incorporating Pinner’s self-identified interests and sent them a real gift which included a box of Kotex.
Pinterest users are 82% female, the heaviest gender skew of any social network, thus giving any female-focused marketing effort a direct line of conversation to its primary demographic. Kotex’s Pinterest campaign was a conversation starter, but how long will this conversation last and where will it go?
Kotex representatives say they have received over 2,000 impressions and are deeming this campaign a success. In an extremely competitive retail market, where there is strong brand loyalty, it will be interesting to see if Kotex’s percent of market share experiences a boost as a result of this effort.
Are you using Pinterest? What do you think of the approach Kotex is taking?
Special Needs Marketing Pays Big Dividends in Loyalty
If your next marketing piece could attract 53 million people in the United States who collectively enjoy 200 million dollars in buying power, wouldn’t you race to do it? Surprisingly, not very many companies have. I’m talking about the special needs community, an active and vibrant community who does and buys the same things the rest of us do each day.
The special needs market is the largest minority market today, but very few brands have been forward-thinking enough to be associated with it. It’s relatively easily to do. In fact, it’s better to be inclusive of the special needs community without saying anything about it. Retail giant Target found this out recently when they included an adorable little boy with Down Syndrome in one of their sale ads. Target didn’t say anything about him, didn’t put him in a “special” catalog. Instead, they just put him next to other adorable kids. Just one of many children you might see walking down the street on any given day. A normal, accepted – and included – child.
Since 400,000 people have Down Syndrome in the United States, it was a smart move, and one that parents of kids with Down Syndrome noticed.
Twitter wins 2011 Social Media Popularity Contest
In spite of being dwarfed by Facebook’s sheer size, Twitter has been crowned the most popular social network of 2011. That is, if we measure popularity by media coverage. According to Highbrow Research, with the exception of two months (February and April), Twitter consistently edged out Facebook as the most talked about social media platform. Twitter received 50% of the media mentions while Facebook received 45% of the media coverage over the entire year. LinkedIn, MySpace, and Foursquare had to battle for the measly 5% media coverage left. Interestingly, Google + wasn’t even mentioned.
At first glance, it’s almost like David conquering Goliath. Facebook has over 800 million monthly active users to Twitters 100 million. Facebook users share 4 billion status updates every day while Tweets number 250 million. So why is the media talking about Twitter more?
First, Twitter users can be followed by anyone, and their tweets are public. Facebook is more private, allowing users to only share information with people they know. That alone leads to the media being able to follow Twitter easier. Second, Twitter is known for its high profile celebrity users who tweet about their lives prolifically. They announce pregnancies, divorces, and marriages, and all of that is great news fodder.
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About the Book
If you could grow your business simply by marketing to your existing customers, making money would be a cakewalk. But to generate new revenue, you have to win over the customers you’re not getting. Who are these mystery customers? How are they different from your current clientele? Most importantly, how do you forge a bond with them across these differences?
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About the Author
Kelly McDonald
Kelly McDonald is a marketing and advertising expert with more than 20 years of global advertising agency experience.
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You've got a great newsletter, Kelly. Full of such amazing information! You do an amazing job and I can't wait to hear you again in June. Barcelona, Spain? You Rock, Lady!
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