Marketing to hispanics

How to segment the Hispanics?

2005-08-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

It is widely known that almost 60% of all Hispanics in the US come from Mexico so, segmenting by country of origin is the most common and easy way to segment this group. But, by segmenting Hispanics by country of origin, marketers might be missing the point that even those from the same country have very different cultural backgrounds and, thus, needs.
While talking to some Mexican immigrants, I learned that often times the people that comes from the same town or village in Mexico (let's say Tizapan el Alto, Jalisco) normally live in the same US city, or at least for their first years in the US. This learning makes me realize that segmentation could be brought to a totally new level: Country and State of origin.
Throughout my marketing career, I learned that the people from Jalisco think and behave differently from that from Nuevo Leon, Mexico City or any other State. Thus, marketing to "Jaliscienses" as we know them, would be even more effective if it was personalized to their own lingo. Using this approach for mass marketing would be way too expensive but using it for tactical tools such as mailing, telemarketing, fliers, PR, etc., would surely result in higher customer retention and acquisition rates.

Why do we think that all Hispanics think and act identically?

2005-07-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, my wife and I decided to come from Mexico City to the US to study an MBA at the University of Texas at Austin.
We have always been interested in the US Hispanic market given that we are from Mexico and that we both are marketing professionals who have worked to multinational companies for years. So we decided to dig a little deeper to understand what were exactly what Corporate America called the "Hispanic" market. To our surprise, Hispanics is defined as a group of people that come mostly from Spanish speaking countries (Brazil and some Caribean Islands are the exemption) but it is not segmented into groups of people from either the same country or the same cultural background. Furthermore, corporations not even realize that Spanish varies from country to country and that, what for Mexicans can be funny, for Peruvians can be offensive and so on.
It is time for large and small corporations in the US to start looking at the Hispanic market with different eyes, not only because they are the fastest growing minority in the US but also because their income per capita is growing twice or even three times as much as that of other races.
I am convinced that those who take that step first, will be the big winners in the future given that Hispanics, as many other groups, tend to be more grateful and, thus, faithful to those who try to empatize with them and try to understand where they come from and how they live today.
If you, fellow reader, feel that I am missing a point or that you might have some other insight on this matter, I would highly appreciate if you could send me a comment through this forum.

Interesting facts about hispanics in America

2005-04-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that the term "Hispanic" was first used in the 70s by a Cuban Ad Agency in Florida to boost its billings and attract more clients. Amazing is that today, more than 20 years later, that term that was first used as a "marketing tool" is now widespread and is the generic for a very diverse group of people.

I haven't understand yet why US firms have not realized that inside the Hispanic market, there's a wide variety of cultures, beliefs, races, and behaviors that cannot be grouped together. Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Nicaraguans, Salvadoreans and all other Central and Latin American countries that can be considered as Hispanics have different needs, accents, traditions and most importantly, ways to communicate.

I truly believe that the term Hispanic - for marketing purposes only - is no longer valid and that a new segmentation scheme should be developed in order for companies to really get a big chunck of that market.