THE TOP THREE MISTAKES IN HISPANIC MARKETING

By Blaire Borthayre
Mailed 2004-11-10

The Hispanic population boom in the US has sent companies scrambling to win a piece of the lucrative pie.

According to the The Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanic buying power for 2002 totaled $580 billion, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 8.7%. (The standard rate for non-Hispanics is 4.8%.)

The center's study predicts that by 2007 the dollar power of Hispanics will rise to $926.1 billion. The Hispanic community clearly holds a great deal of economic clout, which certainly explains why marketers are vying for its attention.

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns are ineffective. Here are the top three reasons.

1. Advertising for Service Related Products — but not educating.
There are 39.9 million Hispanics in the US, and half of the adults among them are foreign-born. Obviously, many Hispanics in the US are native-born, but they are typically served by standard marketing campaigns in English.

2. Translating Accurately — but not in a Culturally Appropriate Way.
Of course, it goes without saying that you should never use a free Internet translation service. Often, however, translations by professional translators or companies are also ineffective.

The reason is that you are usually paying them to accurately translate your materials. You are not paying them to tell you how your message will impact Hispanic consumers.

3. Marketing without bilingual or bicultural staff.
Many companies are taking advantage of new advertising outlets such as the Spanish yellow pages, newspapers and television to advertise their products. The Hispanic community assumes that if you are advertising in one of those forums your company has Spanish speakers. Too often, though, that is not the case.

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