This article was originally published online by the Orlando Business Journal.
As the New Year starts, there are many lessons companies have learned from marketing to Hispanics during 2014.
For starters, the old way of thinking, “I always did it this way” or “Hispanics are part of my general marketing efforts,” proved to be unproductive, limiting company growth, sales and return on investment.
And that turned out to be a big wake-up call to many companies.
The market has changed. Millennials — anyone born in the U.S. between the early 1980s to the early 2000s (ages 13 to 35) — now are shaping the new America. This young group contains the marketing “sweet spot” of 18-25 year olds, which is lucrative for many industries. If you want to grow — or even maintain — your business, you need executives and marketers in your company who truly understand the challenges and differences this group brings.
Hispanics represent 21 percent of millennials in the USA. So to win millennials, you must win Hispanics.
To help you succeed in the coming year, here are my predictions for 2015:
• Cultural relevancy will be key: If you want to connect and engage with U.S. Hispanics, all marketing efforts must be tailored to this audience. Your messaging must truly resonate with them and their culture. Whether you use Spanish or English language selection, your execution has to be crafted to them and for them. Only then, you will achieve greater results and higher return on investment.
• Digital will take the lead: It is predicted that the UK will become the first country in the world where more than half of all advertising budgets will go to digital media in 2015, according to The Guardian, the British national daily newspaper. We will start seeing a similar pattern in the U.S. Hispanic millennials are the most active and engaged audience when it comes to digital media. They spend most of their time on their phones and they are very active in social media.
• Content will be king: Currently there is not enough content on the web that truly connects or engages with Hispanics in a relevant way. This is a great opportunity for brands to establish the right dialogue and connection with this audience. To win this community, they need to become your brand ambassador first. Marketers will have to embrace the digital trends and understand the habits of these under-served media consumers.
• Hispanics will influence your brand: You can’t afford to ignore this audience. Right now they represent one in six Americans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This gap will be even shorter by 2060, to one in three. Their already influential purchasing power will skyrocket 50 percent this year, taking it to a staggering $1.5 trillion dollars. Companies aimed at success are making changes. For example, Facebook opted to step up its game by offering marketers new language targeting segments: Hispanic (U.S. – all), Hispanic (U.S. – Spanish dominant), Hispanic (U.S. – English dominant), and Hispanic (U.S. – Bilingual).
Your company growth depends on you and how qualified your marketing team is to embrace these new market challenges and changes. Hispanics are shaping our economy today and will influence your company growth moving forward. As you plan for 2015, you must ask yourself: Are you poised to take on the demands of this new marketplace?
