Hernan Tagliani, President, The Group Advertising

4 Ways to market to Hispanics this holiday season and boost your profits

This article was originally published online by the Orlando Business Journal.

The holidays are here, and many retail stores are eager to reach or even surpass their sales goal for the year. According to Nielsen Annual Sales Forecast, holiday spending is expected to rise 1.8 percent in 2014, compared to 1.2 percent in 2013. Minority consumers — Hispanics, African Americans and Asian Americans — will help fuel this growth in sales significantly.

Try Reading this: 4 Tips to boost your bottom line with Hispanic Millennials

Even though 10 percent of the U.S. population plans to spend more this holiday season than last year, multicultural consumers account for 43 percent of projected extra spending. About 17 percent of African-Americans, 13 percent of Asian-Americans and 13 percent of Hispanics plan to increase their spending, according to the forecast. [Read more…]

5 Ways to improve ROI with Hispanics

By Hernan Tagliani Leave a Comment

Many companies are trying to reach out to the Hispanic market as a venue to grow their business. But they haven’t been successful. At a recent national conference, a marketing executive shared with me that his company has been very proactive in the community but they haven’t seen a substantial ROI yet.

I asked him what a ‘proactive involvement’ meant to him. He said that his company had bilingual employees on staff and that they were sponsoring a couple of Hispanic events during the year. When I asked him what type of support his company was giving to his bilingual sales team, he said they spend millions of dollars in advertising each year. So, he thought that they were penetrating the Hispanic market through their general Anglo marketing efforts. This is a common misunderstanding.

Hispanics are the second largest consumer market in the USA. You must have a multicultural strategy and plan in place to succeed. The Hispanic market is not homogeneous. You cannot capitalize on this economic powerhouse by using the same old blanket campaign approach.

I have seen many companies fall short with their Hispanic initiatives because of two main misunderstandings: 1) They assume they are reaching this community with their general marketing efforts. 2) They think that by simply having bilingual people on staff that the demand is covered. [Read more…]

How Hispanics can feed your business

By Hernan Tagliani Leave a Comment

There are many industries that can benefit from the incredible growth of the Hispanic market. It is estimated that their purchasing power will reach $1.5 trillion dollars by next year.

According to the latest research from Burke and Univision,”Casual Dining Restaurants Landscape Research 2014,” restaurants can significantly benefit from Hispanic Millennials, also known as Generation Y. It refers to anyone born in the U.S. between the early 1980s to the early 2000s (approximately ages 13 to 35). This young group contains the marketing “sweet spot” of 18-25 year olds, which is a very lucrative market for many industries.

This group represents the growth of the Hispanic community. It is estimated that 65% of U.S. Hispanics are Millennials between the ages 22-35 years of age.

[Read more…]

Hispanics and brand loyalty: myth or fact?

By Hernan Tagliani Leave a Comment

U.S. Hispanics are known for being brand loyal from generation to generation. As they are big believers in word of mouth, they can be the best ambassadors of your brand. However, they can be more particularly loyal to specific brands and/or categories, especially at certain stages of their acculturation levels.

Based on a study from ThinkNow Research, 30% of Hispanics and 29% of non-Hispanics said they “always” buy the same brand, across all seven selected product types. “Always” and “mostly” were chosen 56% of the time by U.S. Hispanics, compared to 58% of non-Hispanics. This research was focused on 7 products: laundry detergent, toilet paper, pasta sauce, bottled water, dishwashing soap, toothpaste, and orange juice. [Read more…]

Direct mail: the power of geo-targeting hispanic buyers

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This article was originally published online by the Orlando Business Journal.

The market is changing and getting more fragmented. Corporate executives are learning that the key to a successful Hispanic marketing campaign is to have a deep understanding of who your target audience is, how it has evolved due to acculturation levels, and knowing the best media options to properly execute the campaign.

One of the most effective media outlets to best geo-target the Hispanic population is direct mail. The process of acculturation influences the Hispanic consumer’s perception of direct mail. While most consumers in the general market dismiss them as junk mail, Hispanics, particularly Spanish dominant, welcome it as a way of becoming a more informed consumer.

Overall, Hispanic households are 3.5 times more likely to respond to a direct-mail solicitation than non-Hispanics. In fact, 77 percent of Hispanics won’t discard mail before reading it, and 54 percent of Hispanic adults responded to a direct-mail offer, according to a Yankelovich Monitor Multicultural Marketing Study. [Read more…]

Hispanic Heritage Month: 4 ways to strengthen your brand

By Hernan Tagliani Leave a Comment

This article was originally published online by the Orlando Business Journal.

Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct. 15) is a memorable time for Hispanics and a great business opportunity for your company. You can create some big promotions around it that can generate a strong buzz for your business.

This celebration starts on Sept. 15 with the anniversary and independence of five Latin American countries — Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico declared its independence on Sept. 16, and Chile on Sept. 18.

Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes and celebrates the Latino culture and heritage, as well as the contributions U.S. Hispanics have made to the nation. For example, San Miguel de Gualdape was founded in Georgia in 1526 as the first European settlement in North America. And St. Augustine — the oldest city in the U.S. — was founded in 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and subsequently was the capital of Spanish Florida for 200 years. Hispanic Americans have been making positive contributions to life in the U.S. ever since. [Read more…]

“Total market approach” a total fail in engaging Hispanics

By Hernan Tagliani Leave a Comment

This article was originally published online by the Orlando Business Journal.

There has been a lot of debate about using a “total market approach” when reaching out to Hispanics, especially in regards to their millennials.

Total market approach is relying only one marketing program designed to reach all consumers across both general and ethnic markets. If you take a shortcut like this and try to tap into the Hispanic market using a straight translation of your Anglo campaign into Spanish, it’s basically like serving a burger with every Anglo topping imaginable and then adding beans, rice, sofrito, mofongo and habanero pepper. You simply cannot be effective trying to please so many people at once with the one approach.

Related Video: What is Hispanic Advertising?

The Hispanic market is unique and diverse — with differences between U.S. born and foreign born. Even U.S. Hispanic millennials, the Hispanic consumer of the future, are a little different. If we compared them with the general market millennials, the differences are even bigger.

[Read more…]

The Hispanic market: a paradigm of corporate america

By Hernan Tagliani 1 Comment

As part of my career, I meet with decision makers on a regular basis. Whether they work for different industries or not, the pattern I have seen in some of them is the lack of understanding on how impactful the Hispanic market could be for their businesses.

Some executives still think that the Hispanic market is homogeneous; that it is just people that speak Spanish or Mexicans. Others feel that since they haven’t done any outreach in the past and they currently have some low market penetration, it is not necessary to invest in this target audience. However, each of these executives are still struggling on how to increase sales and stay ahead of their competition.

The answer is right in front of them. We live in a country that is constantly evolving. Minority groups are growing fast. And as a result, Hispanics are no longer a sub-segment of the economy. They are emerging as a powerhouse of economic influence. So, whether executives embrace it or not, this segment will definitely affect their company’s bottom line—now and well into the future. [Read more…]