Archive for the ‘Brand’ Category
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Hispanic business owners are an important part of the Hispanic market. Census research has shown Hispanic-owned businesses are growing at three times the national average. The latest figures show that one of every ten businesses in America is run by a Latino. By 2010, it’s predicted that there will be 3.2 million Hispanic-owned firms in the U.S., altogether generating $465 billion annually.
The majority of these are small businesses with annual revenues under $250,000. They range from local restaurants, to hair salons, construction companies, and mechanics. Such businesses are key to the growth of the Hispanic middle class.
Then there are some 1,500 larger firms estimated to have 100 employees or more, manufacturers and large-scale construction contractors, chains of Hispanic-related grocery stores, and firms with real estate holdings in the U.S. and possibly Latin America. Altogether, these businesses generate about $42 billion annually in gross revenue. Many are started from scratch, with borrowed money or foreign capital.
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Tags: Business, Census, census bureau, entrepreneur, Hewlett-Packard, Hispanic, HispanicPR, immigrant, Latino, Palladium Equity Partners, private equity
Posted in Affluent, Brand, Business, Census, Hewlett-Packard, Hispanic, Hispanic 101, HispanicPR, Latino, Palladium Equity Partners, bicultural, census bureau, culture, entrepreneur, immigrant, private equity | 5 Comments »
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Following is the third and final part of the interview with Kimberly Bow Sundy, manager of PR and multicultural marketing for General Mills.
TeleNoticias: What trends do you see in Hispanic PR?
Kim Sundy: For us, the trends here are really all about engagement. The trends are all about how can we continue to evolve with an evolving consumer segment. Again, it’s all about youth marketing. How do you continue to have relevant dialogue? I think one of the big challenges is that many of the consumers we deal with are acculturating to life in the United States and their kids are first-generation Hispanic consumers. Those are two different consumption patterns, two different habits.
How are you relevant to mom and her kids when they’re in two different places? Everything we go out with has to have that dual marketing strategy: conversations with acculturating moms and with their bicultural kid, who one day will be a first-generation consumer. It’s about continuing to evolve your marketing in a way that’s relevant to their dynamic needs.
TN: How does that complexity impact what you do?
KS: We look at different marketing levers for different levels of acculturation, and I think PR is a truly phenomenal lever for people who are acculturated. Public relations really provides you the opportunity to educate a consumer. Our brands are not widely available in Latin America or countries of origin for many of the people who are acculturating. So PR is really the most efficient and effective tool for educating consumers about our brand, and the points of difference that they may have against other products that exist in the marketplace.
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Tags: Acculturation, Brand, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, public relations, Que Rica Vida
Posted in Acculturation, Brand, General Mills, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Multicultural, Que Rica Vida, Social media, communications, culture, public relations | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
This is the first in a series of discussions with public relations and corporate communications professionals and executives who are having a major impact on shaping and influencing Hispanic public relations. Our objective is to give them a platform to share their views, experiences, achievements and outlooks while providing useful information to our blog followers. Hispanic PR is changing rapidly and having “insights for today’s leaders” will go a long way to helping all of us approach and address the importance of the Hispanic market. We hope you find this series helpful and interesting and that you too will share this blog with your business associates and friends.
Kimberly Bow Sundy, manager of PR and multicultural marketing for General Mills, is our inaugural interview discussion who will give us good insight into the company’s Hispanic outreach. Kim provides an overview of General Mills history in multicultural outreach, their approach, successes, how they measure results and her views on the future of Hispanic PR. Kim’s discussion is divided into three blog posts; the following is part one.
TeleNoticias: Kim, thanks for agreeing to leadoff our series. To start, can you talk about your role and the importance of Hispanic Marketing at General Mills? For which areas are you responsible?
Kim Sundy: I have a twofold function here at General Mills. I am responsible for our external communications with communities of color, so I manage all external public relations with the African-American and Hispanic communities. Beyond that, I also manage our external relationships from a community relations perspective.
I am the day-to-day contact for big nationally influencing organizations like National Council of La Raza, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Congressional Black Caucus Institute, and the National Urban League. I manage our external relations with both influencers and consumers.
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Tags: Add new tag, Brand, culture, General Mills, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Multicultural, public relations, Que Rica Vida, Spanish
Posted in Brand, General Mills, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Multicultural, Que Rica Vida, Spanish, communications, culture, language, public relations | 5 Comments »
Friday, November 6th, 2009
For as long as the networks have been broadcasting sporting events, marketers have looked for tie-ins, hoping to build the same loyalty to their brand that the fan has for their team. The approach has been no different when marketing to Hispanics. Major league sports are a prime choice for marketers looking to reach the Hispanic market.
Most brands have looked to soccer in order to attract Latino consumers, as soccer’s been seen as the most popular sport for Latinos. During the 2006 World Cup, Verizon Wireless engaged Hispanic consumers by being the exclusive mobile provider of World Cup highlights. More recently, Sprint made a similar move with exclusive mobile video coverage of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, an international soccer tournament of great interest to Latinos.
Sprint’s multicultural manager Kymber Umana said, “For Latinos soccer is a way of life. It is a family event, and not just something that males follow. It is a part of Latino culture, and with soccer we are giving the consumer something that resonates.”
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Tags: Basketball, Brand, Coca Cola, Degree, Deportes, ENEBEA, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, Soccer, Sports, Sprint, television, Verizon Wireless, World Cup
Posted in Basketball, Brand, Coca Cola, Degree, Deportes, ENEBEA, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, Soccer, Sports, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, World Cup, television | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Superstores are making headlines this month for breaking new ground in the Hispanic market during the recession. Supermarkets Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club are both planning to open new Hispanic specialty superstores.
Wal-Mart opened its first “Supermercado De Wal-Mart” in Houston in April on a trial run; another is on the way in Phoenix in August. Sam’s Club will officially open its first Hispanic superstore “Más Club” in Houston, also in August.
So why change the old model? For Wal-Mart, it was a question of seeing the approach that worked best with Hispanics abroad. VP of Business Development Jose Antonio Fernandez said stores in Latin America and Mexico have taught them Hispanic customers’ expectations. “It was just a matter of time for us to start connecting the dots, and say, ‘OK, so this is happening in Mexico, and this is happening in the U.S. How can we leverage both of our companies and offer shopping that is going to be better for these customers?”
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Tags: Brand, Buying power, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, shopping
Posted in Brand, Buying power, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Spanish, culture | 10 Comments »
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Some recent studies have found Hispanic consumers to be more hopeful than consumers in the general market, and that hope has been reflected in their spending.
A survey done by Univision in June showed Hispanics to be more optimistic than non-Hispanics about their finances and the economy’s prospects in the coming year. It also found Hispanics’ average consumer confidence rating 11% higher than that of non-Hispanics. Consumer confidence levels have remained the same for Hispanics since 2005, while non-Hispanic consumer confidence overall has declined.
The reasons for this confidence aren’t absolutely clear. However, Univision found that fewer Hispanics use credit cards, more often paying bills in cash, so there’s less issues of debt. Also, it’s recently been reported that, among Hispanics and non-Hispanics at similar incomes, Hispanics put less of their money into 401(k) plans, so the credit crisis hasn’t hit them in the same way. Likewise, Hispanics have been found almost twice as likely as non-Hispanics to be renting their homes, so mortgage foreclosures haven’t hit them as hard.
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Tags: Brand, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, public relations, Research
Posted in Brand, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, culture, public relations | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
It’s sometimes said that Hispanic consumers are more brand loyal.
One often-cited source is Nielsen HomeScan’s study of Hispanic shopping behavior. Nielsen found that 70 percent of Spanish language-preferred Hispanic homes chose one cola consistently to the exclusion of others: in English-language only or English-preferred homes, that figure dropped to just 33 percent. That wide gap continued across purchases for many other food items and household goods, from cereal and beer, to detergents and toothpaste.
Why the difference? Researchers have put out a few theories: Hispanics may come here having had bad experiences in their home country with products. If they then come here and find something of higher quality, they stick with it, because it’s comparatively better than what they had before. Then there’s the corollary to that: good experiences with a product from home could lead to loyalty here, because it reminds them of home.
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Tags: Brand, Buying power, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino
Posted in Brand, Buying power, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Uncategorized, culture | 6 Comments »