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Archive for the ‘Multicultural’ Category

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Another Reason To Be Paying Attention to the Hispanic Market

What the mid-term elections tell us about U.S. Latinos

In the days leading up to the mid-term elections, the Latino voting segment was the source of much conversation.  The general question was “how will they vote, Democrat or Republican?”  It could be said that this was the first time that Latinos’ role in campaign strategy  became  more prominent and had such a diverse outcome.  The Latino vote hinged on the issues and the candidates running in each race.

Post election analysis showed that Latinos played a critical role in key races throughout the U.S.  According to a New York Times Article, Latinos were not party aligned, as there was support for both Republicans and Democrats   Voters elected  the first Hispanic Republican woman governor of New Mexico, with Susan Martinez taking the office.  Republican Brian Sandoval took the  governor’s race in Nevada and Republican candidate Marco Rubio won in Florida’s U.S. Senate race.

On the other side of the fence, Latinos were instrumental in saving Democrat Harry Reid’s Senate position, and helping Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Democrat Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado in their victories.

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Posted in election, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Multicultural, politics | 3 Comments »

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Are You Shifting Marketing and PR Plans Based on Hispanic Demographic Trends?

Posted originally on May 26th, 2010, by BurrellesLuce Insider

by Colleen Flood*

Hola, como estan todos?  Es un placer de estar aqui. Estan todos disfrutando la conferencia?

This is similiar to how David Henry, founder and president of Telenoticias and co-author of Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations: Understanding and Targeting America’s Largest Minority, started the session “A Sleeping Giant” at the PRSA Counselors Academy Conference, which BurrellesLuce sponsored, this past weekend. Henry switched back to communicating in English and asked if we understood what he had just said. Only one or two hands went up in the group. He then related this to what Hispanics understand when they are marketed to in English.

The current marketplace in the U.S. is comprised of a diverse group. There has been boom over the past few years and by 2050, it is estimated that 30 percent of the population will be Hispanic. This is a population with a purchasing power that is progressing 50 percent faster than non-Hispanic groups. (In fact, BurrellesLuce first began writing about these trends in a 2007 newsletter entitled, “Top Five Tips for Reaching the Growing Hispanic Market.”)

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Posted in Buying power, census bureau, culture, Demographics, Hispanic, Hispanic marketing, HispanicPR, language, Latino, Multicultural, public relations, Spanish | 3 Comments »

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Hispanic Public Relations Association Launches New York Chapter

Bicoastal Presence to Meet the Needs of Robust Community of Hispanic PR and Social Media Professionals

New York, NY – April 23, 2010 – The Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) is expanding its reach nationally by introducing a New York chapter dedicated to supporting and growing the Hispanic PR profession in the heart of the big apple.

“National expansion has always been a goal for HPRA, and we have long desired to make the organization accessible to our colleagues on the east coast,” said Lourdes Rodriguez, HPRA president, Los Angeles Chapter. “Thanks to the partnership we have formed with some key executives in New York, we can now make this happen.”

HPRA NY will be structured similarly to its LA-counterpart, and will deliver on the same mission: to promote and support the Hispanic Public Relations profession while serving the needs of this growing industry and its future leaders. Additionally, similar to Los Angeles, HPRA NY will focus on the Hispanic social media space, and help communicate the importance of its role in the overall public relations discipline.

“We have been dedicated to forming this New York chapter for some time,” explained David Henry, president of TeleNoticias and the appointed President of the HPRA NY chapter. “The Hispanic marketing community in New York is a close-knit group, but those of us who live in the Hispanic PR world needed our own, official family.”

Founding members and board of directors for the NY chapter include: David Henry as President; Vice President Monica Talan, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Univision Communications, Inc.; Treasurer Melissa Smith, Executive Vice President of RL Public Relations; and Secretary Claudia Mejia-Haffner, Vice President of The Axis Agency.

Hispanic public relations professionals, defined as those who work at least half of their time in the Hispanic market, can join the NY chapter by going to www.hpra-usa.org. Annual membership dues will cost $125.

Formation of the New York chapter is the first step in a broader plan to establish HPRA not only as an organization that serves the needs of Hispanic public relations professionals throughout the country, but as a resource organization for all communicators wanting to learn more about the Hispanic marketplace.  “We welcome the membership of practitioners across the country and will develop new chapters as the need arises,” said Rodriguez.

The first true benefit to NY chapter members will be a discount rate to the upcoming Hispanic Public Relations & Social Media Marketing Conference in Dallas, TX, May 10 -12, 2010.The conference, co-presented by HPRA and the Hispanic PR Blog, will provide attendees with case studies, professional development, and career and networking opportunities that are focused on Hispanic PR and social marketing. Detailed information and registration is available at the conference website, www.HispanicPRConference.com.

About Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA):
HPRA was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization to establish a network of Hispanics employed in the public relations profession. HPRA has more than 250 members representing public relations, marketing and advertising professionals from agencies, government, non-profit and corporate companies. HPRA is dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic professionals and provides educational seminars and workshops throughout the year. The organization has awarded more than $220,000 in scholarships to Latino students pursuing a career in communications.  HPRA strives to be a resource for communications professionals and for those seeking insights into the Hispanic market.  For more information please visit www.hpra-usa.org.

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Posted in Hispanic, HispanicPR, HPRA, Multicultural, public relations, Social media | 4 Comments »

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

When Did Diversity Become The Same As Multicultural?

By Melissa Smith, Executive Vice President at RL Public Relations

When I began working in PR in 1993, the terms “multicultural” and “diversity” were rarely used. I was aware of their meanings of course, but the words themselves did not come up in conversation often, if ever. It wasn’t until I left the smaller PR firm scene and entered the big agency world in the late 90’s that I was exposed to these terms more frequently, specifically in the business realm.

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, I clearly knew what multicultural meant, but it was my everyday life – something you lived without thinking… it wasn’t an “initiative” or a target market, or even a word in your vocabulary.  In fact it was not until I went to college in the Midwest that I realized how culturally diverse my life was. I can still recall missing the energy, restlessness and variety that I took for granted in New York, after I landed in St. Louis (at Washington University) where all three of those characteristics were alarmingly absent…

Once I began working at GCI Group (now Cohn & Wolfe), I learned simultaneously about the practice of multicultural marketing, and the lack of diversity in the PR industry. Those two concepts were etched into my mind as distinct and not interchangeable: multicultural marketing was reaching out to different ethnic groups, and diversity was what was (or wasn’t) going on internally – in our industry and in our company. I believe it was back then – pre 9/11 – that HR departments began their official diversity initiatives, and big agencies began putting out their “diversity reports” – all aimed at raising awareness of the obvious lack of diversity in our industry in an effort to show that they were doing something about it.

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Posted in Diversity, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Multicultural | 4 Comments »

Friday, November 20th, 2009

An Interview with Kim Sundy, General Mills – Part Three

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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Posted in Acculturation, Brand, communications, culture, General Mills, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, Multicultural, public relations, Que Rica Vida, Social media | 10 Comments »

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

An Interview with Kim Sundy, General Mills – Part One

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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Posted in Brand, communications, culture, General Mills, Hispanic, HispanicPR, language, Multicultural, public relations, Que Rica Vida, Spanish | 5 Comments »