By Darlene Crane, Principal, PCI Crane Consulting

A stellar panel of Hispanic, multicultural marketing senior directors generated an animated discussion moderated by Dr. Jake Beniflah at the Omni Hotel on June 18th for the sfAMA Chapter.

The Hispanic market is now an imperative inside companies and across the nation. The $1.5 trillion purchasing power of Hispanics cannot be ignored.  Judd Trapp from Pandora and Nuria Santamaria from Twitter stated that 24% of customers were Latino. Larissa Acosta, University of Phoenix, indicated that 58% of the students registering currently are Latinos. Latinos are considered cool. They are early adopters and heavy users of mobile technology and social media.

Beatriz Rojas of Kaiser Permanente described how the Affordable Care Act raised the bar for marketing to Latinos. Beatriz had to “Move beyond the labels and go deeply into the problems and issues of the population,” in order to develop a successful marketing campaign targeting Latinos. It takes time to make multicultural marketing an imperative and still requires lots of education.

Marketers Have to Test for Deep Insights

All the panels stated that translation and use of Latino-looking models and actors is not enough. The phrase used over and over again was marketing messages must be “relevant to the culture.” That effort requires testing for deep insights into culture, identity and behavior. Dr. Ricardo Villarreal’s comments on Hispanic identity described the range of variation that must be explored. See research: http://www.econbiz.de/Record/the-concept-and-marketing-implications-of-hispanicness-villarreal-ricardo/10009051997

Total Market Strategy and Segment Needs Have to Work Together

Dr. Jake and the panelists emphasized how marketing to Hispanics had to be related to the total market strategy of the company. Questions came up about the need to consistently connect segment insights to the total market strategy. Larissa Acosta was insistent that executive champions set a place at the strategy table as it was important to sustain the connection. 

The Future of Hispanic and Multicultural Marketing

Latino millennials want to be catered to and the complex issues of the population will lead to more personalized marketing. The panel recommended starting Hispanic marketing efforts with small targeted initiatives using mobile media.

The audience was engaged and emotional. Members of the audience described deep personal connections to the Latino community. Others commented on how their own lives and identity are influenced by Latinos and a more diverse population.)

As a Business Growth Consultant integrating market research, product development and financial analysis, I want to see the insights and expertise of this panel generate more executive sponsorship.

Decision makers across all sectors would increase their competitiveness by developing a total marketing strategy that is relevant to multicultural segments. Consider that the major multicultural segments actually have $3.4 trillion in purchasing power according to the Center for American Progress. Hispanics contribute $1.5 trillion, African Americans $1.1 trillion and Asian and Pacific Islanders  $.8trillion.

For example, L’Oreal, the French cosmetics company is a successful global product company because it shifted to multicultural product teams after a series of missteps.  Developing a multicultural mindset on all product teams and among executives led to successful products, marketing and sales.  https://hbr.org/2013/06/loreal-masters-multiculturalism

Please share your comments and pose more questions on this growing field of Hispanic and multicultural marketing. If you attended the program what was most memorable and will help you in your profession?

Darlene Barrientos Crane, Principal of PCI Crane Consulting was born in Hawaii and lived across the Pacific studying Asia, Information Science and Finance.  Her company, PCI Crane specializes in Market Positioning, Product Development and Growth.  Her professional passion is bringing multi -cultural and multi-disciplinary capacity to entrepreneurs who want to grow financially strong businesses with a greater purpose.

She can be reached at Darlene Crane on Facebook and LinkedIn, or Twitter at @DarleneCrn