Many general marketers spend millions in preparing to introduce their products or services in countries outside of the U.S. in hope for high returns on their investment. Some of these same companies don’t realize they have one of the most powerful “country” within the United States, U.S. Hispanic / Latino market. For several decades, U.S. Hispanic/Latino consumer populations and buying power have boomed and marketers are ignoring the market or have been trying to tap into this markets significance, but time after time come up short of expectations.
This consumer markets population (within the U.S. alone) is larger than South Africa, Spain, Canada and about 186 other nations worldwide. And its “Buying Power” of over $1.7 trillion is larger than the entire economies of all but 13 countries in the world.
So why does this seem like a “new country” for many U.S. marketers? The answer is Marketing Arrogance.
Here what we mean. Perhaps you have visited an actual foreign country that spoke in a different language and had foreign customs. And perhaps you felt somewhat displaced and awkward when socializing within that culture. Then, magically, you meet someone (a native speaker) who spoke your language too. “What a relief.” Right? Then, perhaps you wished more people from that country spoke your language too. It would make your experience so much better. That’s the arrogance part.
You see, U.S. general marketers (secretly and ultimately) wish that the U.S. Hispanic/Latino consumers acted more like other consumers. So they try…and hope. But the experience and experiment fails too often.
Here are Vistura’s 4 keys to reach this powerful market successfully:
- Choose the right Media Partner/ Agency-
It’ s important to find an advertising agency that lives and breathes the U.S. Hispanic culture. Many of our clients have had their General Market agency put a U.S. Hispanic strategy together knowing it’s not their expertise and, unsurprisingly, their campaign failed. You also want an agency that does more than media placement (anyone can buy based on points). You want an agency that goes beyond and can develop creative, analyze daily results, manage call centers, and make changes of creative or strategy at a moment’s notice. Lastly, you want an agency that has high integrity, treats your money as if it is their own, and can exceed your ROI. - Creative-
Once you have chosen the right agency, creative is critical. It’s important the agency you choose can also develop and produce creative for radio, TV, and other media outlets. Since you are depending on results it’s important the agency you chose take full responsibility for media placement and creative strategy. This would allow the agency to test several creative and call to action and determine which commercials deliver the most results. Remember there is no longer one magic commercial that reaches all viewers or listeners. - Accurate Call & Sales Tracking-
With your agency, develop a method of tracking calls and the items that you would want on a call report. It’s important your agency has their creative team review the calls daily and weekly. This would allow your agency to determine if the current creative is effective, needs to make some tweaks, or should switch direction immediately with different commercial intros and call to action offers. - Call Center / Sales People-
The fourth critical key to a successful campaign is making sure your agency develops a relationship with your call center. It’s critical that the agency develops a reporting system and has a great relationship with the call center. Your agency should have the ability to train the call center on your product and have a team that can review calls to work together with the call center in increasing closing ratio.
These are the 4 keys that will open the door to success in marketing to the 13th most powerful “new country” in the world…aka, the U.S. Hispanics / Latinos.
If you would like more information you can contact us today.
