key principle #1 is developing a deep understanding of the lifestyles and primary motivators of the Hispanic consumer prospect segments

Case in point: In recent interviews with Carlos Boughton, brand director, Tecate Equity for Heineken USA, and Chris McGrath, senior director, Latina cohorts for Kraft Foods North America, each expressed very similar thoughts regarding key principles for success — although their target audiences are quite different.

Not surprisingly, key principle #1 is developing a deep understanding of the lifestyles and primary motivators of the Hispanic consumer prospect segments or universes for specific product categories /brands. Both Tecate and Kraft of course engage in extensive, in-house consumer research, as well as sharing knowledge with other major marketer companies that participate in the Latinum Hispanic marketing business network.

However, both Boughton and McGrath stress that research is a means to that end of truly understanding the consumer groups in order to establish a clear, relevant, overarching identity that guides all marketing messages.

As a major brand that is not only marketed exclusively to Hispanics, but specifically to male Hispanic immigrants of Mexican origin, Tecate is somewhat unusual. However, Boughton stresses that brands casting a wider net must also gain segment-specific understanding to uncover core, shared values and priorities that enable relevant, overarching ideas and themes.

In Tecate’s case, the overarching target audience values center on masculinity and character (“carácter” in Spanish) — pride in working hard, being stoic and doing what’s necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of providing for the family’s needs and supporting the community. “Our message is ‘men behaving like men,’ and celebrating the character it takes to do the very difficult things they do day in and day out,” sums up Boughton. “Everything we do is aligned with that.”

Like its recent, award-winning “Disclaimer” radio ad (which used a long ‘disclaimer’ to define which types of men should not drink Tecate, including those who have dogs named Puchi, Tinkerbell or Princess), Tecate’s brand-new ”Anthem 3″ campaign zeroes in on these themes — as do all of the brand’s marketing efforts, including its extensive sponsorships of boxing events and televised matches, points out Boughton.

Kraft’s focus is on understanding its audience of Latina moms, the primary family food-purchasing and menu decision-makers. “Because we understand her needs in depth, and can offer relevant messages and solutions, we have forged strong connections” with these moms, says McGrath, both through cross-brand channels such as Kraft’s Comida y Familia (food and family) magazine/Web site and marketing for specific brands.

Like all moms, Latina moms are focused on food quality and value, and those messages are obviously key in outreach for Kraft brands for which this market is a key to growth, such as Kraft Singles and Kool-Aid.

Intensive consumer research recently led, for example, to an integrated Kraft Singles campaign for the Hispanic market geared not to usage videos/recipes, but to stressing that the brand is made with milk — not oil and water — in line with Latina moms’ emphasis on serving whole foods and made-from-scratch meals to their families. The campaign has been very successful because it strikes a cultural chord, reports McGrath — adding that in this case, the message, which was some years back a core one for general-market efforts, might also prove valuable for “infusing back” into the general market.

Latina moms also have a strong desire to “keep their cultural roots alive for their children,” and take pride in adding culturally specific “touches and twists” to meals — “even something as all-American as mac and cheese,” notes McGrath. Comida y Familia’s recipes and suggestions reflect this, as do brand-specific efforts.

For some brands– like Kool-Aid, focused on the universal fun-appeal/value of the product for families with young children — the approach is in a sense “one marketplace, two languages,” but that’s possible because of attention to “integrity” and nuance in conveying the mutually relevant theme within tailored messaging to the Latina market, stresses McGrath. “We do try to fuse brand identity as much as possible in English and Spanish versions, but we never lose sight of meaning and relevance to the audience,” she says.

Indeed, like Boughton (all of Tecate’s Hispanic marketing efforts are also Spanish-language, with the exception of a few components for Tecate Light), McGrath points to straight translations of general-market messaging as one of the most ineffective approaches when it comes to Hispanic marketing.

Often, Hispanic marketing is viewed as just a “line item” within a brand or company budget, and the misguided approach of “taking the English version and running it through the Google translator” results, says Boughton. But even when investment in Hispanic marketing is limited, marketers can do far better than this by immersing themselves in the cultures and daily lives of a brand’s users/prospects, listening and finding those overarching values and themes, he emphasizes.

Asked where else companies miss the mark when it comes to Hispanic marketing, McGrath cites the primary mistake as “waiting for consumers to assimilate,” rather than actively finding ways to connect meaningfully with them now.

Source: MediaPost News

Winner of the Publisher’s Multicultural Award Category: Best Multicultural Awareness Article

What is life like in America for Hispanic Americans?  What are their thoughts and concerns about family, employment, education, religion, opportunities, and healthcare?  We asked Claudia Goffan, founder of Target Latino, an Atlanta based marketing and consulting firm specializing in the Hispanic market, to provide “The College World Reporter” readers with her own views from inside Hispanic America. Here is our interview:

Claudia "Havi" Goffan - Hispanic Marketing Expert and CEO of Target Latino

Q. Could you give us an inside look at Hispanic or Latino life?

A. To fully understand the Hispanic market, you need to analyze it by country of origin, level of acculturation, age, sex, marital status and educational level. Although some generalizations can be made, they have to be understood as such and not as an answer to comprehending the culture.

Let’s talk about some of the generalizations about the Hispanic culture. The very first one that comes to mind is about family being the first priority, the children are celebrated and sheltered and the wife usually fulfills a domestic role. Hispanics have a long Roman Catholic tradition and this usually implies quite a fatalistic outlook where destiny is in the hands of God. Latin American educational system is based on emphasis on the theoretical, memorization and a rigid and very broad curriculum. It follows the French schooling system and it translates into people who are generalists and look at the big picture as opposed to specialists, like in the U.S. Hispanics are highly nationalistic, very proud of long history and traditions.

Hispanics have difficulty separating work and personal relationships and are sensitive to differences of opinion. Hispanics fear loss of face, especially publicly and shun confrontation, where truth is tempered by the need for diplomacy. Title and position are more important than money in the eyes of Hispanic society. Etiquette and manners are seen as a measure of breeding and it follows an “old world” formality. Dress and grooming are status symbols whereas in the U.S. appearance is secondary to performance. The aesthetic side of life is important even at work.

Q. Tell us about the purchasing power of the U.S. Hispanics?

A. According to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth in 2004 the nation’s largest minority group controlled $686 billion in spending. The community’s purchasing power comprises the world’s ninth biggest economy and it’s larger than the GNP of Brazil, Spain or Mexico. Hispanic purchasing power is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by next year (2010) being the main drivers of the surge in Hispanic consumer influence the increasing education levels, labor force composition, household characteristics and accumulation of wealth. The fastest-growing occupational categories for Hispanics are higher paying managerial and professional jobs.

Q. What about Hispanics’ Healthcare Access?

A. I will quote a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center that indicates that six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance. According to this same study, the share of uninsured among this group (60%) is much higher than the share of uninsured among Latino adults who are legal permanent residents or citizens (28%), or among the adult population of the United States (17%). Hispanic adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents tend to be younger and healthier than the adult U.S. population and are less likely than other groups to have a regular health care provider. Just 57% say there is a place they usually go when they are sick or need advice about their health, compared with 76% of Latino adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 83% of the adult U.S. population.

Overall, four-in-ten (41%) non-citizen, non-legal permanent resident Hispanics state that their usual provider is a community clinic or health center. These centers are designed primarily as “safety nets” for vulnerable populations and are funded by a variety of sources, including the federal government, state governments and private foundations, as well as reimbursements from patients, based upon a sliding scale (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).

The study also reports that some 37% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents have no usual health care provider. More than one-fourth (28%) of the people in this group indicate that financial limitations prevent them from having a usual provider – 17% report that their lack of insurance is the primary reason, while 12% cite high medical costs in general. However, a majority (56%) say they do not have a usual provider because they simply do not need one. An additional 5% state that difficulty in navigating the U.S. health care system prevents them from having a usual provider. According to Pew Hispanic Center estimates, 11.9 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2008. Three-quarters (76%) of these undocumented immigrants were Latinos.

Regarding health status, the study reports that the Latino population in the U.S. is relatively young, and Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are younger still. Some 43% of adult Latinos who are not citizens or legal permanent residents are younger than age 30, compared with 27% of Hispanic adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 22% of the adult U.S. population.  The youthfulness of this population contributes to its relative healthiness.

About the Hispanic experiences in the Health Care System, the Pew reports that three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that the quality of medical care they received in the past year was excellent or good. This is similar to the proportion of adult Latino citizens and legal permanent residents (78%) who express satisfaction with their recent health care. However, when asked a separate question – whether they had received any poor medical treatment in the past five years – adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are less likely (16%) to report any problems than are Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents (24%).

Among those Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents who report receiving poor medical treatment in the past five years, a plurality (46%) state that they believed their accent or the way they spoke English contributed to that poor care. A similar share (43%) believed that their inability to pay for care contributed to their poor treatment. More than one-third (37%) felt that their race or ethnicity played a part in their poor care, and one-fourth (25%) attributed the unsatisfactory treatment to something in their medical history.

Q. What is the difference in viewpoint between young Hispanics or Latinos born and raised in the United States, and their older parents or grandparents who migrated to the U.S. from other countries?

A. The one difference that applies to all Latinos existent between non and semi-acculturated Hispanics and fully-acculturated or U.S. born Hispanics (young or old) is that whereas the non and semi-acculturated Latinos are trying to learn how to navigate the American culture, the U.S. born Hispanics or fully-acculturated know how to navigate the American culture and “learn” to navigate the Hispanic one from their family.

Q. Who are people on the rise in the Hispanic or Latino community that may become corporate leaders, or the next Sonia Sotomayor?

A. There are many Hispanics on the rise in every walk of life in the United States. Some people may not even notice of their Hispanic background because it usually comes to light when there are political issues at stake. For example, a currently retired doctor that was the Director of Cardiology of the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was originally from Argentina. The creative that many years ago came up with the successful campaign for a drug that put the country to sleep is a Nuyorican (Puerto Rican born in New York).

Regarding known Latinos on the rise, you may want to keep an eye on Christine Arguello, Judge, U.S. District Court, Colorado; Emiliano Calemzuk, President, Fox Television Studios; Ignacia Moreno, Counsel, Corporate Environmental Programs, General Electric Company; Esther Salas, U.S. Magistrate Judge, District of New Jersey; Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF); Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; Rosa Gumatatotao Rios, United States Treasurer; Elena Rios, President & CEO, National Hispanic Medical Foundation; Enrique Conterno; President, Eli Lilly, USA and Edward Chavez, Justice, the State of New Mexico Supreme Court, among many others.

Q. What should everyone know about Hispanics or Latinos?

A. The first thing that comes to mind is the very little known fact that 6 out of 10 Latinos are U.S. born.  The second one is that the younger the generation, the higher the percentage of Hispanics in it. It is imperative to understand the new U.S. demographics when developing business strategies, city planning, new products, etc.

About Claudia Goffan: Recognized as an expert in Latino Marketing by CNN en Español, Claudia has been featured in Adweek, Hispanic Business, Univision, Telemundo and other national and international media.

A motivator, strategic and hands-on, innovative, creative and resourceful. It has been said that her humor and presence immediately captivate audiences. She has an MBA from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and more than 20 years specializing in Marketing and Strategic Planning both internationally and domestically. She is bilingual and bicultural in English and Spanish and fluent in Portuguese, French, and Italian.

About Target Latino: Target Latino was founded in 2003, with a vision unparalleled at the time – to show American companies the importance of the U.S. Hispanic market – not by preaching but by acting. Target Latino is a marketing consulting firm specializing in the Hispanic market.  Target Latino increases the effectiveness of its clients marketing and advertising dollars by creating innovative approaches to acquire and retain Hispanic customers.  Target Latino has a long standing experience of driving results in tough economic times.  Target Latino is minority owned, and a percentage of its proceeds go to different charity causes.

For Latinos, the increase in internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of internet use.  In particular, foreign-born Latinos, Latinos with less than a high school education, and Latinos with household incomes of less than $30,000 experienced particularly large increases in internet use.

Whereas Latinos gained markedly in overall internet use, the pattern of home internet access changed very little.  In 2006, 79% of Latinos who were online had internet access at home, while in 2008, this number was 81%.  White and black internet users show a similar leveling off.  In 2006, 92% of white internet users had a home connection, compared with 94% in 2008. In 2006, 84% of African American internet users had a home connection, compared with 87% in 2008.

While there was little increase in the likelihood of having a home connection among internet users from 2006 to 2008, rates of broadband connection increased dramatically for Hispanics, as well as for whites and blacks.  In 2006, 63% of Hispanics with home internet access had a broadband connection; in 2008 this number was 76%.  For whites, there was a 17 percentage point increase in broadband connection from 65% to 82%, and for blacks, the increase was from 63% in 2006 to 78% in 2008.

These results are derived from a compilation of eight landline telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project from February to October 2006, and from August to December 2008.  In total, the Pew Hispanic Center surveys included 7,554 adults, and the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys interviewed 13,687 adults.

Source: Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center
Kim Parker, Senior Researcher, Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project
Susannah Fox, Associate Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Fannie Mae Launches New HomePath.com in Spanish Aimed at Helping More Hispanics Buy Homes

Fannie Mae announced the company launched a Spanish version of its HomePath.com website designed to help more potential homeowners who speak Spanish purchase Fannie Mae-owned properties.

The new website in Spanish mirrors the English version of HomePath.com featuring an interactive search tool of Fannie Mae-owned properties nationwide, details about HomePath® financing, a mortgage payment calculator, property alerts, as well as information on foreclosure prevention and the Making Home Affordable((SM)) program.

Through HomePath.com, potential homeowners can access a database that includes a wide selection of homes from around the country – including the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico – which can be purchased directly from Fannie Mae. Properties include detailed information and photographs of single-family homes, condominiums, and town houses located in a variety of neighborhoods.

“HomePath.com is a great resource that can help people find a lifelong home for themselves and their families,” said Fannie Mae Executive Vice President, Terry W. Edwards. “The website has a wealth of information to inform and guide potential homeowners through the process of buying a Fannie Mae-owned property.”

The new release of HomePath.com in Spanish is part of a continuous effort aimed at improving access to information and resources which play a vital role in aiding both English and Spanish-speaking populations in the U.S. purchase homes, while helping minimize the impact on communities hit by foreclosures.

For more information about HomePath, please visit www.HomePath.com and click “En Espanol”, or for direct access to the website in Spanish, visit www.es.HomePath.com.

Fannie Mae exists to expand affordable housing and bring global capital to local communities in order to serve the U.S. housing market. Fannie Mae has a federal charter and operates in America’s secondary mortgage market to enhance the liquidity of the mortgage market by providing funds to mortgage bankers and other lenders so that they may lend to home buyers. Our job is to help those who house America.

Making Home Affordable is a trademark of the United States Department of the Treasury and is used under license.

SOURCE Fannie Mae

“California Cryobank has been servicing Latino communities all over the world for many years,” stated Cappy Rothman, MD, Co-founder. “Our goal is to make the process of selecting and using a sperm donor as easy as possible for our Spanish speaking clients.”

CCB offers Spanish speaking representatives available to assist clients over the phone at 866-927-9622 Mon-Fri from 6am-6pm (Pacific Time).

CCB is well known for their recently released celebrity Donor Look-a-Like website feature. “We have a wide selection of Latino donors who resemble celebrities such as Oscar De La Hoya, Javier Bardem, and Gael Garcia Bernal,” said Rothman.

California Cryobank also provides fertility preservation services to men who are faced with cancer treatments, vasectomies, or those in the military or other high-risk occupations.

Contact: Scott Brown of California Cryobank, +1-310-496-5681

Source: California Cryobank

Ingenio’s bilingual product line ranges from electronic learning toys and puzzles to educational games. All products emphasize English and Spanish equally to enable the child to learn a second language easily. The light-weight, travel-friendly products offer children dynamic, “unplugged” playtime, free from the chain-and-drain of a computer or television.

Unlocking a world of opportunities, Ingenio helps preschool and grade school children (ages 3-8 years) learn both languages in the context of fun. Smart Play’s products are bilingual by design(TM) to facilitate learning at an early age, which research indicates is the prime time for language acquisition.

The proven benefits of bilingualism include greater cognitive flexibility, improved powers of concept formation and enhanced creativity. Spanish is the second-most prominent language in the country, and nearly 25 percent of all U.S. children between the ages of 3 and 6 are of Hispanic origin (a number that is quickly on the rise). This makes Ingenio an ingenious tool to form future leaders.

“Finally, a foreign-language educational toy company!” said Liza Sanchez, founder of Escuela Bilingüe Internacional, in response to Ingenio. “As a parent, I am thrilled to finally be able to provide toys that represent our home language. As a teacher, I have been looking for years for products that can help my young students advance their Spanish education both in and outside of the classroom. The cognitive and social benefits of becoming bilingual have made many parents realize the importance of learning a second language.”

In addition to recognition from educational leaders, Ingenio has already garnered accolades from the toy industry. Ingenio recently received the 2009 Dr. Toy’s Best Vacation Product and Creative Child Magazine 2009 Top Toy of the Year.

Not only is Ingenio innovative and educational but also budget-friendly. Eight of the 10 products are less than $ 15 and all products are available at Amazon.com and will soon be available at Toys “R” Us.com.

About Smart Play

Smart Play provides safe, affordable, innovative and educational products to enrich your child’s mind. Play is the perfect way to reinforce and extend the skills children learn at home and at school. Many of our products are designed to grow with your child by offering age-appropriate activities with progressive levels of difficulty.

For more information about Ingenio products, please visit our bilingual site: www.smartplay.us.

Source: Smart Play, LLC

Hispanic consumers now have even more options when it comes to their everyday banking. Citibank has just launched Citi Mobile en Espanol to enable customers who prefer to bank in Spanish to do so from their smartphones. The Spanish-language service lets customers manage their accounts, pay bills, locate Citibank branches and more – all from the convenience of their cell phones. Citibank is the first major U.S. bank to offer mobile banking in Spanish.

“Citi Mobile en Espanol offers our Spanish speaking customers the ability to bank anywhere, anytime on their smartphones,” said Liza Landsman, Executive Vice President, North America Internet & Mobile, Citi. “With Hispanic customers making up almost one-quarter of our customer base, the service makes banking even easier for this important and growing audience.”

Hispanics are among the most active mobile Web users in the United States. According to a recent independent report on Wireless Internet Use from Pew Research, nearly one-half of English-speaking Hispanic consumers reported accessing the Internet via a handheld device in 2009.(i) Of these consumers, about 29 percent reported going online “on a typical day” through a mobile device.(ii)

Citi Mobile en Espanol mirrors the functionality of the English-language Citi Mobile for Smartphones. It is accessed via the same convenient URL as the English version, www.citi.com, from any mobile device. Using Citi Mobile en Espanol, users of web-enabled mobile devices including BlackBerry® smartphones, Palm® devices and iPhone(TM) devices can easily do all of the following in Spanish:

• View Citi account balances and account activity
• Pay bills and set up recurring payments
• Make transfers between Citi accounts
• Locate Citi branches and ATMs
• Connect to Customer Service

Citi Mobile en Espanol provides easy navigation on virtually any recent device that has a mobile browser and an internet connection. And signing in is easy — customers enter the same personal User ID and password they would use on their home computer.

Citibank was also the first major U.S. bank to offer Spanish-language online banking, in 2004. Today, with the introduction of Citi Mobile for Smartphones en Espanol, Citibank’s fastest-growing customer segment gains even greater access to quick, easy and highly secure banking.

(i) Horrigan, John, Wireless Internet Use, Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2009,http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/Wireless-Internet-Use.pdf., accessed Sept. 30, 2009. Page 14.

(ii) Horrigan, John, “Going online with a handheld by race,” Wireless Internet Use, Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2009, http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/Wireless-Internet-Use.pdf., accessed Sept. 30, 2009. Page 18.

About Citi Mobile and Citibank

Citi Mobile for Smartphones is a mobile banking application built by Citibank with support from Mobile Money Ventures, a joint venture of Citi and SK Telecom that provides mobile financial services applications globally. Citibank was the first major U.S. bank to launch a downloadable mobile banking application in 2007.

Citibank is a member of Citi, the leading global financial services company, which has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through its two operating units, Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.

Citi, Citibank and Citi Mobile are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc.

Palm is among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by Palm, Inc. The Trademark BlackBerry is owned by Research In Motion Limited and is registered in the United States and may be pending or registered in other countries. Citibank is not endorsed, sponsored, affiliated with or otherwise authorized by Research in Motion Limited. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc.

SOURCE Citibank

Procter & Gamble (P&G) (NYSE: PG) and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) are pleased to announce that P&G is awarding $1.5 million under the company’s Live, Learn and Thrive(TM) global cause to support HSF, the leading Hispanic organization devoted to awarding university scholarships. The grant will be provided over the next four years to support scholarships to increase participation from Hispanics in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas, as well as sponsoring educational outreach programs.

This contribution will help award 192, $2,500 scholarships to eligible Hispanic students nationwide in the next four years. Thanks to the support of companies like Procter & Gamble, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund has given over 90,000 scholarships to students in need worth over $250 million in the past 34 years. Two-thirds of these students were the first in their families to go to college.

“Through the Live, Learn and Thrive Scholarship program, P&G is enabling a cadre of academically talented, low income, first in family to attend college students complete an important new step in realizing the American dream. And, by focusing on STEM majors, P&G is strategically investing in future career paths destined to assure continued success and leadership of our country in this ever competitive global economy. We salute P&G and the scholars!” said Frank D. Alvarez, HSF President and CEO.

While Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, they unfortunately are not keeping up when it comes to educational attainment: according to HSF, Latinos have the lowest high school and college completion rates of any racial or ethnic group, registering a 23.8 percent high school dropout rate, the highest of any major racial or ethnic group (ages 16 to 24), compared to 7 percent for non-Hispanic whites. Moreover, as per data from the Census report Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008, out of the total population, only 13 percent of Hispanics 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree, as per data from the report.

In addition, data from the study, “Confronting the ‘New’ American Dilemma, Underrepresented Minorities in Engineering: A Data-Based Look at Diversity,” from the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) reveals that the number of minority students pursuing STEM degrees and careers has flattened out or even declined in recent years: out of the 6,404 doctoral degrees in engineering awarded in 2006, only 98 went to Latinos and Latinas.

Following its commitment to advance the Hispanic community, P&G has been a long-standing corporate partner of HSF for over 30 years and has donated more than $3,000,000 to help educate future Hispanic leaders. Under its global Live, Learn and Thrive(TM) cause, P&G aims to contribute to the success of Hispanic students and even make higher education a more realistic goal by helping build a pool of exceptional talent and empowering possible future employees, who will continue to enhance the company’s dedication to cater to the needs of its consumers.

“At P&G, we believe in having a workforce and business partners that reflect the markets and consumers that we serve, and to fully value and learn from all of their experiences, insights and talents so we can meaningfully improve the lives of our communities. As part of our efforts to improve life for children and youth, we’re proud to make this Live, Learn and Thrive(TM) grant in recognition of the programs HSF delivers on behalf of Hispanic students,” said Edgar Sandoval, P&G’s General Manager, North America Marketing.

Sandoval, a former recipient of an HSF scholarship while he was pursuing his engineering degree, was inducted into the prestigious Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) Alumni Hall of Fame as the “Inspirador” (the motivator), in recognition of his personal achievements and the hard work and sacrifice made in pursuit of a college education. His scholastic success testifies to the great positive impact that an HSF scholarship can have in a student’s life.

This year’s Alumni Hall of Fame Gala took place in New York on Sept. 30th, and was hosted by Natalie Morales, NBC’s “Today” Co-Host and National Correspondent. Created in 2002, the HSF Alumni Hall of Fame honors Hispanics who demonstrate the power of higher education and highlights how attaining a college degree can change individual lives and society as a whole for the better. As an inductee, Sandoval will join a select group of Latino professionals who have been recognized, including former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza and Time Warner Vice President Lisa Quiroz.

HSF’s scholarship application period is now open and will run until Feb. 28th, 2010. General application requirements include having a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA and be pursuing or planning to pursue their first undergraduate or graduate program. For more information on how to apply for these scholarships, please visit www.hsf.net

About the Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Founded in 1975 as a not-for-profit, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) is the nation’s preeminent Latino scholarship organization, providing the Latino community more college scholarships and educational outreach support than any other organization in the country. During the 2007-2008 academic year, HSF awarded almost 4,100 scholarships exceeding $26.7 million. In its 33-year history, HSF has awarded in excess of 86,000 scholarships, worth more than $247 million, to Latinos attending nearly 2,000 colleges and universities in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For a scholarship application or more information about HSF, please visit: WWW.HSF.NET.

About Procter & Gamble and Live, Learn and Thrive.

Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun® and Fusion®. The P&G community includes approximately 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. In these countries and beyond, P&G is committed to improving lives for children in need through its global cause, Live, Learn and Thrive. Every day P&G Live, Learn and Thrive(TM) is helping children get off to a healthy start, receive access to education, and build skills for life. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G, its brands, and Live, Learn and Thrive.

SOURCE Procter & Gamble

Pizza Patron, Pepsi Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

The promotion began September 1 and was specifically designed to celebrate and honor the Latin culture and lifestyle during Hispanic Heritage Month. It is a bilingual promotion, but Spanish-language dominant. Advertisements for the promotion read, “!Viva Latino! Pizza Patron y Pepsi Festejan el Mes Patrio,” which means, “Pizza Patron and Pepsi celebrate this historic, patriotic month for all Latinos of diverse roots.”

With any 2-liter purchase of Pepsi products through September 30, customers will receive a free phone egrip Non-Slip Strip. The egrip is a protective, silicone material that can be applied to the back of a cell phone to make it easier to handle and prevent it from sliding on any surface.

The free egrip features the Pizza Patron and Pepsi logos, as well as Pizza Patron’s slogan, “Latin Life, Enjoy,” which reinforces the company’s focus while broadening its current customer base by inviting every demographic to enjoy and experience the diversity found within the Latin lifestyle.

“Celebrating the rich history and traditions found within the Latin life and culture is what makes our brand strong,” says Andrew Gamm, brand director for Pizza Patron. “National Hispanic Heritage Month is a chance for us to honor the Latin culture which goes to the core of our company’s values.”

Source: QSR Magazine

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