Marketing | Page 16 of 19

‘Fast & Furious’ taps into hispanic movie audiences

05/20/2009/in Marketing/by Target Latino

Even though I don’t agree on the fact that Hispanic movie audiences are captured by using a sentence in Spanish, I think that the article clearly shows the fact that Hispanics loooove movies (in Latin America and in the U.S.) and if you identify a theme that they like (like action movies) and advertise to them, they will respond. Since the first Fast & Furious to the very last, Hispanic movie audiences have been engaged with it. Let’s review it from the beginning.

Universal keeps targeting Hispanic movie audiences

But each time there’s more Spanglish added. I love this preview in Spanglish, especially because it was made for the Hispanic audience and with an understanding that it is becoming more and more a bilingual audience. I still believe that the content of “Fast Five” and the fact that it was filmed in Rio is what really drives these Hispanic movie audiences. Otherwise, why wouldn’t all the previews receive over 6 million views on their YouTube channel?

‘Fast & Furious’ taps into hispanic movie audiences

¿Como se dice “socko”?
The surprisingly strong opening of Universal’s “Fast and Furious” — $71 million over the April 3-5 weekend — was Hollywood’s latest reminder of the power of Hispanic moviegoers.
Though the U.S. census says Hispanics comprise 15% of the population, the group made up a whopping 46% of the “Fast”aud, according to exit polling data conducted by the studio.
While distribs have tried to woo Hispanic movie audiences with Spanish-language fare, the results have been unimpressive. But they’ve found amazing success not by offering material geared to Hispanic auds, but by catering their marketing of “mainstream” films to them.
“Fast” was just the latest Hollywood film to tailor marketing to that audience. U ran advertisements during a Mexico-U.S. World Cup match last winter; featured Spanish-language TV trailers on Univision and Telemundo; and used Spanish-lingo social-networking Websites.
It also used extensive outdoor campaigns in Latino neighborhoods (in both languages), and even separate press junkets for Spanish-language media. Stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez traveled to Miami and Mexico to do promotion.
Other studios have found similar success with a diverse group of pictures, including Disney’s “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,”20th Century Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” Paramount’s “Transformers,” Lionsgate’s Jackie Chan-Jet Li fantasy actioner “The Forbidden Kingdom” and U’s “The Incredible Hulk.”
Universal has been especially savvy. In 1999, the studio quickly realized that some of the box office success of “The Mummy” was due to a strong Hispanic turnout. Two years later, the first in the franchise, “The Fast and the Furious,” was released. As much as 24% of the audience was Latino. That figure shot up to 38% for the followup “2 Fast 2 Furious.”
Other U titles with the greatest proportion of Hispanic admissions on opening weekend include “The Unborn” (42%),”The Scorpion King” (40%) and “Empire” (51%). Yet never did U overtly peg these films as Hispanic-themed.

“With an African-American movie, you can have a hit just with African-American audiences, but so far, the answer has been no with Hispanics. They have more interest in assimilating,” Universal prexy of marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson says.

Fogelson said Universal made its biggest Hispanic marketing spend to date for the pic. There are an estimated 45 million people with Hispanic backgrounds in the U.S. For more than a decade, the Motion Picture Assn. of America has pegged Hispanics as the fastest-growing segment of the moviegoing audience. The box office saw 310 million admissions from Hispanic moviegoers in 2007, a full third of the number of Caucasians, according to the MPAA.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the median age of Hispanics living in the U.S. is 27 years, compared to the median age of 36 years for the overall population. That should be music to the ears of studios, since younger people are always heavier filmgoers.
Furthermore, Hispanic parents tend to take younger kids to the movies with them, instead of leaving them with babysitters, distribution execs say. That’s why animated family films, actioners, and action-adventure films with a fantasy twist tend to do particularly well with this demo.
For years, many in Hollywood — as well as in the entertainment press — have assumed that Latino moviegoers want to see Spanish-language films or films with specific Hispanic storylines. But the track record hasn’t borne that out. Fox Searchlight’s “Under the Same Moon” was a specialty hit with $12.3 million, but its “Chasing Papi” in 2003 earned half that. Lionsgate’s “La mujer de mi hermano” ($2.8 million) and “Ladron que roba ladron” ($4 million) were only moderate performers.
U has also seen “Fast & Furious” doing well in Latin American territories, bagging the biggest opening of 2009 in Mexico and Central America and accounting for 50% of the weekend box office in Mexico and Brazil, according to the studio.
Overture Films’ Peter Adee, former marketing topper at Universal, says the reason “Fast and Furious” did so well among Hispanic audiences is the appeal of the storyline.

“Universal has found a way to tap into this community authentically,” says Adee. “Their advertising was so confident and showcased the movie, saying to people, ‘you are going to love this movie. Oh, and by the way, we have Vin Diesel and the other cast.”

The topliners include two women with Hispanic roots, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, teamed with Diesel and Paul Walker for the first time since the original film.
U also cast Latino musical stars Don Omar and Tego Calderon. The pic’s action starts off in the Dominican Republic — where Diesel’s character is in exile — before shifting to Mexico and then Los Angeles.
Paramount co-chair Rob Moore says Hispanic auds clearly felt like “Fast and Furious” was for them, without feeling like U was pegging the film specifically for the demo. “On a lot of these movies, there will be an element to the campaign that is bilingual,” Moore says.

“They are a great and reliable moviegoing audience, and they have a lot of power that needs to be taken seriously,” Fogelson says. “Yet I think the industry is still struggling in how to reach them. But there’s no reason to be struggling.”

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Source: Pamela McClintock – Variety Magazine

Wal-Mart’s ‘Wetback’ Problem

05/14/2009/in Marketing/by Target Latino

The Wal-Mart corporation has been carefully nurturing its image as a strong supporter of the Latino community in America, opening stores designed for Latino shoppers, and hosting economic summits for Latino businesses. So it was especially embarrassing for the corporation to find itself in the national headlines late last week as the target of a lawsuit filed on behalf of its own Latino workers.

On May 7, 2009, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), representing Hispanic employees at a Sam’s Club in Fresno, California, filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart, charging that the workers had been subjected to a hostile work environment. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, alleging that Sam’s Club managers allowed their Latino workers to be verbally harassed repeatedly, including the use of derogatory words against workers of Mexican origin, like ‘wetback.’

The EEOC does not file a suit unless it has given up trying to work out a voluntary agreement with a company. The lawsuit was brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes discrimination against workers based on their national origin illegal. In this case, the EEOC is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Wal-Mart, and they want the company to put in place a written complaint procedure to process complaints of worker discrimination.

WalMart, which already has a large collection of worker discrimination lawsuits filed by the EEOC, tried to put its best face on the new charges. “We work hard to make sure (workers) feel respected and valued in the workplace,” a company spokesman said.

The most recent Fresno litigation comes at a particularly awkward time for WalMart, which recently opened up a small Supermercado de Wal-Mart in the Houston, Texas area touted as the company’s first superstore targeted to Latino shoppers. The store serves tacos, and displays signs in Spanish and English. This summer the retailer plans to open up a “Mas Club,” their Latino version of Sam’s Club. A second Supermercado is slated to open in Phoenix.

“I think it’s about being more relevant to the community you serve,” WalMart vice president of business development told the Houston Chronicle. “Especially in Houston, the demand for Hispanic products has been growing for us. I think this is a natural evolution of what we’ve been doing for years.” The Chronicle noted that lower-income shoppers, including Hispanics, are the nation’s fastest-growing income group and will generate $84 billion in incremental spending during the next decade. Wal-Mart said it has learned how to serve Hispanic shoppers from operating more than 2,346 stores in Latin America—roughly half of them in Mexico—where Wal-Mart is now the largest grocery in that country. But apparently some officials in the Sam’s Club Division have not learned yet how to treat their Latino workers with dignity.

Wal-Mart is putting a lot of public relations time into the Latino market. The giant retailer, with the support of Latino Magazine and Impacto, recently assembled nearly 200 prominent Latino businesses and leaders from the Administration of President Barack Obama, like Gene Sperling, Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to discuss “issues of greatest importance” to the Latino business community. Wal-Mart says it sponsored this first ever “Latino Economic Summit” on March 31, 2009 to extend its commitment to support the growth of Hispanic-owned businesses and Wal-Mart’s Hispanic suppliers throughout the United States. The Latino Summit was designed to “reveal opportunities for Latino businesses to thrive in the midst of the ongoing economic turmoil.”

But five weeks later, it is WalMart’s Latino policy that is in turmoil. The federal lawsuit, EEOC v. WalMart Stores Inc., dba Sam’s Club, et al, claims that Hispanic employees at the Sam’s Club were repeatedly called ‘wetbacks.’ EEOC’s Fresno director told the media, “It is appalling that an employer, after becoming aware of the harassment, allowed this type of behavior to continue without taking appropriate and corrective action. The EEOC will continue to expand its presence in the Central Valley to ensure that its employers understand the magnitude of their duty to protect employees from discrimination.”

Apparently WalMart is happy to take Latino dollars in its cash registers, but hasn’t learned how to properly treat the Latino workers who operate those cash registers. This case will no doubt end in a settlement, much like the recent Valley Stream, New York trampling death case, in which WalMart paid its way out of further prosecution. The EEOC exposure will pressure WalMart to get this story out of the headlines as soon as possible, and to compensate its workers for the “low everyday” treatment they confronted on the job.

Latinos throughout the Americas have a right to expect ‘mas’ from the WalMart corporation—or to find some other place to shop.

Source: The Huffington Post

Author: Al Norman is the founder of Sprawl-Busters, and has been helping communities fight big box stores for nearly 16 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-norman/wal-marts-wetback-problem_b_202829.html

Inspirational picture quotes

Image credit: Kushandwizdom

New, Personalized Spanish Story Book for Children

05/08/2009/in Hispanic Culture, Marketing/by Target Latino

I happened upon this product and thought it was incredible. You have to try it for yourself at www.frecklebox.com and then select spanish (soft or hard cover) but keep on reading….

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) December 11, 2008 — Frecklebox, provider of personalized gifts for kids, announced today that it has officially launched its first Spanish product, a story book that includes an individual child’s name in a collection of nature settings. In the near future, Frecklebox plans to continue to expand its line of personalized Spanish story book and gifts.

Frecklebox lets customers experience the magic of image personalization. Everyone has seen books with a child’s name in text, but nothing beats the expression on a child’s face when they see their name spelled in actual images of clouds, flowers, stars, pigeons and more. Through its web site, frecklebox.com, the company makes it quick and easy to customize gifts that prominently feature the child’s name.

“We created Frecklebox as a way for people to give gifts that are as wonderfully unique as the child they are buying the gift for,” said Scott Feldman, president of Frecklebox. “The fact that we have been able to expand our product line into Spanish, is helping us meet a need for many of our customers looking for the perfect present in their native language.”

Frecklebox personalized spanish story book products include:

Story books – The Nature Name Book (available in English and Spanish), The Zoo Book, Hip Hop Howie, Happy Birthday and The Unicorn
Coloring books – Five different options make these popular as fun and affordable party favors
Posters, placemats and puzzles – Reasonably priced gifts for any occasion
Growth charts – A practical product that adds fashionable décor to any style room

About Frecklebox:
Frecklebox, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, was created with the mission to educate and entertain kids through a wide selection of personalized books, posters, journals and other products. Frecklebox is an online-only source for truly unique, personalized gifts for children at affordable prices.

For more information about Frecklebox and their products, please visit frecklebox.com.

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If I don’t sleep, nobody sleeps.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/RW1wdC1QaWdnLVRoaXItTWFnbi1aZXRhLVNpbmctWmVybw==

Latinas Focus on Education, Careers

05/06/2009/in Marketing/by Target Latino

Latinas Focus on Education, Careers

April 22, 2009
-By Steve McClellan, Adweek

Latina

A new study from Telemundo and Meredith Hispanic Ventures on Hispanic women reports that Latinas have “redefined their priorities,” with higher education and careers now trumping getting married as top goals.

The study, titled “What Latinas Want,” combined quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research was conducted in conjunction with OTX Research, with a national sample of 1,004 Latinas, ages 18-64. A sub-sample of 500 non-Latinas, ages 18-64, was also collected for comparison purposes. The study was accomplished through a combination of online and intercept-to-Web self-administered surveys. The study was conducted between Sept. 23 and Nov. 12, 2008.

The qualitative research consisted of 13 in-home video ethnographies with Latinas ages 25-35 in both emerging and established markets. The interviews were conducted during summer 2008.

Eighty percent of those surveyed said that higher education was a top personal goal and 72 percent said career development was a priority. That compares to 50 percent who indicated that getting married mattered more.

While Latinas and non-Latinas both find personal development and family rewarding, Latinas place greater importance on their relationships with their parents (65 percent Latinas vs. 55 percent non-Latinas) and taking care of their aging relatives (42 percent Latinas vs. 27 percent non-Latinas).

Just over 80 percent of respondents said that they are either primary decision makers of the family’s finances or they make decisions in concert with their spouse. Their top three financial concerns, per the study: rising taxes; the future development of social security; and saving for retirement.

Like their non-Latina counterparts, the study showed Latinas to be significantly health conscious, nearly three-quarters saying they regularly seek information on health and wellness while 44 percent said they take vitamins.

“Latinas are the future of the Hispanic population,” said Jacqueline Hernández, COO, Telemundo. “Our research shows that they are the key decision makers of their households and self-described ‘superwomen.’ Latinas believe they can do it all. For a network which aims to inform and empower audiences, it is vital that we understand the top priorities and concerns of Latinas and how these lifestyle choices influence their consumption habits.”

“Our constant quest to understand the evolution of Hispanic women allows us to trend spot, and we continue to be inspired by what we learn,” added Ruth Gaviria, vice president of Meredith Hispanic Ventures.

Source: Adweek.com

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Hispanic Shopper Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

05/06/2009/in Marketing/by Target Latino

What’s the best way to reach the Hispanic consumer? Consider throwing out that TV budget and focusing on in-store media instead. And don’t go out of your way to make your brand look “Hispanic.” Such are the insights of Carlos Boughton, brand director of Tecate and Tecate Light, Heineken USA and Manuel Wernicky, president, chief ideas officer and managing partner at Adrenalina. The two collaborated on a shopping list below for marketers aiming to tap the country’s largest and fastest-growing minority group.

Hispanic Marketing Do’s

HISPANIC SHOPPER MARKETING DO’S

1. Consider the context. Hispanics have been particularly hard-hit by today’s economic crisis so a message designed for the ‘good times’ will feel insincere.

2. Focus on the idea. Let your inspiration lead the media. Design around one great concept that extends equally and powerfully to several mediums instead of trying to match each medium with a laundry list of incomplete thoughts.

3. Shift ad spend from TV to in-store merchandising. The store shelf, where 70 percent of purchasing decisions are made, is the last frontier for swaying purchase behavior. An LCD screen on a shopping cart may be a more direct way to woo Hispanics than the ads on the big screens in their living rooms.

4. Engage the consumer to ‘feel’ the brand. Latinos gravitate to brands they sense feel right. For instance, Tecate leverages boxing as an effective way
to reach Hispanics and as a powerful metaphor for boldness, masculinity and character. Consumers, in turn, make the connection: bold brand = bold product = bold consumer.

Hispanic Marketing Don’t

HISPANIC SHOPPER MARKETING DON’T

1. Rely on a Power Point to know your customer. Data provides invaluable context, trends, and insights. But to get inside the head of “Juan Q. Consumer” spend time outside the office, meeting and talking with brand users. Data is not an effective way to read emotions. Tecate’s platform of
‘character’ came from consumer interaction not from data.

2. Underestimate consumers. With the growth of user-generated content, consumers are more involved than ever in shaping a brand — almost like co-brand managers. In this sense, the right consumer-designed message can boost a brand just as the wrong one can wreak havoc. One consumer designed image that was a take on the Tecate campaign became a minor hit on Facebook.

3. Get mired in cultural relevancy. Streaming papel picado in the store isn’t a shopper marketing strategy. Don’t try making your brand look ‘Hispanic,’ instead focus on delivering a relevant message. At Tecate, we’ve abandoned all obvious references to origin because it doesn’t serve the message we’re trying to convey.

4. Be a brand for all people. Tecate isn’t an Hispanic brand marketing to multicultural groups, our target is Mexican men and we speak from their perspective. Even people who don’t understand the campaign value its genuineness. Often, a pan-Hispanic message will lack bite and authenticity. More people may ‘get it,’ but fewer will care.

Source: Brandweek http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/hispanic-marketing/e3id5be315f15f95c42891daac23b957f09

Note: These are great guidelines for what to do and what not to do with Hispanic consumers. Target Latino has brought great results to its clients, such as revenue increases of over 21% per month by applying these and some additional strategies. Read about it at https://www.targetlatino.com/