Abogados

Acosta, who came to the United States when she was 9, talked with The News Tribune about the ins and outs of working with Hispanic consumers and some key advice she gives her customers.

Who are some of your clients?

We’ve worked with energy companies, financial banking firms, city and government agencies, nonprofits and retail. Each project we take on is unique.

The reason they hire us really varies. But the common ground with all clients is that they are all starting with trying to target the Hispanic market or a special community.

For example, the Bellevue School District is one of our clients, and they want to know how to effectively communicate with Hispanic parents.

Where did the idea for this business come from? Your experience?

Yes, I’m Hispanic, and growing up as an immigrant – I guess I was a first generation-and-a-half immigrant. I grew up in a first-generation immigrant family. We were heavily underserved. (My parents) didn’t know where to bank, they didn’t know how to communicate with schools or government agencies, or how to take a bus or purchase a car.

What do you see as your main goal?

I see myself as helping companies build a bridge. Right now, a lot of families are depending on children to do this.

They learn about banking or how to open an account.

What mistakes do you see companies making?

The first one I see is they will translate materials into Spanish or hire a Spanish-speaking person for marketing and think they will be effective. From a marketing perspective, you can’t do that.

The second mistake I see is going into a market without understanding the cultural needs.

The big key to the Hispanic consumer is loyalty. If you don’t do a good strategic marketing campaign, you’ll lose that chance.

What’s an example?

Say a Hispanic family wants to purchase a home. Usually, for a non-Hispanic family, they understand the lending system, escrow and getting the house.

A first-generation Hispanic family doesn’t work like that. They don’t understand lending and real estate here.

Typically, you have a Realtor looking for a home for a husband, wife and two kids. But for a Hispanic family, you might be looking for a home that will house the husband, wife, children, grandma, aunts and brothers to make this culturally appealing.

In Latin America, the approach is different. If you have cash there, you buy a home. Lending is very limited.

Other examples of misguided marketing?

The most famous one is the Nova car. They did a lot of research and marketing, but in Spanish, Nova meant “don’t move.” It became a joke.

Another famous example is a beer company trying to market a product called “Cold Latina,” which was very offensive to the community.

The campaign was stopped immediately after the Hispanic community complained.

Many groceries are carrying more products tailored to Hispanic households. Has your company looked into this?

We actually have been researching the competition provided by larger non-Hispanic food stores versus the traditional Hispanic mom and pop stores.

The larger grocery stores have more products and are adding more and more, but they are heavily behind in terms of what’s offered at the more traditional grocery stores.

The larger grocery stores still have a long way to go, and their marketing is very limited.

Do you see growth in the mom and pop stores?

There has been tremendous growth in these smaller Hispanic stores. Of the 5,000 Hispanic-owned businesses in the state, about 2,500 were these small-sized mom and pop stores.

We’ve just done research on 25 of them. Many of them are family-owned, first-generation, and they’ve been operated with very little financing. They’ve become very savvy business operators in distribution and focusing on Hispanic products. It used to be there was the store with maybe three or four aisles. Now they have a bakery and produce section.

When we interviewed the customers, we found that all of the first-generation customers shopped at the Hispanic stores.

When did you first start to notice an interest in marketing to Hispanics?

I’ve been researching this for seven years. But I think Northwest companies started realizing the potential in the last three years.

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE

A discussion on developing partnerships and marketing strategies to reach Hispanic consumers will be held later this month.

When: 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Feb. 25

Where: Pacific Lutheran University

Speakers: Rubicela Acosta, president of Hispanic America Group; Bruce Mann, professor of economics at the University of Puget Sound; Nila Wiese, assistant professor of marketing and international business at UPS

Sponsor: Centro Latino and PLU

Contact: Sue Schaeffer at Centro Latino, 253-572-7717, or e-mail her at sschaeffer@ centrolatino-ser.org.

Register: www.centrolatino-ser.org