The 32nd Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey

Attitudes toward immigration and diversity have improved significantly over these years.  e proportion of area residents who would like to see the United States admit more or the same number of immigrants in the next ten years as were admitted in the last ten years grew from 37% in 1995 to 68% in 2013.  e percent in favor of “granting illegal immigrants a path to legal citizenship if they speak English and have no criminal record” increased from 64% in 2009 to 83% in 2013. In 2013, 61% asserted that the increasing immigration into this country today “mostly strengthens” (rather than “mostly threatens”) American culture, up from 51% in 2009.

Read more of the 2013 survey by clicking here

Immigration Reform Could Equal Millions of New Consumers

The demographic shift from Hispanic growth was obvious in the last presidential election. This tectonic shift has policy makers now debating and negotiating an immigration reform. Granting legal status to immigrants in the country can open a new market with rippling effects into many industries. It could potentially create millions of new consumers that are young and hopeful like the past parents of baby boomers.

Politics aside, I asked three community experts what a change of status could mean to the “undocumented consumer” and the implications this will have for businesses. For years, companies have catered to this segment of the market indirectly but an immigration reform could mean a more focused marketing approach, especially for those in industries such as travel, legal services, financial planning, banking, insurance, auto and homes. Why? Think of the undocumented consumer as someone that is hopeful but lives in uncertainty. Without a legal status, long-term planning doesn’t come to mind to the undocumented consumer because he does not know what his day will be like tomorrow. There are many “ifs.”

Ana Mac Naught, an Immigration Program manager at Neighborhood Centers Inc., sees it this way, “The institutionalized stigma of an undocumented status prevents people from accomplishing certain objectives as simple as opening bank account, purchasing a car or in some extreme cases like in Alabama, taking your child to school or being able to rent an apartment.” Ana adds, “Without that fear present, people will have the chance to invest in their futures.”

A stable life under a legal status will provide a promising environment to the undocumented consumer but assimilating into the “legal world” can be full of hurdles too. Some situations will make it difficult, the most noticeable one: getting credit. That is what Edgardo de la Garza, a marketing research professional with deep knowledge of the Hispanic consumer, thinks. According to Edgardo, the new Americans will go through the growing pains of learning basic daily items such as credit and how to manage it. Currently, he points out, “Many start with the furniture store to gain that credit history so they can later buy electronics or tools for their daily jobs.” Furniture is the usual starting point perhaps because of the low financial risk but once established, the undocumented consumer will upgrade to other more expensive items such as a new car and home, Edgardo said.

Maria Baños Jordan, a sociologist heading the Texas Familias Council, has a similar take on the potential change on the status of the undocumented consumer. She refers to them as the “shadow population.” The shadow population includes the “dreamer” youth, skilled and unskilled laborers, professionals, mixed status families and aging residents that, according to Maria, “have made up our American fabric for decades.” This reminds me of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, the last significant effort made to legalize the undocumented Latinos. The bad news is that after IRCA, immigrants were back in an expensive, long and bureaucratic immigration process.

According to Maria, the undocumented immigrants have been the opportunity waiting to happen. Maria cites numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau which state that three fourths of immigrant households are family based. This means that Hispanics immigrants usually live large family groups. In fact, they remain that way for years, according to some studies. Therefore, it’s safe to conclude that a change of status will create a cascade effect in the immediate family group of the undocumented consumer. A stable family will mean a change in attitude toward the environment. A friendlier perception of the environment will bring more confidence and a proactive buying behavior.

Despite the suggested changes in the behavior of the undocumented consumer, Maria suggests the contributions of this segment of the market have already impacted our economy for years. She cites data from the Pew Hispanic Center which estimates that “48 percent of undocumented residents living in the U.S. for more than 10 years were homeowners in 2008. Their buying power and labor force contributions are highly significant in an aging America.” Maria adds, “With young families, strong entrepreneurial spirit and increased earning power, these residents have great potential to increase our economic base as they purchase new homes, educate their children and learn to invest in the land that is now truly their home.”

Marketing to Latinos overall is already a trillion dollar not so niche market. Bringing the undocumented consumer out of the shadows will widen this market, expanding the opportunities of new and existing businesses that are capable to understand the needs of this community and tailoring their messages properly.

By Jose Monterrosa. Imagina Communications

Legalizing Millions Of Immigrants To Provide Economic Boost

 

Houston is a robust city that has weathered the economic downturn better than other urban areas. According to Stephen Klineberg, sociologist professor from Rice University, immigrants have contributed in large part to this strength and rebounding. The Greater Houston area is a melting pot of immigrants from around the world. This has fueled ethnic cottage businesses as well as creating an entire Asian community in Chinatown.

Front view of Supermercado Walmart

This week undocumented immigrants are front and center in the national debate for immigration reform. This  potentially provide some sort of legal status for the millions of immigrants that live in the shadows and currently deal in a black market for employment and business.

While the policy makers and economists crunch the numbers one thing is certain. The economic impact could be a windfall to the entire country. The Greater Houston Partnership is estimating that this could provide 1.4 billion in tax revenues for this area alone.

What does this mean for the business sector? In one word “growth.” Families with a guarantee of lawful status can establish roots in the community. This means purchase of homes, automobiles, furniture, insurance, travel, legal services, and all the other amenities Americans take for granted.

The businesses that are interested on this potential demographic need to perform their homework. We will be bringing you fresh and innovative strategies you can use in your marketing to Hispanic immigrants. We have decades of experience in helping startups to Fortune 500 companies navigate the opportunity and pitfalls of this valuable market segment. We also invite you to contact us for any specific topics you would like to see covered on our site.

Minority Owned Businesses Stay Small By Not Marketing

In collaboration with Jose Monterrosa.

According to the American Marketing Association marketing is, “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Large organizations have the resources to hire specialists to manage the entire process that lead to creating and retaining new customers. On the other hand, small businesses struggle and never make it past the start up phase. One study suggests that sixty five percent of them fail by the tenth year. Hispanic owned small businesses have an even higher mortality rate of fifty percent by the end of the first year.

While the reasons are many one of the primary reasons, is not being able to produce enough potential customers. Why? No, tested and proven marketing strategy or no strategy at all. Many Hispanic entrepreneurs are sales people that are so single minded in closing the deal that they ignore the large picture of marketing. The following quote illustrates the simplicity and the difference of sales and marketing.

“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying, “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the town’s citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.” Author unknown

Jim McIngvale Owner of Gallery Furniture is a perfect example of a salesman and promoter that was limited in his sales by the number of people who saw his only publicity, an eighteen wheeler tractor trailer. He needed to sell to other households that never drove by his roadside mobile mattress store.

Mr. McIngvale is proud to tell his story of rags to riches. One day he decided to spend five thousand dollars on TV advertising. Since this was a limited budged and needing to stretch his ad buy, he was the presenter of his advertising. He is so passionate about advertising that he has even taken out loans to pay for his advertising. His marketing has worked. The rest is history. His store on I-45 is the number one single retail location to sell the most furniture in sales volume in the world.

Over the years, we have spent millions of dollars of other people’s money to increase their sales and grow their business. Here are some easy tips you can use on a small budget.

Look at this 2013 calendar to create a campaign for every holiday that is relevant to your product or service. If you notice, in January, it is General Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Offer some genuinely fantastic offer to those customers that can show you their ticket to the viewing of the very popular movie, Lincoln. Partner up with other retailers that can tie in to the celebration.

Advertise your event by printing flyers and distributing them within a 1 mile radius of your location. Create a social media campaign with alerts leading up to your promotion. Send out a press release with every promotion you do. On a slow news day, or week, you might be surprised how you get free publicity worth thousands of dollars.

Partner up with other businesses in your immediate area that are not competitors and create a shared plastic, door hanger with coupons and exclusive offers.

Advertise in church bulletins and start a relationship with non-profits in your immediate area and find out how you can assist them. You want to display your brand as being community minded.

Placards commonly used in the early 1900’s are coming back in style because they work. Make some professional looking placards and hire someone to stand in a high traffic area pointing to your store.

Sample your product to prospects all the time. When Starbucks opens a new location they turn out teams of marketing people to give away one pound of free coffee to all business nearby. There is no limit to how you can creatively sample your product. It’s the old puppy dog sales tactic. Here hold the puppy isn’t he cute wouldn’t you like to take it home.

One piece of advice about advertising and promotion keep it real. Put out a message you believe with your whole heart. Just doing this will separate you from all the other businesses that are tone deaf to real customers that want to meet  real people with real offers to their needs and wants.

[Picture by Victor Escalante]

The Hispanic Vote: How To Market To A Trillion Dollar Market

Politics and business often borrow and use the metaphor of war. A battle for the most votes or market share, leading to the glory of victory and profits, or the elimination into obscurity.

In business we even have a language of war such as general manager, market intelligence, expanding footprint, pull the trigger on a deal, sales strategy, and so on.

Regardless of your politics what can you learn from the past election in growing your business? With a budget of 2 billion dollars spent on this election, we saw some of the best minds in advertising and marketing at the helm of this ship. This will no doubt be a classroom lesson for years to come.

The first phase of war is FORMING a strategy. This means that one must have a dominant message that will stick with the consumer. The Obama campaign had a populist message that stayed consistent throughout the campaign, “fight against income inequality.”

While the Romney campaign had several messages that in the end failed to gain traction with the majority, “immigration, women, 47%, repeal of Dream Act, health care, taxes.”

The Obama camp identified early on that the previous election in 2008 was not going to win the election. They had to produce new voters. This lead to staking outposts or field offices in battleground states before the primaries!

That’s right these operatives opened up local branch offices to develop relationships with Spanish media. This earned free media led to capitalizing on every gaff Mr. Romney made in the campaign.

It’s framing the message of your opponent similar to what Verizon did with AT&T’s coverage. They had some terrific writers to churn out press releases that Spanish media picked up while the official field GOP spokespeople seldom returned calls from Spanish reporters.

The second phase of war is STORMING. Do you remember storming Norman? This is the time to give it all you got. Unfortunately for Mr. Romney when he stormed he was fighting on two theaters, 1. Defend his negative Bain Capital history and 2. Fight his opponent as a failed Promiser In Chief.

Unfortunately for conservatives the majority never quite bought this. They empathized with the Obama’s challenge to protect the country from going into a depression and  and killing Osama Bin Laden.

The third phase is NORMING. There will always be casualties in any war, and Obama had several. The worst was the no show first debate, the Benghazi controversy, “you didn’t build it, private sector doing fine”, and others.

Mitt, on the other hand, had, “I’m not concerned about the poor, Obama bankrupted Detroit, and he’s going to ship jobs to China, If I was born in Mexico”, and others. You will have your own gaffes either from your product not performing or employees making mistakes. You need to have your own internal PR point person or an ad agency you can call to rescue you. This is not for amateurs to handle.

The fourth and final phase is PERFORMING. This is when you can stay the course and reap all the spoils of war till your next ad campaign. It is essential that every business has this circular strategy ALL THE TIME. One thing media does is to create an editorial calendar to write stories related to that holiday, season or topic. They typically bundle special advertising offers to business to meet their budgets. Every small business needs to have a sales strategy to capitalize on the buying cycles of needs and wants from the consumer. For President Obama, his greatest challenge may now be the PERFORMING of pulling us out from this slow recovery.

Written by Victor Escalante in collaboration with Jose Monterrosa 

Five Hispanic Marketing Myths That Need To Die

Hispanics don’t read. Latinos read quality content not what is currently being served in print media. When one travels to Latin America, reading more than one daily is the news staple of the masses. Many will be surprised to know that according to an independent reporting agency, the largest demographic of readers of the Houston Business Journal is Hispanics. If you want to reach Hispanics in print, size matters as well as the offer.

They are all alike because they speak Spanish. There are twenty four different countries that speak Spanish with very different cultures. Do you advertise frijoles or habichuelas? Well that depends on your reach. Every country has its unique semantic flavor to describe the same product.

Use hot Latinas in your advertising to be noticed. Many an ad campaign has gotten hot Latinas noticed not brands or messages. This is the era of Hispanics 3.0 an educated middle class with a purchasing power of over one trillion dollars per year. Houston has a high percentage of educated upper middle class households with annual incomes of over 100K.  Old stereotypes of Hispanic blue collar workers need to die.

Hispanics are cheap. Many a startup business has tried to sell cheap quality at cheap prices in Hispanic dense zip codes. These business never grow and they end up on the heap of “lo barato sale caro” (the cheap is expensive). Many brands have catered to Hispanics with price being relative to the appeal or value Hispanics wanted.

There are many myths out there amigos that keep brands pouring money down a bottomless hole. Don’t make the same mistakes mark your calendar to be at the:

AMA Houston Multicultural Event Committee Presents
How Businesses Can Better Reach An Ethnically Diverse Market

Friday, October 19, 2012
Houston Technology Center
410 Pierce Street
Houston, TX 77002
Go here to register online, seats are limited.

The Transformation of Houston

A very detailed and passionately delivered video of the evolution of Houston over the last 30 years. Presented by Dr. Stephen Klineberg of Rice University.