Photo published by http://valleycentral.com
These are the key takeaways from this interesting article published by CBS 4 in the Valley area:
- Almost 68 percent of Texans aged 19 and younger are non-white.
- Texas may be the next state where Hispanics become a plurality, comprising the largest racial or ethnic group though not a majority. If that happens, Texas would join New Mexico and California.
- Nationally, the continued growth of the Hispanic population is due largely to natural increase — Hispanic parents having more babies
Read more of this story at http://valleycentral.com/news/local/census-bureau-hispanic-population-growing-faster-than-any-other-group-in-texas
How Blacks, Whites & Hispanics Live Together
A recent analysis by the Urban Edge in Houston reveals an interesting trend about the way whites, blacks and Hispanics coexist in a city so frequently labeled the “most diverse in the nation.”
- Majority-Hispanic neighborhoods are likely to have whites or blacks as the second-most populous group in the area.
- Majority-white neighborhoods are likely to have Hispanics as the second-most populous group. It’s unlikely blacks will be the number two group in a white neighborhood.
- Majority black neighborhoods are likely to have Hispanics as the second-most population group. It’s unlikely that whites will be the number two group in a black neighborhood.
The Hispanic population is either the majority of in the second largest group. Read more about this report http://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2016/06/01/in-houston/#.V2qHZ6I8KK3
Little Spear Band To Perform At East End Street Festival
Houston–If you took Freddy Fender, Bonnie Raitt, and Janis Joplin and mixed them all together, you would get the new up and coming star, Sherita Perez. Her band Little Spear will be performing today at the third annual East End Street Festival. For being so young, Sherita has gotten noticed by music critics and promoters. She was voted one of Houston’s top 10 bands by Houston Press in her genre of Texas Centric Americana. Born into a family of singers, instrument pickers, and preachers it was only natural Sherita would take to composing, singing, and picking a guitar. At age five, she was already composing a song about her friend Ship and she never stopped.
Folk singer Don Williams once described song writing as cutting your veins and letting your story flow out in lyrics and chords. Sherita may not write about the traditional country themes of getting drunk, cheating, jail, momma, or trains but her personal story and her unique world view is woven into her music writing. Sherita has had to overcome poverty and serious health problems to get to where she is. This formative foundation has made her a strong contender to put her heart and soul into her performing.
Sherita is a typical Millennial out to collaborate rather than compete. She and fellow musician Rhonda Roberts teamed up to share the resources, contacts, struggles as well as the stage to make a name for themselves. So far so good. They were able to cut their first music CD at Bubble Studio in Austin , Texas the Nashville of Texas music. Sherita and Rhonda want to foster this collaborative spirit among other Houston musicians to have a positive impact in their field and the community. They want to be a positive force for women, the underprivileged and the sick. Sherita’s message for other Latinas is, “Don’t let others classify you and tell you who you are. Define yourself. Respect yourself and others. Find your own path!”
Head out to The East End Street Fest that runs from 11:00 am till 9:00 pm. Little Spear performs at 1:00 pm at the Bud Light stage. The festival is free to the public with lots of food and fun activities for the family. This year’s music lineup has 10 bands performing with the main head liner David Lee Garza. For more information visit http://eastendstreetfest.com/.
Houston–
Eleven years ago Imagina Communications Inc. was born during Hispanic Heritage month. Jose Monterrosa and Frank Trevino started with $250, a laptop, and a dream to build a successful Hispanic advertising agency. Today that dream is a reality measured not only by billings but also by the business accolades accumulated along the way. In 2013, Imagina Communications was named one of Emerging 10 Companies by Houston Minority Supplier Development Council, Volunteer of the Year by the AMA Houston Chapter, and featured as Hispanos Emprededores in GenteToday.com.
Principal owner, Jose Monterrosa, has built a reputation as the go to man when national and international brands want to penetrate and brand themselves among Houston Hispanics. Jose is a member of the American Marketing Association and the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The latter experiencing explosive growth during the last five years due to the leadership of Dr. Laura Murillo and the team of consultants, which includes Jose Monterrosa.
When the Greater East End Management District (GEEMD), the local municipality of the oldest Latino neighborhood in Houston, was selecting an agency to use for their public and media relations, they selected Imagina Communications, for their proven track record of successful advertising and general communications campaigns. According to Diane Schenke President of the GEEMD, “We have enjoyed working with Jose for the past four years. His guidance and in depth knowledge of the Hispanic market and culture has been invaluable to adjust our communications strategy.”
What does Jose attribute his successful trajectory to? Years of experience, in-depth knowledge of marketing and strong relationships with the community he serves. He obtained a dual degree in Mass Communication and Marketing in his native country of El Salvador. Due to his academic prowess and experience he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship completing a combined program of Advertising and Marketing at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan. Jose went on learn the tricks of the trade as a staffer of Sykes Communications and then Bromley Communication, one of the largest Hispanic ad agencies. He also worked for six years at Young & Rubicam doing TV and radio production work in his home country.
Jose is bullish on the Hispanic market and he has benefited from the considerable growth since he started his business. After a rough beginning, dealing with the startup challenges and the recession that bankrupted many small ad agencies in 2009, Jose wondered if his company could survive . Today, Jose has the first hand experience of overcoming not only the usual challenges that every business faces but the adversity of major economic swings that have forced him to adjust his business model and maximize his resources. Jose advices, “There is no magic bullet that applies to all businesses. You have to learn how to foresee and solve problems quickly for your business and for the client’s business if you want to stay in the game.”
With recent estimates of a 1.2 trillion purchasing power of Hispanics, Jose is on the right side of history. His source of satisfaction is doing a good job and measuring the success of his clients. He is always ready to pay it forward with causes that help Houston Hispanics in a positive way such as Texas Children’s Hospital and Vecinos Health Centers.
According to Dr. Laura Murillo, President and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, “Jose is one of those marketing professionals that has been able to understand the diverse cultural nuances of our community not by reading research data but by experiencing it first-hand. He is a committed professional and resourceful asset to the chamber.”
Jose’s admonition to fellow Hispanic business owners is, “Find a mentor early on. You don’t need to make the same mistakes someone has already made. Know the dynamics of business and understand the trends of the market. Due to the large number of Hispanics, Houston has become the test lab for what the rest of the United States will look like in the future. He concludes, “I want to wish my fellow Hispanic entrepreneurs a feliz mes de la Hispanidad.”
Houston– Modern marketing had its start and evolved with the advent of the mass generation of baby boomers. In today’s market, Don Draper would be challenged to produce his stellar performance with a predominantly millennial demographic. Recently, the Houston chapter of the American Marketing Association held a workshop and a panel discussion with marketing experts to address this pressing issue; How to market to Houston’s Hispanic and Asian Millennials.
Juan Tornoe, CMO of Cultural Strategies, a Hispanic marketing agency kicked off the program. Juan helped the mostly Generation X audience grasp the size of the millennial market. Nationally there are an estimated 17 million Hispanic millennials with 44 % foreign born. Houston’s total percentage of Hispanic millennials is 41%, with 40% being bilingual. While boomers were the I generation that wanted to do their own thing, Hispanic millennials are the we generation that lives at home. According to Juan’s research, 72% of Hispanic millennials live at home. The takeaways from Juan were: compared to other millennials, Hispanic millennials are more optimistic and more entrepreneurial, they seek advice from family for important purchases, they are more involved in social and cultural causes and more willing to volunteer.
Next on the program was Jaime Virkus, Marketing Manager for McGuyer Homebuilders Inc (MHI). Jaime’s research delved into income and education showing that Asians per capita have the highest percentage in both categories. In education Asians index at 49% with a bachelors degree or higher compared to whites at 31% and Hispanics at 13%. In income for the year 2010, the median income for Asians was 66K, whites 54K and Hispanics 33.3K. Urban millennial Asian homebuyers are looking for homes that are smaller and within walking distance to many shops. Developers with upscale multilevel town homes would do well to market to this demographic. Suburban Asian homebuyers are going to be traditional, but they will have a discriminating eye for layout and design. Builders who follow the art of placement, called Feng Shui, will get the lion’s share of home sales. Other takeaways were build your brand through persistent advertising in Asian media, network within the Asian communities, create B2B incentive programs, and have special cultural offerings in the sales office.
The presentation continued with Salomon Dayan, Digital Group Account Director with Lopez Negrete Communications. Dayan posed the question,”Is it worth advertising to Hispanic millennials who have crappy jobs and earn less than their parents and grandparents? Conventional wisdom says no, and it’s wrong. Even “The Draper” would have trouble wrapping his mind around this one. Hispanic Millennials have a lot of influence on the family’s major purchases. They can be advertised and promoted to, to create brand advocates. Language and messaging can be the deciding keys to success or failure. Hispanic millennials want authentic human talk not outdated clichés. The messaging needs to be aligned to language of the heart, the culture and passions, empowering and portrayed in an activist spirit. Dayan shared the case study of how Lopez Negrete incorporated all these elements and music into an award winning marketing campaign for the Doctor Pepper soft drink label.
The program concluded with a panel discussion with all three presenters. Those in attendance walked away with a greater awareness of the potential of tapping into Houston’s Hispanic and Asian millennial market.
The 32nd Kinder Institute Houston Area Survey
Attitudes toward immigration and diversity have improved signifi cantly 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
hispanicmarket.wordpress.com 