California Media & Marketing Consultant

Every product will sell, but how do you sell it? Do you place an ad on your local newspaper? on television? maybe radio it’s cheaper, wait Craigslist allows free ad posting.  What about Google ads, or Yahoo wait is that the same thing.  Maybe I’ll send out a lot of letters, should I join the local Chamber of commerce and network; I’ll generate some leads and therefore not have to advertise.  Maybe I should start a Blog, or have my own MySpace, or Facebook………no facebook is not that popular.  Should I do voice broadcasts to a list of business owners, or home owners?  Maybe housewives, no they are not the decision makers the man makes all the money.  Wait but the man has to ask the wife……..hmmmm.  Ok  maybe I’ll buy cable ads they are cheaper, should I target the Hispanic Market? wait I don’t have anyone that speaks Spanish on my staff.  But if I advertise to the Hispanic Market I heard that those people don’t have a lot of money, yet on a magazine I read that Hispanics in the valley have 12 billion buying power.  Wait but not all Hispanics speak Spanish or are bilingual or make the same amount of money…….never mind it is too complicated.  What about making flyers on my computer and handing them out myself, or sending e-mails to everyone I know, Na I’m not that good with the computer.  Maybe I will reach out to the business incubator and see what they have to offer.  You know what maybe I’ll just get a job and save all this headache.

What do you think?  Does this happen to you as a business owner? do you know a business owner that is going through this? Probably!

Knowing how to market in today’s ever-changing economy is a challenge that takes more than just implementing what your competitor is doing.  You need a Marketer that understands and adapts to not only the changes of the economy, your industry or competitors but most importantly your individual business goals and objectives.  Marketing is more than placing ads, its research, research, research.  Most business owners think that Marketing and Advertising are the same thing and they are NOT.

As you continue to build your business consider hiring a Marketer that is innovative, one that adapts and welcomes change and market challenges………in other words HIRE ME!

Research shows that more than 20% (That’s about 180,000 Hispanics not being marketed to) of the Fresno-Visalia DMA is OTHER  than Mexican decent.  Unfortunately as mentioned, this segment of our Hispanic population is most often poorly classified as OTHER.  The classifications should be as follows: Cuban, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan, Colombian, Brazilian, and or South Americans.

This creates opportunity for this growing market.  Knowing how to market to this untapped market will instantly create a new stream of revenue.  Some of the challenges this group faces are the simple most important needs: finding relevant information about their cultures, food and their music.

Please share research about this segmented groups in the Central Valley.

Any thoughts?

Transcreation is the process of taking a message that is originaly intended for a specific culture and transcreating it to speak to a different audience.  Clishe lines in English never translate well into Spanish making it difficult for an audience to grasp the intended message.

So what do you do……..you never create a message in English and expect to have the same impact in Spanish.  In order to deliver the intended response, a concept geared to the Hispanic Market should be a project of its own.  There should be a brainstorming session to come up with concept, mechanism, delivery, call to action etc.  Script and storyboard developed for the message.

In today’s consumer world, quality marketing must speak directly to the consumer.   Research shows that city-dwelling consumers are exposed to somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 ads per day!  Needless to say, your marketing messages MUST stand out from the crowd if you expect to get even a small amount of audience attention.

The growing Hispanic market is no exception to this rule.

As a specialist in Translation and Transcreation Marketing, I know just how important it is to “rewrite” a message for a new target group.  Let’s face it - even a simple beer commercial includes subtle messages in everything from camera angles to punchlines.

If local, regional, or national companies expect to acquire new Hispanic customers, their message must be tailored for the cultural backgrounds of these groups.  But perhaps most importantly, companies must take great care to not deliver the WRONG message and inadvertently offend the targeted group.

This is a simple marketing truth:  You must know your audience before you attempt to speak their language.