Feliz Noche Buena

Or, "good night" otherwise known as Christmas Eve. Tonight is the night of Parranda and partying with loved ones. My best to each of you for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a prosperous New Year.

WC

Just don't call me "tarde" for dinner

The University of Washington's Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality recently published its Latino National Survey. In it, 35% of respondents said they preferred to be called "Hispanic," 13.4% preferred to be called "Latino" and 32.5% said either was acceptable.

The terms are very often intertwined and are both acceptable, though "Hispanic" is the official term the U.S. Census uses to count us (well, not all of us I'm sure). The differences can be regional or country based.

The survey also had a few other interesting items:

- About 97% felt it was either Very or Somewhat important to maintain the ability to speak Spanish
- About 98% thought it was either Very or Somewhat important for everyone in the U.S. to speak English
- About 77% had more than 3 people living in the home
- Nearly 70% were interested in politics to some degree

Is Guadalupe on your radar screen?

Today, many Latinos are celebrating Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), commemorating a date when many believe the Virgin Mary appeared in Mexico in 1531.

In Mexico, thousands make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe, which holds what is believed to be a miraculous image and is the spot believed to be where the apparition occurred.

The day is also being celebrated by Latinos across the United States. Here is just a sampling of stories from newspapers around the U.S. who are covering the holiday:
Minnesota
Nevada
Alabama
New Jersey

While many marketers are focused on the traditional, general market holidays, days like today are a unique way to focus attention on Hispanics and our traditions. Last year, I also wrote about Three King's Day, another perfectly-suited event to keep on the radar for your Hispanic marketing/outreach efforts, in my posting about the political correctness associated with Christmas .

DePaul latest to offer Hispanic marketing degree

Add DePaul out of Chicago to the list of universities offering courses and/or a degree in Hispanic marketing. The others are Southern Methodist University, Florida State University and University of California at Los Angeles. Read the Hispanic Business magazine article.

Put $1 in and got $4 out - Pretty good ROI

The Santiago Solutions Group released a new study today on Business Wire that does a good job in showing the return on investment (ROI) being realized by companies who have taken the Hispanic market seriously.

Called Translating Shareholder Value: An Examination of Well-Resourced Hispanic Corporate Strategies, the study of 180 top national advertisers showed that the top 25 percent of companies "that lead in their allocations to Hispanic marketing generated 2.1 times higher bottom-line profitability (net income) than companies who did not provide adequate resources to their Hispanic marketing strategies."

In addition for the top 25 percent of those investing in the Hispanic market, each $1 invested returned $4 and they generated 1.5 times higher operating income margins than the remaining companies.

According to the release:

-- there was a "positive correlation" between Hispanic marketing allocations and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) with the top 25 percent of companies allocating to their Hispanic marketing generating 1.3 times higher EBITDA than the others in the study;
-- consumer packaged goods companies led all other industries in their percent of marketing budget spent on targeting Hispanics with 5.5 percent of budget to Hispanic marketing; Following on the list were entertainment (4.7%), retail (4.4%) and automotive manufacturers (4.1%);

Al Carey, president and CEO of Frito-Lay is quoted as saying:
“The findings of this study are consistent with our own point of view that well-honed and well-supported marketing to Hispanic consumers pays off in all of our performance metrics. I expect that allocations to Hispanic marketing will be better justified as a result of these findings."