Bigelow Tea launches first Hispanic marketing campaign

Bigelow Tea, one of the nation’s leading producers of specialty teas, has announced that it has launched its first national Hispanic marketing campaign to extend its existing brand awareness and loyalty to Hispanic tea drinkers.

The new campaign is called, “Dale Sabor a Tu Vida” (Add Flavor to Your Life), and reflects the quality and flavor difference of Bigelow Tea’s more than 80 varieties of flavored, traditional, green, organic green, herbal, decaffeinated, and iced teas.

The campaign, was created by our agency Bauzá & Associates, and begins with a newspaper insert that are being distributed in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston and New York City and a micro site at http://www.tebigelow.com/. Future campaign plans include a print advertising, direct mail, public relations as well as event support and promotional sampling in cities like Miami.

“Hispanics are a very important part of our consumer base and the research clearly shows that, as consumers, they remain loyal to brands based on taste and quality, both areas where Bigelow Tea differentiates itself,” said Cindi Bigelow, President, Bigelow Tea. “The theme ‘Dale Sabor a Tu Vida’ echoes this sentiment as well as reflects a passion and zest for adding flavor to your life that is culturally-relevant.”

"Father" of Hispanic advertising steps aside

It's been said the Fidel Castro was the "father" of Hispanic advertising as it was the Cuban Revolution in 1959/1960 that exiled some Cuban advertising executives to the United States.

Here's an excerpt from Carl Kravetz talk when unveiling the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agency's Latino Identity Project back in 2006.

"It was the Cuban revolution that kicked off US Hispanic advertising. In 1959 and 60, a number of Havana advertising men suddenly found themselves in exile and they wanted to work at what they knew best. So they began the long arduous process of convincing American advertisers that that there was a vast, untapped market hidden away right under their noses. And the reason they were untapped? Because they didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand advertising in that language!

At first the advertising was local, targeting Cuban communities in Miami and New York, but the numbers weren’t significant enough to get traction with national advertisers.

Enter the US Government who combined Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans into something called “Hispanics,” and, together with prescient advertisers like Procter & Gamble and imported programming from MeTelevisa, national Hispanic advertising was born.

In many respects, we are doing the same thing here today that those early visionaries did. We are looking at the Latino consumer landscape and saying,“something here isn’t working the best it can. We are not connecting with Latino consumers because we are not speaking their language.”

The language I’m talking about, however, is not a language in the linguistic sense. It is a deeper, much more sophisticated and nuanced way of communicating and connecting with Latino consumers today … and in the future. If you take language…Spanish or English…. out of the equation, what makes a Latino Latino?"

Media relations in a crisis

Adweek recently posted an interesting column by Mike Valdes-Fauli on its website that outlines some good, practical tips for considering the Hispanic media in crisis communication.

His tips include:

1. Remember emotion resonates -- despite conventional wisdom of only sticking to the facts, Hispanics are accustomed to more emotion and sentimentality in their communications.

2. Adapt, don't translate. An expert should carefully adapt the messages in the announcement to create a new document that effectively communicates the key message points to Hispanics.

3. Think new consumer, old-school tactics. Much of the Hispanic media landscape still thrives on a ground-level, person-to-person interaction.

4. Find the Hispanic angle. Regardless of language used it is advisable to find a Hispanic angle and make that the news hook.

5. Respect cultural differences. We know that Hispanics are not all the same, so we need to ensure we communicate differently with each subset of the population.

All good tips. What is missing here is one of the main aspect of crisis communication, which is developing solid relationships with the media ahead of any crisis. When a crisis hits is not the time to be figuring out who the influential media are to contact or the first time you're outreaching to them.

Any good crisis communication program needs an "offensive" aspect to it and not only a "defensive" one when the mierda hits the fan. Going on the offense entails aspects like developing positive relationships w/the media, the community and key groups.

The analogy I've used is that it's like having a savings account. You need to continuously make "deposits" to the "good-will" account so that you have something in the bank should a crisis force you to make a big "withdrawal." If there is nothing in there for a withdrawal, you are essentially out on your own hoping for the best.

While positive relationships alone won't solve your crisis issue, they will help to at least minimize long-term ramifications and ensure you have credible people out there speaking positively on your behalf.

This advise applies to the general market, not only the Hispanic market.

... and growing and growing and growing ...

If current trends continue, the U.S. Hispanic population will triple by 2050, and the overall U.S. population will rise to 438 million (with 82% of the increase attributable to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants), according a report by the Pew Research Center.

The Hispanic population will account for most of the nation's population growth from 2005 through 2050, and make up 29% of the U.S. population in 2050 (compared with 14% in 2005).

The Center's projections are based on detailed assumptions about births, deaths and immigration levels. They don't factor in the economic growth.

Read the USA Today article on the study.

Education is #1 issue among Hispanics - take dos

I wrote last year about a National Council of La Raza study that showed education, and not immigration, was by far the number one issue for Latinos.

Now, a study released by Fleishman-Hillard recently also came to the same conclusion. Not sure if perhaps Fleishman didn't read the NCLR study or maybe they were simply beat to the punch while finalizing theirs, but it's good to see the statistics revalidated, especially in this time of political campaigns.

The study, according to the release, also revealed that:

-- Teachers and schools are the leading source of information (trusted by 54 percent) followed by different sources of media (trusted by a combined 39 percent).

-- Issues affecting the family are the most important to Hispanics, but their prominence varies depending on the respondents' time in the United States

Huge Growth in Hispanic TV and Radio Projected

SNL Kagan's newest study, "Economics of Hispanic TV & Radio in the U.S., 2008 Edition," reveals that combined revenues for four U.S. Hispanic broadcast networks (Telemundo, Univision, Telefutura, and Azteca America) are expected to top $1.6 billion in 2011.

According to the study, while Hispanics are the country's fastest-growing ethnic group, they have lower penetration rates for multi-channel video packages (71.6% of Hispanic TV households had a multi-channel subscription in 2007, compared to 87.6% for the entire U.S.).

The result is that Hispanics are an important target for cable and satellite distributors.

According to the press release, SNL Kagan estimates that Hispanic multi-channel homes could increase to 9.7 million in 2011 from 8.7 million in 2007, while Hispanic TV homes are projected to grow to 13.4 million from 12.1 million in the same period.

In terms of advertising, the release states that Hispanic TV stations can expect 5.4% annual revenue growth through 2011, and Hispanic radio revenue will increase 6% in 2008 to $1.21 billion, outpacing the overall industry's expected growth of 2% to 3%. Over the next four years, radio station revenues are expected to grow at a 4.9% CAGR, the release says.

If it's relevant, we will vote

There's been a lot in the media recently, and certainly since Super Tuesday, about the increased Latino vote, especially in places like California where Latinos for the first time performed as well as any other racial group in a statewide election.

For Democrats, Hispanics accounted for 30 percent of Tuesday's presidential primary vote (nearly double their percentage from the 2000 and 2004 primaries, according to the San Jose Mercury News). Hillary Clinton received 67 percent and Obama received 32 percent.

For Republicans, Hispanics accounted for a record 13 percent of the vote. Up from 9 percent in 2000 and 5 percent in 2004, according to the article. McCain received 39 percent and Romney received 27 percent.

Regardless of who spent more money in advertising, which so many media focus on, the candidates did a remarkable job of making the election and the issues relevant for Latinos. Not just in California, but in places all over the country. They, and countless groups supporting the candidates, also spent a great deal of time courting the vote and educating Latinos on the election process.

Because of that, the record turn out shouldn't be all that surprising. The overall voting rate in Latin America is approximately 55%. Puerto Rico has an 80+% voting rate.

The candidates that incorrectly assume Latinos don't vote should visit these compelling statistics and realize they don't vote for you because you're not speaking with them but rather to them. The other issues do include aspects like lack of awareness of the election process in the U.S. (in many countries you don't have to even register to vote), and lack of involvement in the political process, etc. But, those obstacles don't get in the way when there is compelling and relevant communication to us, as evidenced by the record Latino turn out in this national election.