Stop by if you're in the neighborhood

The Connecticut chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, has asked me to present at their upcoming "Breakfast Epiphany" event on Feb. 8 from 7:30 AM - 9:00 in Hartford. Stop by if you're in the 'hood. Click here to register for the event.

It's 2011 people! Can we stop talking about translations?

Credit Union Magazine has an article entitled, "Marketing to Hispanics? Find the Right Translator," that certainly got my attention as I can't believe we are still using "translator" and "Hispanic marketing" in the same sentence in 2011.

While the article does discuss the need to be culturally relevant, the crux of the article is how to translate messages that credit unions are already using to reach the general market in a way that's not literal but better understood by Hispanics.

I'm sensitive to the subject as this approach has been tried and tried and tried and tried again by many financial services institutions (and other industries) and has failed. When it fails, the organizations end up blaming the Hispanic market for "not responding" when they should be evaluating their flawed approach. "I tried Hispanic marketing and it doesn't work" is the result and this only closes the door on real Hispanic marketing experts and, worse, leaves Hispanic customers with cash under their mattresses and Hispanic businesses without a lending partner.

I commented at the end of the article and offered some insights and advice.

Restaurants taking notice of Hispanic market

QSRweb.com: A 2009 analysis by the Latinum Network found that while the American economy floundered, the spending growth by U.S. Hispanics was twice the growth of general market spending.

Considering one-third of the nation’s population 19 years old and younger is expected to be Latino by 2015, this trend only appears to be accelerating.

Restaurants have taken note and have scrambled for creative ways to pique the interest of this spendthrift demographic.

Bold predictions for 2011 Hispanic marketing industry

I always enjoy reading Jose Villa's entries on MediaPost, a publication I also regularly contribute to. His latest is entitled "2011: The Year Of Creative Destruction" and lists 5 "bold" predictions he makes for the Hispanic marketing industry in 2001. He says, "think of 2011 as the year of creative destruction in Hispanic marketing -- some things will die, a lot will change, and brand new opportunities will sprout from the ashes."

Definitely a good read. I mostly agree with him and did post a comment about where I differed slightly.