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Archive 2000-01
or : A Mixed Blood Wedding
(a bit of Spanish is required)
(INTRO) Where is a culture ending and where is a new one starting? Geography don't matter anymore this age of mixed blood weddings and cultures. You certainly remember the sad story of Quinlan, the official of police declining in front of an emerging tide made of young Hispanic people. Like arrogant cholos they made pressure to the big stars of the movie all retired onto defensive roles, some of them just flanking —"A Touch Of Evil" by Orson Welles (1958-98).
Nobody could refuse to acknowledge the importance of the new comers from the extra-territories —in Europe too. By the way, the growth of the Hispanics and Latinos as ethnic groups is a substantial fact for marketers. But this is not a piece of news in the USA of the 21st century. Targeted ethnic marketing is a technique most executives have been always considering to (re)launch products and services perticularly in saturated markets {"think globally, act locally". This time that practice involves the Internet as advertising medium, too. Mass is over —and you are a good gringo!
SET1Red Hot Cocktail.
As reported by a recent article on ethnic groups in the USA, "Non-Caucasians are one-quarter of the U.S. population, and in the next five years that figure is expected to expand to one-third. Still, less than 2 percent of all money spent on consumer advertising in the United States is used to target these buyers" (by Jana Barclay, from "Don't Ignore Ethnic Groups" -- DM News Feb. 7, 2001). The greatest problem in conducting effective campaigns aimed to ethnic groups is collecting the right data for prospecting because "if you do not get the message and the target right, you risk offending some of those you are trying to reach" (id.). Two errors occur when targeting Hispanic groups: one is to misunderstand a name that sounded Spanish but is actually Italian —think so viceversa. Two is to consider a surname not the result of a plain marriage, so that that name has no evidence with a personal ethnicity. Tough time is this if the customer's name does not even help to speak by the right tongue to.
Hoy daremos la vuelta al mundo latino...
EL DORADO is the legendary country filled with human utopia. Imagine its chief covered with gold dust, its people working by pleasure, gems in the rivers, fountains erupting fruit nectars and sugar cane liquids, floorings smelling of cloves and cinnamon. Men adorned with water lily and women's body designed by tattooing. A soul sanctuary. A place eccentric from Europe and its swirling chaos. The Spanish conquistadors and further expeditions never found it. Many believe it near present-day Bogotà, Colombia. Search the Net for www.eldorado, by adding the country domain you think El Dorado probably was, going from the northern South America: .pe, .co, .ec, .gy, .ve... up to .mx!
¡QUE VIVA MEXICO! 2001 YupiMSN —a joint venture between Telefonos de Mexico and Microsoft Corp.— launched the Spanish-language version of IE in a marketing effort to reach the Latin American audience over the Internet. To download Explorer por Latinos go to www.yupimsn.com/explorer. Useful to find the services and contents in Spanish.
DON QUIXOTE is the greatest novel ever been published. We all know the very strange event of the Spanish knight who wanted to battle with the windmills... A metaphor or a need? His squire was Sancho Panza and surely acted as more realistic person! Maybe they were two sides of the same person or two different ages in one's lifetime. To help some Latin America's small farmers in better marketing their production, there is an organization aimed to develop fair trade and relationship with Europe. C@ www.fairtrade.net
LA HOLA is a famous public action —together with the 1910 Revolution and Chiapas upraising— we have tought over Mexican people. It was a Soccer World Championship and Mexicans showed la hola as the everibody's, co-ordinated standing up (and sitting down) of an audience when they are happy for the playing. ¡Hola! is even a magazine and a website in Spanish, C@ www.hola.com
PEDRO was a Mexican racing car driver enamored of the Ferrari cars. Despite of his desire to drive the Italian cars he would have been victorious several times by other sport car brands. Only at secondary races he kept driving the "rossa" managed by not official teams. He died some day just behind the wheel of one of those Ferrari driven as expedient. This was the destiny of Pedro Rodriguez www.netcar.com.mx, whose story you won't find easily in the annals of Ferrari's pilotos.
ORTEGA y GASSET said once we have to expect from a Spaniard nothing but extraordinary! This sentence would probably signify the people with "sangre caliente" can produce both madness or ecstasy. Well, a) do not expect a quiet middle course at all; b) do not expose the red carpet to one Hispanic if you are not a "torero"! c) to capture "the hottest potential group of consumers out there" you may learn from a website of experts in doing that, C@ www.terra.com. They create and deliver online promotions to the Hispanic market of Americas.
SGT. GARCIA was known as the counteraltar of Zorro, the hero in disguise that was very popular on TV for kids by mid '60s. Fat and sweaty Garcia couldn't compete with the athletic and correct character of the nobleman Don Diego aka Zorro. A Mex-Am affair like that of California possession. The mark of Z did sustain a young man's venture on fighting and establishing the priority of right and fair values over burocracy stand by and exploitation. Today the mark of Z remains a money maker as movies and TV serials are featuring it again. Henceforth even the advertising gentlemen will seek to hit the mark thru brand new marks, headlines, and signs. Find your inspiration, C@ www.adagespecials.com where you may visit the Hispanic Creative Ad Awards!
MISSION as Franciscan organization set up the first economic and social layer of California —so named by a Spanish explorer— nowadays the most populous state among the USA. The mission used Indian labor and soon the Indians* learned to say "mucho trabajo, poco dinero". Today California's inhabitants are split into several ethnic groups that are making this state as the best field to practice the marketing aimed to ethnic communities. Population was little fewer than 30 million people and with 25 percent population-growth rate in 1980s. Despite most of them are white Americans, there are also many inhabitants from other origins:
HISPANIC about 25%, +69% population-growth rate- CHINESE about 10%, +127%
- BLACK about 7%, +21%
- *INDIAN about 1%, n/a.
¡MARGARITA! "To go party by packing, I'm exhausted of...". Running arms was a dangerous job and the Panamá song's words, by Ivano Fossati, bear out the legend of grand-guignol milieu for the locals where ron y tequila were mixed largely! Truth to say many beverages from Latin America and Spain are ideal ingredients for cocktails. Their colorful presence plus highly strong tastes guarantee for something fired to swallow, headaches you could lose your self-control for! Some of those spirits sound Jose Cuervo, Tio Pepe, Don Julio, Don Q, Captain Morgan. The brands history doesn't say if they were truly Hispanic, but their names, like the Sgt. Garcia's mustache, don't lie! Those liquors got or will get fired-up attendees at live dancing joints and nightclubs —Fuego, Avenida, Tropicana, Flamingo, Cueva del Pirata, Mocambo. Do not expect less bright effects on the websites selling or promoting for the spirits industry... C@ www.cuervo.com, where it serves out the red hot items like only mulatto girls can do!
BODAS DE SANGRE: "My question is where to find and how to persuade advertisers to pay a reasonable rate for an honest ad in an ethnically correct web site to gain an honest number of consumers" (email to a newsgroup on online advertising). The next wedding within the online advertising players will be a mixed blood wedding... We're thrilled to have a chilly for toasting, C@ www.corona-extra.net, "la cerveza mas fina".
SET2 For Hispanic-American households Internet access rose to 24% in 2000. The online Hispanics have been surveyed recently with such major findings:
- only 14% are born in the US;
- 97% speak Spanish "very well" or "well";
- 89% have children at home;
- 33% female/67% male;
- most are sensitive to Latino websites;
- they are more likely to use the Internet as an information resource: news content, especially local and national news, sports, international news.
A second example is derived from an American postal service whose media planning and buying is currently divided among three shops --one for African American, one for Asian, one for Hispanic!
Enter here another ethnic group...
SET3 "Muchas gracias" to:
- "Ethnicity in the electronic age. Looking at the Internet through a multicultural lens", a report produced by The Cultural Access Group, www.accesscag.com. I sum up from that survey on SET2.
- "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. His novel is about dreaming versus reasoning.
- The painted poetry of Joan Miró, the Spanish Catalan artist.
- "Mi papá es rubio. -... y el mio tambien. - Pero el mio es alto. - ¡El mio tambien! - Pero mi papá es ingeniero. - Y el mio tiene casetera de video."
A Cuban children dialogue grasped by Enrique N. Rodríguez on "Yo vendí mi bicicleta", the one and only book I have read in Spanish.
(OUTRO) Churches, human connections and not formal organizations often play a central role when promoting to the ethnic groups. I want to recall the movie titled "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" by Sam Peckinpah (1974). To hit the target —or finding the right man across Mexico— the strangers had to pass through and upon the astonished native people. Trying to reward a whole social order just by money made the final price for the headhunting much more expensive than the initial promised ransom. And a "good gringo" like Ben-Warren Oates finished turning into a "pistolero" and fixing a very huge price of his own job.
PS. "What do you want me to play?" the piano player with the sunshades asked customers. Two headhunters scornfully replied "Guantanamera". But they were not really interested in Latin music...
PPS. Damas y caballeros: la ceremonia ha terminado. Vamos!