Monday, December 3, 2012

Spanish speakers - Marketing


How to understand this market – Hispanics? Latinos? By country?


Spanish version - Hispanos / Latinos / por país - ¿Cómo podemos entender este mercado?

Every time someone asks me, Are you Latino?  Lots of things come to my mind, and then I ask myself: Are they asking me if I speak Spanish?  Are they asking me if I eat spicy food?  Are they asking about my origin?  What are they actually asking?
One might think, “Hey! Just answer yes or no and let the speaker decide by himself/herself”.  We’ll for us, people who come from Latin America, the Caribbean, or the Iberian Peninsula, this is not an easy question to answer.  As for many Americans when they are abroad, our homeland is closer to our heart when we are away from it.  In our minds the answer is always, “No.  I am not Latino/Hispanic. I am from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Cuba, or any other country among the many located south of the US or the farthest southwest of Europe.”. Then what would be an easier and simpler question?  Voilà! Where are you from?  One might find a friendlier answer, possibly with extra information about the origin of the person.  The responder will be more willing to communicate with you if he/she feels you empathize with him/her.  We all know there is always a need for market segmentation as a show of respect for the differences within the target market.  Why would someone think that this market should be treated any differently?


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