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Getting the message across: Hispanic marketing strategies

Habla Espanol? Most quick-service chains are brushing up on their Spanish. And for good reason.

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 – hiring separate agencies of record for Spanish-speaking markets, launching Hispanic-specific promotions and sponsoring Latino-focused events, for example.

“As the Hispanic consumer population continues to grow and become a greater share of total restaurant spend, it is necessary to create specific strategies to build awareness, encourage trial use and, ultimately, attract this demographic into an operator’s store,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic Inc.

Just last year, the top 500 advertisers allocated 5.4 percent of their budgets to connect with Hispanic consumers, according to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. The wave of this specific spending focus began in 2007, when Hispanic ad dollars hovered close to 5.6 percent.

Since then, a Spanish wave has washed over QSR marketing schemes. Major players including Wendy’s and Burger King have launched Hispanic-specific campaigns, Baskin-Robbins created a new role to head up the company’s U.S. Hispanic marketing efforts, and Carl’s Jr. developed a format to integrate the chain’s products into prime-time lineups of Univision and TeleFutura affiliates.

Among the best marketers for the Hispanic demographic – as acknowledged by the AHAA – are El Pollo Loco, Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s. McDonald’s even got into the mobile marketing game early, launching a text message ad campaign geared toward the market in 2007.

Streamlining messages

Because the demographic has integrated into the U.S. market at a staggering pace, El Pollo Loco is currently in the process of an AOR review, expected to be completed in February, which will streamline its formerly separate Hispanic and general market accounts.

“The consumer market has evolved and it’s important that we, as a brand, come into the marketplace with one consistent voice,” said Mark Hardison, vice president of marketing for El Pollo Loco. “We were finding, with two separate agencies, that our message was disparate. They looked different and felt different and we believed it was taking away from the brand more than adding to it. To have consistency in the way the brand is presented to everyone is a huge deal, and it is simple and necessary.”

In addition to offering consistency, Hardison adds that the consolidation into a total market approach will yield more efficiency and cost savings.

Shortly after its sale to 3G Capital, Burger King also consolidated its advertising message with the objective of providing a consistent message across demographics. In doing so, the company cut LatinWorks, which provided campaigns for the Hispanic market.

Separating messages

Other chains have gone the opposite direction, either adding a separate Hispanic AOR or adding to their marketing departments to focus on the demographic.

Wendy’s, for example, and its Hispanic advertising agency The Bravo Group – tapped in August  – recently launched a new campaign called “Sabor de Verdad” (loosely translated to ‘Real Test’) to reach out to the Spanish-speaking population. Bob Holtcamp, senior vice president of brand marketing for Wendy’s International Inc., said that connecting to the U.S. Hispanic households is essential to the growth of the brand.

“Wendy’s seeks to build faith among the more than 45 million U.S.-based Hispanics that we will deliver the best tasting fast food experience every time at everyday prices,” Holtcamp said.

Taco Bell pledged to put forth a better marketing effort toward this demographic in 2006 and has since run simultaneous English and Spanish ad campaigns, including the Vendor spot featuring a Mexican lottery vendor calling out menu items in street-style.

Some chains are positioned in markets that are heavily Hispanic and therefore need to convey a message to that demographic for survival, according to Tristano.

One such chain is Church’s Chicken, headquartered in San Antonio. It has long maintained separate AORs  – Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners for the Hispanic market and Trend Influence for the general market. According to Marc Butler, senior vice president of marketing, 22 percent of Church’s Chicken’s customers are Hispanic in origin and, in Texas specifically, the demographic outnumbers Caucasians at restaurants.

As is common with the chain’s marketing strategy, its new chicken mini item is being promoted with both English and Spanish spots, which makes sense for the brand.

“Many of our restaurants are in Spanish-dominated markets,” said Andy Bonaparte, vice president of advertising. “We plan to continue this (strategy) for our marketing plan.”

A strategy for survival

Though these brands acknowledge a big chunk of their consumers, and witness the spending potential moving forward, others have yet to embrace a multicultural marketing message. This, according to Tristano, will work against them sooner than later.

“Many restaurants are still just focusing on the affluent English-speaking consumer and have not made a push toward this group. Just providing coupons or menus in Spanish is not a ‘strategy,’” he said. “It is essential to actually build a bridge, provide specific messaging and penetrate this demographic in order to maintain continued success in the market. Chains that research Spanish-speaking consumers and hire marketing staff with a deep understanding of the market will have a leg up on their competitors.”

http://www.qsrweb.com/article/178692/Getting-the-message-across-Hispanic-marketing-strategies

Primm Valley casinos betting on Hispanics

Although its competition focuses on Asians, casino group pursues own niche by engaging Spanish speakers of Southern California

Last year, the head of marketing for Primm Valley resorts pitched his boss on an $85,000 entertainment act to fill the 6,500-seat arena at Buffalo Bill’s, one of three budget hotels the company operates in Primm.

It seemed a princely sum to pay for a portly accordion player with Elvis-style sideburns and gaudy western wear who sings in Spanish — a man neither he nor his boss had ever heard of before.

Vice President of Marketing Stuart Richey was willing to wager that the accordionist, Ramon Ayala, would attract a sellout crowd of gamblers and help fill the company’s hotels on the California-Nevada border, 45 miles from Las Vegas.

Ayala, a star in his native Mexico, has made more than 100 albums over his nearly 50-year career playing a style of music called “norteño” for its origins in northern Mexico. Although still foreign to American ears, its polkalike beat has grown ubiquitous on U.S. radio stations and in cities large and small that are now home to the country’s swelling Mexican-American community.

The Oct. 16 Ayala concert, which drew 10,000 people to the three Primm casinos that weekend, was a landmark moment for Buffalo Bill’s — and a lesson for Nevada’s struggling casino industry.

“It was like New Year’s Eve, only busier,” said Richey, who previously ran the marketing department at Stratosphere before joining the Primm chain in 2009. “We realized there was pent-up demand for this kind of experience.”

Hispanics, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority, are rapidly becoming a majority of the population in Southern California, Las Vegas’ largest feeder market. It’s also a relatively young population, with a median age of 27 versus 37 for the nation as a whole, according to recent census estimates. That bodes well for an industry with slowing growth prospects in the United States and an aging customer base.

Yet the Hispanic marketing efforts of Las Vegas casinos are largely confined to occasional “Latin night” events or musical acts, and plans for new casinos catering to Spanish speakers haven’t come to fruition — in part because of lingering doubts that Hispanics will have the money to spend.

Such perceptions are shortsighted, as Hispanics tend to come in large groups that can yield big dollars for casinos, said Jim Medick, president of Precision Opinion, a Las Vegas-based market research firm that has surveyed Spanish-speaking customers for California casinos that are increasingly marketing to Spanish speakers with entertainment, menu items and bilingual staff.

“They don’t spend as much per visit but they come more frequently, in large groups of friends and extended family,” Medick said. “They tend to be very loyal to the casinos where they feel comfortable. And they’re undemanding customers who are happy just drinking beer and playing slots.”

Las Vegas casinos expend more resources wooing a relatively small group of Asians with a higher propensity to gamble, however. A significant number of Las Vegas dealers are Asian, and casinos roll out the red carpet for holidays celebrated in Asian communities, such as Chinese New Year.

Instead, Buffalo Bill’s is welcoming Spanish speakers year round with its “Serie de Conciertos Latinos,” a schedule featuring such Mexican celebrities as Los Tigres del Norte and Jenni Rivera. It hosts boxing events featuring little-known fighters with a local following among California Hispanics who are already casino customers.

The Primm casinos can little afford to take risks. They have struggled financially in the recession, which has hurt business from California and forced more luxurious casinos to compete in Primm’s price range. They are mostly empty during the week. The lowest-rent of the three, Whiskey Pete’s, doesn’t take hotel guests then, and instead diverts them to rooms at Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley to trim labor costs. The properties exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year under new ownership, reducing the casinos’ crippling debt load by $750 million and clearing the slate for “optimistic” revenue growth this year, Richey said.

The Latin headliners are paying off with a mostly Hispanic audience from California descending on the three casinos those weekends, booking all of Primm’s 2,650 rooms, clogging parking lots and filling more than 50 charter buses. The business has been a lifesaver for properties that largely depend on people making a pit stop on their way to Las Vegas and are lucky to attract a few thousand customers for a special event, Richey said.

On the gambling floor, a surprise awaits: Two blackjack tables labeled “mesas bilingue” with felts bearing the universally known language for blackjack, “21,” as well as a Nevada first: “el dealer debe pedir carta con un 17 suave.” (In English: “dealer must hit soft 17.”)

At the tables, dealers speak Spanish and English with customers under the watchful eye of Maria Macedo, a Cuban-born table games supervisor with 26 years of casino experience.

The night of the Ayala concert, Macedo addresses curious onlookers in Spanish and encourages them to sit down and play — an unusual sight in an industry that discourages table games players from speaking languages besides English.

Would-be players wave others over to the table with an “Ella habla español!”

(Casino regulators generally recommend that casinos have bilingual supervisors who can understand the language their customers are speaking to avoid potential collusion between players and dealers in a language supervisors can’t understand. Many supervisors lack such skills, however, which is why casinos prefer that players speak English.)

Some gamblers no doubt played their first hand of blackjack that night, while others grew more comfortable with the game, chatting up other players and staff rather than gambling in silence — or guessing at their next move.

“One older lady from Mexico said she knew how to play but wasn’t comfortable speaking English in public, so she didn’t play,” Macedo said, shaking her head. “We should have had this a long time ago.”

Over the course of the night, Spanish speakers spill over to nearby blackjack and craps tables and the crowd grows festive, singing songs and laughing. Non-Spanish speakers sit down and take part in the carousing and joking, trading blackjack pointers that may or may not be completely understood.