New York — Content rules.
That was the takeaway from “Attracting Loyal Customers
and Viewers: The Art and Science of Acquisition,
Retention and Tune-In Promotions” panel at
Broadcasting & Cable/Multichannel News’ ninth annual
Hispanic TV Summit here last week.
Laura Dergal, vice president of Univision On Demand
said that a highly competitive market can actually
be a good thing because the consumers can
dictate what content they want, instead of the other
way around.
We all need to look at this as a
huge opportunity to put the power
in the hands of the consumer,” said
Dergal during the panel, which was
moderated by Adrianna Waterston,
vice president of marketing and
business development of Horowitz
Associates. “We’re in a time for
great diversification.” Dergal later
explained that viewer empowerment
is a big key to Univision’s
strategy.
Renata Franco, senior manager
of segmentation marketing at
Cox Communications, said this
“new generation of consumers” is
lot harder to engage with and get
a handle on. “It’s the complexity of
our audience that has changed,” Franco said.
Karen Habib, director, Hispanic marketing and development
at Eclipse Marketing, which publishes Nexos
Latinos magazine, chimed in by saying that satellite
and other providers, such as Verizon FiOS, have made
it a “much more competitive landscape for everybody.”
She explained that these companies try to woo potential
customers with a variety of pricing options that are lower
than those proffered by cable operators.
Habib said
that “offering good value” was the key to retaining customers.
Habib added that the strongest way to gain and retain
customers is to make sure what you offer
has value: “You offer a product that’s
robust … at competitive prices. Then you
educate them on how to use your products
so they they derive the maximum
value.”
Marisol Martinez de Rodriguez, senior
director, target marketing at Time
Warner Cable, argued that in order to attract
more Hispanic viewers, distributors
should look no further than how they
market to other subscribers. “[The] Hispanic
market is not brain surgery,” she
said. “We need to follow the same marketing
principles we follow in the general
market.”
Tim Baysinger is a contributing editor at
Broadcasting & Cable.
