You can't ever accuse Chiqui Cartagena, Univision's VP of
corporate marketing, of not being schooled in the opportunities available to
marketers trying to reach Hispanic consumers.
Cartagena recently published her second book, Latino Boom
II, which details those
opportunities. This follow-up to her first book, Latino Boom! Everything You
Need to Know to Grow Your Business in the U.S. Hispanic Market (published
in 2005) uses newer data to tout the Hispanic marketplace, and also explains
the perils facing marketers who ignore the Latino buyer.
What's interesting is not so much that Cartagena wrote the
updated version, but that she did so with the blessing of her current employer,
offering up data and advice that might usually be offered up in private
meetings with potential advertisers for the Univision media platforms. Backing
things up further, Univision Communications president and CEO Randy Falco wrote
the foreword to the book.
"Univision is a leader in the media space," Cartagena says. "We
believe that rising tides raise all boats. I'm not revealing any Univision
secrets in the book, but more trying to motivate marketers and give them the
tools to help them reach more Latino consumers. If the book helps Telemundo, so
be it."
Cartagena says the Hispanic marketplace has changed so much
since she wrote the first LatinoBoom! book eight years ago, that she felt she needed to present an
entirely updated picture. She adds that while the new version presents a
similar overall theme, about 85% of the content is new.
When she wrote the first book, Cartagena was between jobs
and on her way to joining Meredith's Hispanic Ventures. This time, she fit the
writing around her busy role at Univision.
Cartagena says she got inspiration while watching the London
Games and seeing the U.S. team march out during the opening ceremony's parade
of nations, sporting a more diverse team than any other delegation in the
Games.
"We are a multicultural nation," she says, "but the Latino
consumer is often still not being recognized by many brands."
Cartagena feels strongly that her original book and premise
needed to be updated and put out there again for marketers. The economic
recession that started to take hold in 2008 and continued for several more
years took some steam out of many marketers moving dollars into Hispanic media,
and Cartagena felt the need to remind marketers about the spending power of the
Latino population in the U.S.
In the book, she writes, "Latinos are the most sought-after
opportunity this country has, and yet we are still viewed myopically by many,
if not most, Americans. My hope is this book will help change that."
And in discussing specifically what she hopes the book will
change, she says, "Every marketer has a millennial strategy and a social media
strategy, but it doesn't seem like they have a Hispanic strategy. Latinos are
the new Baby Boom generation. I foresee this current Latino population
impacting every aspect of the country for the next 50 years. As the white baby
boomers retire, there are going to be lots of Latinos replacing them in the workplace.
They will become a key consumer sweet spot for marketers. Smart marketers will
tap into that by targeting them."
In the book, Cartagena makes a case for the Hispanic
population maintaining their cultural heritage while also assimilating into
American life, particularly beyond first-generation families.
She says any marketer, media agency executive or even
politician who reads the book and understand all the data will "walk away much
smarter about the Latino community."
But the targets of the book from a marketing perspective,
she adds, are the C-Suite executives, and the advertising and marketing
decision-makers. "There are chapters on media and marketing strategies that
will give marketers a better understanding of how to reach this community," she
says.
Cartagena believes that, given the current $1.2 trillion in
annual consumer spending by Hispanics, there should be plenty of motivation for
marketers to be allocating more dollars to attracting those consumers to their
brands.
And the growing number of Hispanic networks in the U.S.
sprouting up, such as MundoFox, only validates the importance of the Hispanic
consumer to brands.
"Latinos are exerting more influence today at the ballot box
and in the supermarkets, and marketers need to realize that and take steps to
take advantage of it," Cartagena says.
