Understanding Food and Hunger in Hispanic Marketing.

Food and Hunger Archetypes in the Hispanic Culture.

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives (Belch & Belch, 2007). One of the goals of marketers is to connect with people on a conscious and unconscious level. To position a brand or service adequately among the Hispanic population, marketers need to tap into their minds and hearts. This connection can be achieved by the effective conjunction of words and visual images that appeal to the reason and to the emotions of the targeted audience.

Marketers often give brands human characteristics in order for the audience to interact and connect with them. This phenomenon is called archetypes. An archetype is the generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. Archetypes can also take larger ranges of dimensions and characterize an entire culture (Korzenny & Korzenny, 2005) thus the need for marketers to utilize archetypes present in the Hispanic culture.

Korzenny & Korzenny (2005) argue that money, fatalism, celebration of life, shame vs. guilt, parent-child relationships, and machismo vs. marianismo are some of the archetypes that make a marketing communications difference among Hispanics. In this paper I examine the archetypes of hunger and food, their manifestations throughout the Hispanic culture and the implications for marketers.

Defining hunger and food, at first glance, seems like an easy task. Although hunger can be defined as “the uneasy and painful sensation caused by a lack of food and the recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food” (Anderson, 1990) in the Hispanic culture, food and hunger evoke other meanings and emotions. Some cultural perceptions of food and hunger among Hispanics include a good appetite is associated with good health, children are not forced to eat foods that they resist, and a list of harmful foods and other food beliefs are passed along from mother to daughter (Heise, 2002).

Food and hunger acquire new dimensions through Hispanic cultural expressions such as refranes, songs and literature. Refranes or proverbs are a conceptual universal phenomenon with high communicative and cross-cultural value. We find more Spanish proverbs about hunger, food, and the harvest than in English (Ibáñez, 2006). Some Spanish refranes that refer to food and hunger, with their respective literal English translation and parallel English proverb are:

1. Al que no quiere caldo, se le dan tres tazas.
a. The person that does not want soup, gets three cups.
i. When it rains it pours.
2. Cuando hay hambre no hay pan duro.
a. When there is hunger, there is no hard bread.
i. Beggers can’t be choosers.
1. A falta de pan, galletas.
a. For a lack of bread, crackers.
i. Settle for the next best thing.

Food and hunger archetypes manifest similarly in Spanish songs. “Ojalá que llueva café en el campo” (I Wish it Rained Coffee in the Country) from Dominican singer and songwriter Juan Luis Guerra, presents a lavishing description of traditional Hispanic foods. Guerra’s lyrics use common agricultural terms like rain, planting, crops, and harvest to convey themes of poverty, suffering, injustice, and food as a mean of happiness.

Among the Hispanic cultural expressions, literature provides the largest spectrum of the food and hunger archetypes. In Mexico, as in many cultures, cooking and feeding often involved servitude, drudgery, and compulsion for women. The kitchen became a repository of female traditions especially women of lower classes and marginalized ethnic groups. In the novel “Como agua para chocolate” (Like Water for Chocolate), Mexican author Laura Esquivel suggests that food and food preparation becomes an expression of a woman’s voice and emotions (Counihan, 2001).

Korzenny & Korzenny suggest that marketers should ”strive to learn about these dimensions and archetypes through exposure to Hispanic literature, art, cinema, and music as well as in-depth research.” Obviously marketers need to take in consideration their target audiences culture and values. Those that invest their time and resources to incorporate Hispanic archetypes in their campaigns, will be a step ahead of the rest of the competition.

Fernando L. Rodríguez
Florida State University

REFERENCES
Belch G. & Belch M. (2007). Advertising and Promotion : An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective
Korzenny, F. & Korzenny, B. A. (2005). Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Anderson (1990) Warrix, M. (2002). Factors protecting against and contributing to food insecurity among rural families. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUB/is_1_16/ai_n6206905
Heise, D. (2002). Hispanic American Influence on the U.S. Food Industry, Selected References Prepared in Commemoration of the USDA Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from: http://www.nal.usda.gov/outreach/Hfood.html
Ibañez, A. (2006). An Analysis of the Cognitive Dimension of Proverbs in English and Spanish: the Conceptual Power of Language Reflecting Popular Beliefs. Universidad de La Rioja. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from: http://www.pulib.sk/skase/Volumes/JTL02/04.pdf
Counihan, C. (2001). Food, Feelings and Film, Women’s Power in Like Water for Chocolate. Innsbruck: Studienverlag.