Multicultural Units Are The Flavor Of The Minute?

Multicultural units are the flavor of the minute but does anyone at these organizations really know what they are doing?

It seems that every day I read or hear about another agency forming a multicultural unit. As I approach many of these firms for business and alliances it is amazing to me how many of them are ill prepared and lack the knowledge of the markets they are trying to serve. For the most part, all they know is that ‘Hispanics are the fastest growing minority sector and that they better cash in on the action.’ The fact that there appears to be some money to be made from the U.S. Hispanic market is the one thing that most of these persons are aware of that actually makes sense. In most instances, it is amazing to see how many large agencies, at the suggestion of their holding company, merely bring someone over from their Latin American operations to run a Hispanic unit. Little do they apparently realize that the knowledge this person picked up in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico or Venezuela has little or no relevance here outside of some possible language similarities. Since we Hispanics, or Latinos as I prefer to refer to myself, make up our own culture and are in a very practical sense, our own country, these folks have the jobs but are lost in the ‘salsa’ of the nuances which we call the US Hispanic market.

When selecting an agency to handle its brands marketers must be wary of this fact and ask the tough questions: Do you know anything about the US Hispanic market outside of the plethora of US Census and other well publicized research? If not, which is the case in most instances, are you surrounding yourself with professionals who do? You would be surprised at how few do. The frightening thing about this for brand marketers and manufacturers is that holding company off-shoots are merely in-baskets for hand-me- down business. Big-brother agency names do not guarantee that yours-or its employees- understands the full complexity and the many nuances of a market whose time has not only come, but is yesterday’s news to those of us who have made it our life’s work. The right agency may mean the difference between hitting your target with specificity, intention and full exploitation or merely aiming, taking a blind shot and hoping for the best when attempting to capture new or greater market share, or better serve a loyal and infinitely valuable customer.

Courtesy of:

J.M. De Jesus
President & CEO
QUADRANT II MEDIA CORPORATION
6021 JFK Boulevard East, Suite 1
West New York, NJ 07093
(201) 662-1676