Agency

Subjectivity is at the center of marketing and cultural subjectivity is at the core of cross-cultural marketing (Korzenny & Korzenny 2005). The importance of understanding subjective aspects of a culture can not be overstated when considering marketing strategies that are aimed at Hispanics.

A common strategy used in commercials to promote healthy behavior is fear. For example, anti-smoking campaigns have used vivid images depicting damage to the lungs caused by smoking. Now, a new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia finds that adolescents react more intensely and emotionally to these commercials than young adults. The researchers believe these findings may lead to recommendations for the design of more effective messages promoting healthy behavior.

As a tribute to an athlete’s passion to compete and will to win, Gatorade’s latest ad spotlights Rolando Cantu, a pioneer for all Hispanic athletes to follow as he became the first player from a Mexican University to play in the NFL. The new spot, called “Chosen”, tells the story of Cantu’s entry into the league and the challenges he faced along the way to the roster of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

Verizon Wireless in the South have been assigned to Dallas-based Moroch Latino, a subsidiary of Moroch Partners, LP the brand planning, creative development, media planning and buying and promotional marketing services in over 15 markets.

Changes at The Bravo Group continued last week with the resignation of Carlos Torres, Creative Director who headed Bravo’s direct response unit, and Christine Hahn, who was in charge of Bravo/San Francisco.

An official press release from the agency took care of announcing four internal promotions while carefully shunning from saying a word about the high level departure.

According to Radio & Records, a coalition that includes Mexico’s Grupo Televisa, Venezuela’s Venevision, private equity firm Providence Equity and billionaire Haim Saban is close to making an offer to acquire Hispanic media giant Univision Communications, sources tell Reuters. However, the news agency reports that the process was at an early stage, with no guarantee that a formal bid would emerge.

Harris Interactive and Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research, providing significant insight into the diverse vehicle shopping preferences among three different ethnic groups: African, Asian and Hispanic Americans.

A monumental public relations effort to kick off a wide-ranging Univision-led promotion to reach Hispanic consumers was launched in Miami by food giant Unilever.

Involving over 100 chefs who paraded the streets of the Sun Capital and added intrigue by showing up unexpectedly at heavy-traffic intersections and shopping malls, Unilever set off its ingenious p.r. stint titled “Suelta el Chef que llevas dentro!” (Unleash the Chef in you!).

An unprecedented and timely national research project that will examine the impact of Social Security on the U.S. Latino population was announced by Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, lead researcher for the project and director of the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging (CPRA). In addition to CPRA, the research collaborative includes the University of Southern California Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. The three lead centers will work in partnership with the National Hispanic Council on Aging and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

Last week’s New York City conference unveiling mun2’s Latino youth study once again confirmed what still confounds many General Market and Hispanic ad agencies: Latino youth do not want to be forced into choosing one culture over the other. As one of the conference panelists pointed out, Young Latino Americans (YLAs)-as the study calls them-are not pre-binary (“this or that”); they are sometimes Latino and sometimes American, depending on how they’re feeling at the time.

El Pollo Loco, Inc. unveiled the first of four new Spanish language television commercials from its Hispanic advertising agency-of-record, Los Angeles-based cruz/kravetz:IDEAS.

Analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey shows that there were 11.1 million unauthorized in the United States a year ago. Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006.

Business is a game, and the interview is one way to prove how well you play. Tough questions are par for the course and learning how to answer them takes planning and preparation.

Due to the fact that much of the discussion about Hispanic culture has referred back to or included family, I chose to study gender relationships and expectations for the purpose of this essay. As a result of the limited scope of this paper, I will discuss three main areas of this topic: first, the importance of family, next gender roles and how they differ for men and women, and finally machismo and marianismo and the ways they determine gender roles and expectations.

Two overarching ideas have permeated the readings for the subject of whether or not, and how, the Spanish language affects the way Hispanics think and behave and how this affects Hispanic marketing strategies. Those ideas are that first, the English and Spanish languages, as well as marketing principles and practices, are continuing to evolve as we have an increasing number of interactions between cultures and as new ideas and studies are conducted and as the acculturation process takes place in America.