FSU Launches First Center For Hispanic Marketing Communication In The U.S.

Florida State University (FSU) announced the official launch of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, the first program of its kind in the U.S., designed to educate professionals to serve the growing Hispanic marketing industry.

The Center is directed by Dr. Felipe Korzenny, one of the country’s preeminent Hispanic marketing experts and an FSU professor of advertising and integrated marketing communication. It provides the nation’s first graduate certificate and undergraduate minor programs, conducts relevant research to further the understanding of the Hispanic market, offers executive seminars, and serves as a knowledge resource about the Hispanic market.

Dr. Korzenny, who founded one of the first multicultural marketing firms prior to joining the FSU faculty, is a top national speaker and is widely considered an expert on Hispanic market strategy and insights, bringing expertise and unique perspective on the Hispanic market to a broad range of industries. Together with co-author Dr. Betty Ann Korzenny, he wrote the new book Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective, which provides key marketing insights on the cultural aspects of the U.S. Hispanic experience.

“The United States is the second-largest Spanish speaking nation in the world,” explains Korzenny, “and the pace of growth of this population far exceeds the base of true cultural knowledge and understanding of this population among marketing professionals. Hispanics are the most important and fastest growing segment in the U.S. consumer marketplace.”

The growing Hispanic population is profoundly changing the marketing landscape. Hispanic purchasing power is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2008, according to the Selig Center, and the Hispanic population is conservatively predicted to more than double in size by 2050, reaching 24% of the total U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic advertising industry is outpacing all other sectors of advertising growing four times faster and is now more than a $4 billion industry, according to Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

The Center has been lauded by key Hispanic and non-Hispanic marketing firms who have demonstrated interest in supporting the Hispanic marketing communication industry.

“Any smart marketing firm or marketing department within an organization will promote continued understanding of marketing to Hispanics, particularly a strong education component. Many marketing firms of all types are struggling to find qualified Hispanic Marketing professionals, and FSU is the only school addressing this need in a comprehensive way,” said Michelle Zubizarreta, Chief Administrative Officer of Zubi Advertising, an award-winning Hispanic advertising agency and one of the first to sponsor a Center scholarship.

The Center, which collaborates with the Yankelovich MONITOR Multicultural Marketing Study, and with Cheskin Hispanic research and consulting, offers training at the graduate and undergraduate levels, with a minor for undergraduate students and a certificate for graduate-level students. The coursework has relevance for students from a broad range of disciplines, and a minor and graduate-level certificate may be earned by students regardless of their core area of studies.