Turkey with yuca con mojo: Marketing Día de Acción de Gracias to US Hispanics

by Zaida Granados / Guest Blogger at Zubination

I don’t need to tell you that Thanksgiving Day is around the corner. You must be receiving the daily email holiday coupons, constantly being TV-fed the holiday shopping sales…and let’s not forget receiving in the mailbox shoppers filled with pictures of plump turkeys and canned pumpkin. This is the one other holiday – aside from Christmas Day – that touches on all the consumer senses – and it’s those marked senses that drive sales for brands. What I find interesting about Thanksgiving Day, from an advertising perspective, is that Hispanic marketers have not fully tapped into the cultural differences of this American tradition.

The first traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner I ever attended was well into my young adulthood, when I was about 19 years old. I was in awe of the serveware, just about taking up the entire 10-seat table, stocked with culinary delights, such as, gravy, sweet potato, cranberry sauce and a 20-pound turkey. To my surprise, the hostess – an older Cuban lady married to a retired, ex-military American gentleman – peppered the table with a few latin plates: pan cubano, arroz con frijoles negros, and yuca con mojo. I thought of Thanksgiving Day as a solely American tradition, Latin flavor not included.

You might think me odd for experiencing Thanksgiving Day so late in my life. I find it preposterous to have missed out so many years of such delicious food, – “Sweet potato, where you have been all my life!” – but not odd that I had never experienced it until then. You see, I am a first generation Hispanic, born in El Salvador and brought to the United States by my parents on the cusp of my fourth birthday. While my personal experiences have been more “American” (think MTV, fast food, and shopping malls) than “Latin American” (in my case, house parties, pupusas, and La Ideal), Día de Acción de Gracias has never been part of our cultural experience. My family, either by choice/indifference, chose not to adopt this American tradition, even after 20 plus years of living in the U.S.

What my above experiences demonstrate is: cultural differences are just as important as the assumption that all Hispanics celebrate Thanksgiving in equal, American fashion. There’s enough diversity of Hispanics living in the United States that marketers have a potential to stand-out from the cookie-cutter advertising. Because, even though U.S. Hispanics are comprised of Mexicans, Caribean’s, Central Americans and South Americans, each has a unique, cultural thumbprint to drive a unique strategy and creative. I say, “Why not take a risk?”

What would you say are the opportunities for brands to advertise Día de Acción de Gracias to the individual Hispanic cultures?

Courtesy of http://www.Zubination.com