It can’t be denied — Hispanics and hard work go together like American business and cheap labor.

This partly explains why the rate of Hispanics who start their own businesses far outpaces the national average by a 3-1 ratio.

Many Hispanics see being their own boss as the only way to true prosperity here.

In 2002, there were 1.6 million Hispanic-owned establishments, a 31 percent jump from 1997. Today there are an estimated 2 million establishments with more opening each month.

Of those Hispanic-owned businesses, nearly half are owned by people of Mexican descent, and the majority are mom-and-pop operators

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The way we English-speaking Americans see ourselves at home and in the world is necessarily changing. No matter how often we hear that we live in a big, diverse, multicultural country and a global economy, it still surprises us to see English as just one of our languages, not the exclusive one.

That’s because many of us didn’t grow up with language pluralism. The multilingual packaging that frustrated the Sunday shopper is the result of the demands of a global marketplace that blossomed in the 1990s.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1992 by the first President Bush, requires multilingual packaging. Companies want to sell to Mexico and Canada as well as the United States without changing their packages. North America is one big store, and customers are a picky lot.

Mexican law requires that if you want to sell your widgets retail in Mexico, the label information in Spanish must be equally displayed with the English. To put it more plainly: The English can’t be bigger or more prominent on the packaging than the Spanish.

To make Canadian customers happy, a manufacturer will want not only to be sure the commercial information is in French but that the French is idiomatic, as spoken in Quebec, not in Paris.

Americans have been worrying about the erosion of English for decades. It may be some consolation to know that our neighbors in Quebec complain that, despite their best efforts to foster French, English remains the dominant language in the world for business, science and commerce.

That doesn’t mean English will be our sole language. The 2000 Census also found that 47 million people — almost one in five — speak a language other than English at home. The vast majority said they also speak English well. Only about 8 percent of people said they spoke English less than very well.

The reality is that votes in the Senate declaring English the “national language” and the “common and unifying language” were purely symbolic. The measures wouldn’t change a thing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said. In this country, federal law protects the rights of those who speak other languages.

A brochure, “Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination” by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, explains that federal laws prohibit discrimination based on a person’s national origin, ancestry, culture or language.

“This means,” the brochure says, “people cannot be denied equal opportunity because they or their family are from another country, because they have a name or accent associated with a national origin group, because they participate in certain customs associated with a national origin group, or because they are married to or associate with people of a certain national origin.”

The brochure is available in 17 languages, including English.

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Hispanic Marketing SIG – “The Case for Hispanic Marketing: A conversation with Alex Lopez Negrete”

When:
April 28, 2005

Where:
Renaissance Hotel Greenway Plaza
Plaza Ballroom, 20th Floor
6 Greenway Plaza East
Houston, Texas 77046

Parking Information:
Parking is available in the Greenway Plaza Garage below the hotel entrance.

Schedule:
7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Breakfast and Registration
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Discussion

Program Description:
Hispanics are the fastest growing population segment in the U.S. With more Hispanics in the U.S. than Canadians in Canada and with $700 billion of purchasing power, Hispanics are one of the most attractive markets in the country. However, very few companies are taking advantage of the great opportunities and untapped revenue streams that Hispanics represent. Alex Lopez Negrete will have an informal discussion about why Hispanic marketing makes business sense for many companies. In an innovative event format, a business journalist from the Houston Chronicle will pose provocative questions and facilitate the dialogue.

Speaker Bio:
Alex López Negrete
President, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer – López Negrete Communications

Since he founded López Negrete Communications in 1985, Alex López Negrete’s passion and vision for Hispanic marketing has steered the firm to become one of the country’s most influential Hispanic marketing consultants and partners. His agency continues to grow, with over $80 million in billings for 2003 and more than 90 employees. Alex credits his success to building a team of multi-cultural, multi-national, bilingual and bicultural communications professionals who possess different and complementing talents and expertise. The López Negrete team has won literally hundreds of awards and accolades over the years and was recently awarded the Silver Medal, the highest honor granted by the Houston Advertising Federation. Alex is this year’s National President of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

Admission & RSVP:
Advance Registration: AMA Members $25; Non-members $45; Students $18.
At the door: AMA Members $35; Non-Members $55

Register online at www.regonline.com/23330. Simply click the link, and follow the directions. If you get an error message when you click this link, cut it and paste into your browser. Pre-payment will be accepted online. Please RSVP by 12 p.m. on April 26.
No shows will be billed for this event. If you cannot attend after you register, please return to the online registration and cancel your registration. You may cancel your registration up to the time we close our registration. Walk-ins will not be guaranteed seating.

For questions or comments regarding registering online, please email Rodi Franco at [email protected]

Contact Name and Email for Additional Information on the Event:
For more information on this event, please contact Manuel Delgado at [email protected] or 832-242-2600 or Christopher Hurtado at [email protected] or 281-658-6002.

Map:
Click here for directions.

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) announced its new board of directors at AHAA’s recent conference in San Antonio. Alex Lopez Negrete, president and CEO of Lopez Negrete Communications will lead the dynamic organization as chairman and Carl Kravetz, chairman and CEO of Cruz/Kravetz: IDEAS will serve as the chairman-elect. Stepping down from this position is Manuel E. Machado, CEO of MGS Communications.

In his inaugural speech as president of AHAA, Lopez Negrete said, “We will make sure that we have an organization that never looses focus on its core mission to communicate the value of what we do and of the community we represent to the highest levels of the corporate board rooms.”

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (http://www.ahaa.org) is the national organization of firms that specialize in marketing to the nation’s 43.5 million Hispanic consumers, the most rapidly growing segment of the American population. AHAA promotes the strength of the Hispanic marketing and advertising industry to the private and public sectors.

AHAA agencies offer a unique blend of cultural understanding, market intelligence, proven experience and professionalism that deliver Hispanic market success for clients. AHAA helps organizations gain market share, increase revenue and grow profits by building the bridges and delivering the messages to reach America’s Hispanic consumers, who together have an estimated buying power of nearly $700 billion.

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If you’re in marketing, you’ve heard the numbers: Forty million Hispanics live in the U.S. and represent approximately $686 billion in spending power, an estimated $6 billion of it funneled to entertainment. Although they’re only 13.4% of the population, they account for an estimated 20% of movie-ticket sales, and some say that number is as high as 50% for an opening weekend in Los Angeles.

Formidable by all counts, one would naturally assume the Latino community is being courted by the Hollywood power structure through strategic casting, choice of story material and targeted advertising. Yes and no.

…the industry still has a long way to go. At this point, Latinos just don’t have the onscreen recognition they feel they deserve to accurately reflect their commercial and cultural clout.

While many studios and networks have created slots for executives in charge of Hispanic marketing, supported by a variety of independent consultancies, there are those who complain that the amount of money spent to back such initiatives is paltry compared to the prize at stake.

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From 2000-2004, dollars spent by the top-50 advertisers to reach the U.S. Hispanic market grew from $658.37 million to $1.23 billion, according to a new HispanTelligence research report.

otal monies spent by the top-50 advertisers to reach the U.S. Hispanic market have grown more impressively than the overall market itself despite slowing in growth in recent years. From 2000-2004, dollars spent by the top-50 advertisers grew from $658.37 million to $1.23 billion, an 87 percent increase. The dramatic increase in advertising expenses serves as an indirect indicator of advertising investment satisfaction by existing advertisers. Large companies like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola have continually increased the amount of money they are spending to reach this coveted market. Companies that have just entered the market are finding themselves far behind those that have been involved all along, but are spending large amounts to make up lost ground. Most notably, Lexicon Marketing, developer and marketer of Inglés sin Barreras, a video-based English learning program, has increased its advertising investment from $12.56 to $75.00 million in little over a year, and is now challenging the venerable Procter & Gamble for the top position.

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The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped from 6.4 percent to 5.7 percent in March, according to recently released data from the U.S. Labor Department.

Unemployment among Hispanics remained 0.5 percent higher than total U.S. unemployment, which was 5.2 percent.

By age and sex, unemployment among Hispanics ages 20 and over was 5.3 percent for men and 5.8 percent for women. The unemployment rate among Hispanics ages 16 to 19 dropped from 21.2 percent in February to 18.8 percent in March, reflecting 14,000 new jobs going to young Hispanic job seekers and the withdrawal of 12,000 Hispanic youths from the U.S. labor force.

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Discovery en espanol will no longer be an orphan. The cable channel, geared to the U.S. Hispanic market, is getting two new siblings in June along with increased attention from its global multichannel parent Discovery Networks.

It’s part of Discovery’s strategy to make inroads in the mushrooming U.S. Hispanic pay-TV market with a new Miami-based division, the U.S. Hispanic Networks Group, launched two weeks ago with some 15 staffers in programming, advertising sales, research and distribution.

Discovery launched its “en espanol” channel seven years ago for U.S. Spanish-speakers, but has largely focused on developing Spanish-language channels in Latin America and Iberia.

About a year ago, Discovery started researching opportunities to lure more U.S. Hispanic viewers and came up with two “underserved, underprogrammed” niches: shows for children and women, Silberwasser said.

To start transmitting on June 17, Viajar y Vivir (Travel and Living) is designed to be a lifestyle channel aimed at women, with programming to encompass travel, food and home decoration.

Starting on the same date, Discovery Kids en espanol will offer “safe haven” programming with educational value: preschool fare in the morning, shows for school-aged kids in the afternoon and family programs on animals and nature in the evening.

Discovery’s push into the U.S. Hispanic market comes amid an explosion in pay-TV channels aimed at stateside Spanish-speakers. Last year, 19 networks were launched, many of them channels from Latin America, with another half-dozen announced to go up this year.

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The Hoffman Estates-based retailer has ended its relationship with TV personality Lucy Pereda known as the “Hispanic Martha Stewart” after less than two years of selling her apparel in 227 Sears stores.

Sears Holdings Corp. is saying adios to Lucy Pereda and hola to Latina Life.

The Pereda line had “weak” results, said Gwen Manto, general manager for Sears’ soft lines, which include clothing. “We’re having our last deliveries of Lucy Pereda now,” she said.

But Sears, whose retail Achilles’ heel has been apparel, is continuing to take steps at luring Hispanic shoppers — which account for a quarter of the company’s sales — with an exclusive line called Latina Life.

The line is part of a partnership with Latina magazine and consists of clothing, shoes and purses.

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Thanks to the 2000 census, everyone in business knows the nation’s Latino population has become a hugely important market. The Latino base is growing in immigrant enclaves like South Gate and, increasingly, cities and towns far from traditional Latino destinations, including metro Atlanta.

The challenge is reaching this complex audience.

The nation’s Latino population remains little understood and little seen by much of the United States. While the country is 12.6 percent Hispanic, a large portion of the population is heavily concentrated in the West, especially states on the border with Mexico.

Georgia’s Latino population is about 5.3 percent.

By 2020, however, Latinos are likely to be 17.8 percent of the U.S. population. And Latino culture will continue to become a bigger influence on overall pop culture.

Latino spending power is huge: $700 billion in 2004, according to HispanTelligence, a research firm. That total is expected to grow to $1 trillion by the end of the decade.

Felipe Korzenny, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, said the U.S. Hispanic market is already the second-largest in the world, after Mexico itself.

“And they have more buying power than the gross domestic product of Mexico,” he said. “Just think about that.”

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Miami-based Bela Broadcasting, a Spanish language television programmer and independent station operator, purchased former NBC affiliate KMOH-TV last month from Gannett Communications for $5.25 million to tap the growing Hispanic market in Las Vegas as well as Phoenix.

With Hispanics comprising 26 percent of the valley’s 1.7 million people and spending about $33 million weekly on goods and services, the latest entrant to local Hispanic media further demonstrates the demographic shift in the local market. It’s a shift that has forced advertisers and their agencies to accommodate the swelling niche by servicing it.

While KMOH and Bela are hoping to cash in on advertisers’ needs by betting that the local Hispanic population is large enough to support a station that specializes in family and children’s programming, the new owners have numerous steps to take before capitalizing on their investment.

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Beginning this week, First Tennessee bank officials will launch two components of their Hispanic initiative which recognizes and supports the growing population in Chattanooga. The first provides professional Spanish language instruction to bank employees.

Stacy Johnson, Director of Hispanic Relations for First Tennessee, stated, “The Spanish language program will be of great benefit to Spanish speakers living in our area by helping to narrow the language barrier that is so prevalent.” Ultimately, their hope is to better serve this population’s important financial needs, officials said.

Classes are offered three times a week and are free of charge to the bank’s employees. To date, 45 are enrolled in the program. The class will be offered in the Cleveland area as well.

The second initiative being launched is a curriculum geared to Spanish speakers throughout Hamilton County in partnership with READ Chattanooga, Tennessee’s oldest adult educational program. The class, known as Money Matters, is a financial literacy program designed in conjunction with the FDIC, whose purpose is to teach people the benefits of utilizing banking institutions. The most fundamental benefit is to protect a family’s financial assets, in addition to their overall security.

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Marketing guru Fernando Espuelas made his name pioneering the Internet in Spanish and Portuguese. He was the first to take a Latin American Internet company public on Wall Street, Star Media Networks Inc., and personally lost $500 million when the dot-com bubble burst — even as the Internet still blossoms in Latin America.

Now, the Uruguay-born executive who Time magazine called one of the “Leaders of the Millennium” is targeting another linguistic market often overlooked: U.S. Hispanics comfortable in English.

Espuelas is launching Voy, a New York-based company developing a brand of Hispanic-relevant books, TV, music and movies in English, the language of millions of Latinos raised in the United States and tens of millions more Americans who enjoy Latin culture…

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Miguel Hernandez makes just $7 an hour, but the Waukegan factory worker and other Mexican immigrants have been wooed relentlessly in recent years by the nation’s richest and largest banks, who see a growing, almost untapped market.

On Thursday the competition will intensify when Bank of America rolls out a program that allows immigrants to send money to Mexico without paying any fees, believed to be a first among major banks.

The program will begin in Chicago and spread to other cities later this year.

Although the free service is limited–to qualify, senders must hold checking accounts at the bank and recipients can pick up the money only at certain Mexican banks or ATMs–financial regulators say the decision is a milestone.

Michael Frias, who works with 37 Midwest banks and Mexican government officials to promote financial access for immigrants, said he knows of no other banks that offer money transfers without fees.

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Meredith Corporation is launching a lifestyle and shelter publication targeted to Hispanic women. The bi-monthly, ¡Siempre Mujer! will debut this fall with an initial rate base of 350,000.

Meredith has mentioned previously that it intended to go after the Hispanic marketplace, although entering the home category specifically is something of a surprise. In justifying its decision, the company cited data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which indicates that within the next decade, one in five new homeowners will be Hispanic.

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