E-Tech Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month for 2009 and Beyond

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationwide and begins on September 15, 2009, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries – – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico achieved independence on September 16th and Chile on September 18th.

Hispanic Financials
Some U.S. banks and insurance companies, unlike many media and grocery businesses have limited marketing their products and services specifically to Hispanic consumers. This may have made sense in the past, since the majority of the 45 million Hispanics who live in the United States typically spend less than the average U.S. consumer on financial services but more on groceries and Spanish-language media. Sidestepping the Hispanic market made sense to financial institutions, until now.

Financial institutions could be missing out on a huge opportunity. By 2010, spending by Hispanics living in the United States will probably have risen to more than $950 billion a year, from around $500 billion in 2006. Financial services are projected to account for a substantial part of that increase. Industries that currently cater to the Hispanic market benefit conspicuously from the growing population. Industries such as housing, health care, and financial services that target middle and upper-income consumers are likely to benefit significantly as Hispanic household incomes rise.

To succeed in this diverse market, banks and insurance companies will have to do more than translate their brochures into Spanish. Financial institutions benefit from the lessons learned by other consumer product marketers. In courting Hispanics, financial-services companies must not only attract a new customer segment but also change its buying behavior. Financial institutions will have to educate the Hispanic consumers about such products as mortgages and insurance. Once educated, the Hispanic consumer will seek these “aspirational” products and services. For Hispanics, these financial products become part of “Living in America”.

The incomes and assimilation levels of Hispanic consumers vary widely. Banks should offer a choice of products at every rung of the ladder: from inexpensive services like international wire transfers, pre-paid cards and check cashing targeted at recent immigrants, to mortgages and insurance products geared toward the emerging middle class, to the full portfolio of financial services for second- and third-generation Hispanic consumers.

Clustering all Hispanics in one large category is not the most profitable approach since many different groups compose that market. Nonetheless, there are trends that can be highlighted. For example, purchase decisions among many Hispanics are driven by familiarity or lack of familiarity with brands. The bulk of Hispanic consumers, particularly those who are Spanish dominant buy products and services that they recognize and know something about. They strive to be “more” American. Once sold on a “brand” they will share their experiences with others in their immediate circle.

Marketing to the Hispanic consumer has at its core the establishment of a relationship between the seller and the buyer. Hispanics are particularly sensitive to the establishment and maintenance of that relationship. The Hispanic consumer is generally more sensitive to offers that are acceptable to family and friends as a good decision. We see both individual and external attributes that drive the decisions differently within this segment. Product and offer attributes such as price and availability and perceptual attributes such as quality, benefits, and cultural sensitivity are obviously key drivers in the purchase decision. These distinctions are important. Businesses cannot reap the rewards from this segment unless they understand and target it.

Hispanic Demographic Information Snapshot:
http://12.162.123.172/multicultural_information/etech_process/hispanicsdemo.html

At Ethnic Technologies we are here to help you understand and market to the Hispanic consumer with fresh , accurate and comprehensive data, modeling and analysis.

Ethnic Technologies, LLC - Hispanic Insight
Ethnic Technologies, LLC is the platinum standard in multicultural marketing. The result of over 40 years of continuous ethnic, religious and language preference research, E-Tech allows clients to segment their database by ethnicity, religion, language preference and Hispanic country of origin more accurately and comprehensively than any other approach. The EthniCenter® offers an Assimilation Index, which distinguishes Hispanic individuals based on their ability to speak their Native Language or understand the language of their prevailing culture. E-Tech incorporates a unique approach for the different Hispanic Countries of Origin. After identifying their specific names, E-Tech does a neighborhood analysis using multi-sourced information compiled from our research team. From that data, E-Tech is able to accurately identify the Hispanic individuals' Country of Origin. The incorporation of Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology in E-Tech Version 7.2 establishes a new and unprecedented level of granularity and completeness in the ethnic marketing industry. Clients also benefit from and acquire ethnic mailing, telemarketing and email lists for both the United States and Canada. The analytics department at E-TECH offers ethnic data appending services and mapping to provide businesses with an overview of new and existing markets.

Contact Candace M. Kennedy, Sales and Marketing Director at 866-333-8324 ext. 106 or candace@ethnictechnologies.com. Visit http://www.ethnictechnologies.com.

Naming on Rosh Hashanah

by Lisa Radding lradding@ethnictechnologies.com

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Friday, September 18th. Having just thought extensively about Islam and names at the start of Ramadan, we now shift our focus to Judaism and names.

Rosh Hashanah, literally the “Head of the Year,” is the anniversary of the creation of the world. According to the book of Genesis, however, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh (and thus we have a Sabbath.) So which particular day of creation are Jews commemorating on Rosh Hashanah? The sixth day, when God created Adam, the first human.

The Jewish New Year celebrates the creation of the world, but more specifically, the creation of the human being, a being with free will. With free will, of course, comes the ability to accept or reject God as the creator of the universe. Thus on Rosh Hashanah, Jews celebrate a “coronation” of God as King of the universe and establish Him, once again, in the position to judge human actions and inscribe individuals in the “Book of Life.” Jews believe that this book is then “sealed” ten days later on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

According to Genesis, one of Adam’s first actions as a human with free will is to name all the animals, which are under his dominion. Thus naming takes center stage early on in the bible (Gen 2:19-20). This fixation with naming the world around us continues today. Unlike Adam, however, most of us are not naming species; we name specific individuals, giving them a unique term by which to be referenced. It seems to me that today we are increasingly likely to exercise our free will in this way, choosing ever more untraditional and unique names for our children. Additionally, we can see from the diversity of names across ethnicities, the values of different cultures and how they choose to express themselves. Names reflect our free will as humans.

We can feel powerful through our ability to name. And yet, the religious among us can still celebrate God as our creator and, as Jews will do all over the world this week, coronate Him as King, the one with authority to make decisions over us. Naming gives humans the ability to feel in control. Thus we can still (if we are so inclined) accept a higher power without completely relinquishing this control.

Hispanics Still Spending During These Tough Economic Times

The U.S. Hispanic market is booming. Hispanic households across the United States will sharply increase their economic clout over the next ten years. The demographic explosion has continued since 1990 and there is no let up. Go to Wal-Mart, Sears, K-Mart, to name a few stores, and you will see many Hispanic families loaded with consumer goods. The fact is, Hispanics love to buy and almost always buy in cash.

This is not a debt-ridden community. For years they learned the hard way that to have something, one has to earn it and save. Credit card companies solicit many Hispanic households.

"Our clients come into our office and want to know what to do. We try to explain how the system works and after we are finished, they take the solicitation and throw it in the trash. Being in debt is not honorable, and no one wants to have a bad name. To establish credit history we had to dissuade an individual from paying off immediately his credit card. Keep it for six months or more and pay little, very punctually and you will establish credit. He did and that person now obtained a credit history that allowed him to purchase his own home. Another individual saved up money for three years and went to the bank to pay off the loan. The loan officer's eyes widened considerably when he saw a check for $30,000. Hard earned savings of a family to purchase a home." (Wells Fargo Bank)

Hispanics send money to the families they left behind in their country of origin. And it is true that these remittances are billions of dollars. But according to the National Immigration Forum, in addition to consumer spending, "immigrants and their businesses contribute $162 billion dollars in tax revenue to federal, state and local governments." They work in key sectors, start their own businesses and in general contribute to a thriving economy.

So in order to capture the loyalty of this market segment, marketers have to target this population differently from the "general market." First, companies have to understand that the U.S. Hispanic market is not homogeneous. It is a market "comprised of subcultures from over 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Spain, with the majority (63 percent) of Mexican heritage." Each group has its own set of values, traditions, beliefs, foods, festivals, and consumer patterns. The U.S. Hispanics are not identical. There are many differences in their countries' geographies, their indigenous ancestries and their colonial histories. So a marketer has to be creative and know that the unifying factor in this market segment is the Spanish language.

In advertising, Hispanic market research has discovered that of the Hispanics surveyed, they prefer ads to be in Spanish over English, even though the younger group is more comfortable in English. Research also shows that Hispanics like any type of media, but prefer television and radio. It is no wonder that Univision (one of the Spanish language networks) ranks 5th in the U.S., behind ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, and Univision won the #1 Network rating in the country in overall prime time viewer share on three nights of the week among all adults ages 18-34 in June this year.

Having said this, radio is not far behind. Actually, radio is a very effective medium to reach Hispanics because it has been found that they tend to listen all day.

That leaves print, with a couple minority newspapers that cover news targeting directly to the community. The news covered specifically addresses to the needs and concerns of the Hispanic community. Marketers place ads in these newspapers selling anything from real estate to translation and interpreting services.

Direct response marketing has historically obtained little interest from the Hispanic population. Most have received the mail and trashed it. However, the recent immigrants welcome the mail if for no other reason than to become informed. If most of this direct mail is in English and reaches a large percentage of households that speak and read only Spanish a great opportunity is missed.

Unlike its U.S. counterpart, the Hispanic household is younger, with the head of household anywhere between 25 and 44 years old. Once again, the Conference Board's Research Center states that the under 44 Hispanic market is going to grow from a purchasing power of $295 billion in 2008 to $397 billion by 2010.

So to marketers everywhere, all the signs are there. The opportunity is growing, now is the time to start reaching out to Hispanic consumers with messages targeted to their lifestyles and buying habits.

Ethnic Technologies, LLC - Hispanic Insight
Ethnic Technologies, LLC is the platinum standard in multicultural marketing. The result of over 30 years of continuous ethnic, religious and language preference research, E-Tech allows clients to segment their database by ethnicity, religion, language preference and Hispanic country of origin more accurately and comprehensively than any other approach. The EthniCenter® offers an Assimilation Index, which distinguishes Hispanic individuals based on their ability to speak their Native Language or understand the language of their prevailing culture. E-Tech incorporates a unique approach for the different Hispanic Countries of Origin. After identifying their specific names, E-Tech does a neighborhood analysis using multi-sourced information compiled from our research team. From that data, E-Tech is able to accurately identify the Hispanic individuals' Country of Origin. The incorporation of Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology in E-Tech Version 7.1 establishes a new and unprecedented level of granularity and completeness in the ethnic marketing industry. Clients also benefit from and acquire ethnic mailing, telemarketing and email lists for both the United States and Canada. The analytics department at E-TECH offers ethnic data appending services and mapping to provide businesses with an overview of new and existing markets.

Contact Candace M. Kennedy, Sales and Marketing Director at 866-333-8324 ext. 106 or candace@ethnictechnologies.com. Visit www.ethnictechnologies.com.

Ethnic Technologies, LLC will be exhibiting at the DMA National Show in San Diego, California on October 18th, 19th and 20th..Two new products E-Tech 7.2 and G-Tech 3.0 will be introduced at the show. Please visit us at booth # 1621 to find out more about our great products and services.. Hope to see you there!!