How to Visually Engage your Target Market

How do colors affect purchases?

If colors engage consumers, why are black and white packaged products considered luxury items? What visually draws you to a product or company?

futurederm.com/oliviersandco.com

In Direct Marketing News, Color Your Campaigns to Boost Results by Brent Tartar, SVP of Sales and Marketing for WA Wilde Co. provides an idea of how color is necessary for a campaign, and more specifically for a direct mail campaign in his article. 

• This cost-effective level of measurement can only be attained through proper test­ing against a control. Our testing shows that color does have a significant impact on response rates when used properly.
• The real secret, however, is not just the introduction of color, but using color that is data driven. Many studies show that market­ers gain the best results by using not only personalization of content, but also of color, when it's driven by program automated busi­ness rules.
• This could mean using spot color on a chart or graph to provide added visibility, or a palette change to reflect the target audi­ence, or modifying creative to reflect colors that match to a particular gender or target audience based on data modeling.

Naturally, humans are visually inclined and colors play a significant role in how marketers strategically position their products. Click on and take a look at this infographic to see if you’ve succumbed to the fun-loving brightness of colors:

http://www.hispanicmarketinfo.com

Steve Chazin, Vice President, Product Management for Chatter, Salesforce.com at Salesforce and former Senior Director at Apple even had to rein in their advertising based partly on their colors. Chazin writes, “We washed away the multicolored logo (and by extension the memory of overpriced, underpowered, children’s computers), and we replaced it with a simple, solid black and white logo amid images of enduring heroes who had the passion, courage and dedication to change the world.  In short, we focused on improving Apple’s image while we treaded water and slowly built a better designed computer, the iMac, which would one day save the company.” It is not clear that packaging, colors, and how a product is perceived before it is even used can affect a campaign. In fact, an established brand has to culturally engage the Hispanic market while being visually engaging. According to mediapost.com, “A central tenet of…multi-brand platforms is to focus on providing valuable and culturally relevant content as a way of building brand awareness and affinity and ultimately product sales. The Web and social media are perfect media for content-focused marketing programs. A website, particularly one leveraging a robust content management system, is a potent publishing platform. By artfully integrating social media, brands have a potential for the most widespread distribution system we’ve seen to date to syndicate that content. 

If your brand is successful in English, then take the time you spent working on English campaigns to create a greater outcome with a smaller investment for the Hispanic market. Also, if you want to pull them in visually, what can you do that’s different from your English campaign? Representing an eagle in front of Mount Rushmore for example would have a much different cultural meaning to Hispanic-Americans. Being culturally relevant and visually engaging is the precise way to attract attention and gain a culturally-centric following. What are some ways you and your colleagues can visually and culturally engage the Hispanic market?

How do you visually engage the Hispanic market?

Sources:

HispanicMarketInfo

mediapost.com

Marketingapple.com

Direct Marketing News

3 Reasons Why Radio Resonates with Hispanic Consumers

In the ever-increasing Hispanic market, it is becoming more apparent that the use of radio as a means of advertising proves successful in captivating the core of Hispanic listeners.  Fortunately for marketers, Hispanic consumers are using radio more and more as a way of staying connected to their communities.  Statistics show that the Hispanic population now wields a significant power in the buyers’ market, so what exactly is the advantage of advertising through Hispanic radio?

Power in Numbers

Hispanics now take up a significant portion of the population with even more growth predicted in the future.  This provides significant space for companies to cultivate a substantial market. Since a large portion of this community is not native citizens, they still strongly cling to their cultural values and radio provides these consumers with a direct link to these values.  Hispanics are also known to spend more time in their cars, respond to radio commercials mentioning a sale, and use the radio more heavily than the general population. Daily radio listening allows Hispanic consumers to feel more connected in their communities where they might otherwise feel alienated.  

Culturally Compatible

Listening to the radio is an essential part of life in the Hispanic community. Consumers that are new to the United States see radio as nostalgic way to retain part of their culture as well as remain relevant and connected in their community. Additionally, radio is a cheaper advertising option that does not require reading proficiency and can reach people in various locations and situations.

It’s All in the Family
 

http://www.marketingcharts.com/

It goes without mentioning that the concept of family and togetherness is an essential component to the Hispanic culture and lifestyle. On average, the Hispanic family may listen to a station for 26-30 hours a week, ranking 13% more than the general population.  Understanding the inner psychology and cultural dynamic of Hispanic consumers will help in implementing an advertisement through an avenue that already resonates well with them.

Tips:

• Direct translations of English ads never work because certain phrases and ideas do not translate well and can send a completely different message.
  
• Get to know what ideals and customs truly speak to the Hispanic consumer
  
• When considering budgets, note that radio advertising is one of the cheapest avenues available 

Utilizing radio is a successful strategy in tapping into the increasing Hispanic market. At its core, a radio is a culturally acquainted companion to every Hispanic listener. By understanding the culture, you can utilize familiar music and language to create campaigns that reach the heart of the Hispanic consumer. After all, it pays to be culturally connected.

SOURCES

www.rope.zsb.filmc.net

www.theideabrand.com

www.ad-mkt-review.com

Students In The Hispanic Community

How Can You Reach the Hispanic Market Through Education?

Last week, it was announced via PR Newswire that McDonald’s joined forces with Latinos in college and LULAC National Educational Service Centers to Launch the New Webinar Series “Latinos Rumbo Al College”. “The new webinar series was created to make the college process simple and attainable for both Hispanic students and their parents by leveraging LIC's expertise in developing interactive content that will be delivered in a culturally sensitive way through a trusted community partner and premier educational service organization, LNESC.” 

Reaching the Hispanic community by incorporating the importance of education in your campaign will aid your philanthropic efforts and actively engage the community.  

Be Cool, Stay in School

http://degreesearch.org

Hispanictrending.net featured an article by Octavio Hinjosa Mier on Latino Students, “Increasing the number of Latino college graduates will be key to increasing workforce productivity and taxpayer contributions needed to maintain many of our state’s public services and needed infrastructure improvements.” 

This includes marketing and the infrastructures needed to reach the Hispanic market. Supporting education in turn supports a marketers role in the community. 

One of the best ways to reach students is through social media. By installing a campaign aimed at improving the state of the community into your social media efforts, you can drive more traffic to your site. The infographic below serves as a concise fact sheet as the best way to reach Hispanics as well as support the interests of the youth you are trying to reach:

http://www.loveinfographics.com

 

 

Join Them!

Go to schools and talk about your product or service to students. Junior colleges allow job fairs where you can advertise your company and even sell your services, especially if they are aimed at students. Reaching out to students however can not only help to rebuild the economic infrastructure by way of jobs, but your company will begin to grow within the Hispanic community. 

How Students are Important to You

Students are your sounding board when it comes to understanding the changing generations. To always have an “in” with the new generation is to always be on top and be relevant in a timely fashion. Texting is no longer the big thing? Then what is? Look to surveys and ask your population to best learn how to reach your target population.

Those in school, junior colleges, or college are trendsetters and should be valued. Encouraging the importance of education not only allows you to reach an educated population but a population that understands how products and services work. 

Connect with the schools in your area through job fairs, career campaigns, or even pr stunts to reach the important student population. 

How do you reach the important student population?

Sources:
http://www.hispanictrending.net/