Inside And Out

Assess your external and internal situation before marketing to Hispanic members.

By Suzanne M. Boniface

July 3, 2008

Editor's note: The following first appeared in the July 2008 issue of Credit Union Management.

A mistake many businesses make is to place one ad in Spanish and think "That's it! We're doing Hispanic marketing." Don't waste your money.        

A single ad probably won't target the Hispanics in your field of membership. Your credit union's Hispanic members could have a wide variety of characteristics. They may come from one of 22 countries of origin or be U.S. born; they may speak different lan-guages or dialects, according to an article by Ignacio (Nacho) Hernandez Jr., president of iHispanic Marketing Group. Indeed, the Hispanic marketplace is anything but homogeneous, making "marketing to Hispanics"-especially with a single print ad-too general an undertaking.          

Instead, Hernandez suggests, the main focus of an effort to reach Hispanic members should be "to market to groups that make sense from a strategic marketing perspective and that are inherently different from each other in the way they perceive and interact with the world ... your communications and brand."            

A study presented in September 2006 by Carl Kravetz of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies en-courages "a deeper, much more sophisticated and nuanced way of communicating and connecting with Latino consumers ...." The report suggests taking the language out of your thought process, and looking at what really makes a Latino a Latino.           

So, before you jump into "marketing to Hispanics," be sure to consider your CU's readiness to do so. An external assessment should provide an understanding of the Hispanic culture in your membership, including ways to market to these members and potential members. Your internal assessment should help uncover things your CU needs to get ready and tactics it may be able to use to reach out to and serve this market.

External Examination
First, find out the specifics about Hispanics in your market. "In the old days, we used mass marketing efforts to talk to all markets," says Amber Danford, VP/marketing and public relations at $550 million Texas Trust Credit Union, Mansfield, Texas. "Now, segmentation makes it easier for us to tell our credit union story to our market in a more targeted approach. Because we are in Texas, the Hispanic community has been part of our marketplace" from the beginning. "We understand that the only way to build trust within that community is through a strategy of building long-term relationships."               

Texas Trust CU performs member surveys both in English and Spanish and conducts Hispanic focus groups to learn more about its Spanish-speaking membership.          

Kristle Pieh, director of marketing and training at $49 million American Savings Credit Union, Memphis, Tenn., advises, "This is a widely diverse group of people and there is not one template that can be used to serve the market." American Savings CU began its structured effort to serve the Hispanic community about two years ago.          

"We had to find out which IDs we were able to accept and which IDs we were willing to accept and update our policies accordingly," Pieh says. The CU hired a director of Hispanic operations to focus on developing the Hispanic marketing program.

Internal Review
Once you understand what your target will be, you will need to do an internal audit. Here are key things to examine:

1. Products and services. Many institutions tend to look at their complete service offerings to this market. But after you have performed your market research, you will have a better idea of the types of products that you maybe have not been offering.  You might find there will soon be many first-time home buyers in this population in your service area so establishing a program directed to those buyers would make sense. It is possible the older generation does not understand the concept of "credit," so an educational seminar explaining the concept might be beneficial and a great step in building trust. Set goals and continuously revisit.          

2. Materials. Review your brochures, flyers, forms, applications and disclosures. Create a clear message for the audience you will be targeting. Through member surveys in both English and Spanish, "we ask our members how we can serve them better, but not just in the credit union," Danford says. "We go to them" through Texas Trust CU's community outreach efforts.           

3. Marketing venues. Are you present where this audience is reading, watching, surfing, playing? For example, Batanga.com was the first online community focused on the Latino lifestyle, entertainment and Latin music. According to Wikipedia, Batanga is one of the top 100 fastest growing Web sites, with more than 5.5 million unique visitors per month. The AHAA study also points out that this culture is very family oriented and many decisions come down to group decision making. This knowledge may affect where you choose to reach Hispanics. Church events might make the ideal setting for promotion and/or sponsorship from your CU.          

4. Brand. The evolution of your brand should be carefully managed to the Hispanic market, culturally and linguistically. For example, if you have been directing your brand toward promoting "green" living through buying upscale, energy-efficient or solar products, but your target Hispanic market is at more of a lower to median income level, you might want to make your "green" approach for this segment focus more on energy conservation and saving money.            

5. Web site and online marketing. Hispanic online marketing is large and growing fast. Half of the 44 million Hispanics in the United States are on line, and PC ownership shot up 43 percent from October 2005 to January 2007, according to the March 2008 issue of Fast Company. Once you decide on an appropriate target, speak with your Webmaster about establishing a budget for the needed changes, which may include translating all or parts of your site into Spanish (also see No. 9, below).           

6. Customer support staff and center. Can any staff members speak Spanish? Do they understand the target market, the marketing initiatives and the product and service offerings? I recently called a CU that had a prompt that said "Press 2 for Spanish" but when I pressed two, the information was in English.          

7. Employees. It is important to communicate the components and understanding of the readiness program and its results to your staff so they can understand how your CU will be communicating its message to the Hispanic population. It is equally important to educate employees.          

8. Community involvement and outreach. Presence and connection through community groups dedicated to the Hispanic community are key marketing tools. "You have to be willing to get involved with the community if you want to really reach them and have success," Pieh says. It's also important to have members of the Hispanic community on staff-or to be able to consult with someone who is in tune to the Hispanic community in your area. Texas Trust CU participates in community festivals, sporting events, and school events. "We make it a point to be there in the community," Danford affirms.           

9. Translations. If you decide you are going to provide bilingual information, hire a qualified translator. Not every word can be translated verbatim and you do not want to lose member loyalty with sloppy translations. For example, the well-known slogan "Got milk?" would translate directly into "Are you lactating?"            

10. Ability to measure. Do your present tactics for evaluating successes work with the type of marketing you will be doing for this audience?           

11. Legal. Depending on your approach, you will need to do a legal review of translated documents and other legal checks.          

This market is definitely complex. Still, once you get started, I believe you will find a fascinating, multi-faceted culture that's a dynamic target audience. Hispanics will certainly have a serious impact on the North American financial picture going forward.           

Current Hispanic purchasing power is 8.5 percent of total U.S. purchasing power, but will reach 11 percent by 2010, according to HispanTelligence. And, the number of prosperous Hispanic households (those with incomes of at least $100,000) rose 137 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.           

The Spanish-speaking population in Canada is estimated to be half a million people, and is growing 3 percent a year, according to TV Azteca research.           

"The best advice that I could give is to have your listening ears on and strategically go into this market to build lasting relationships with the credit union philosophy at the forefront," Danford says.

Suzanne M. Boniface is a former credit union VP/marketing and the chief blogger at www.shoutcu.wordpress.com.