The Hispanic Institute and Mobile Future recently released an in-depth report on mobile broadband’s impact on the Hispanic community. The study, Hispanic Broadband Access: Making the Most of the Mobile, Connected Future, outlines developing opportunities made possible by Hispanic Americans’ adoption of mobile technology.                       

Today, Hispanics are second only to African-Americans in their use of mobile broadband, accounting for more minutes used and a higher percentage of mobile device ownership compared to the general public. As a Hispanic-American, I am proud our community is leading the way in wireless adoption, and I’m excited to see how this adoption can be applied to bolster the community as a whole — from entrepreneurial opportunities and health care to education and law enforcement.

Mobile technology has evolved and expanded exponentially over the past 25 years. Applications and services offered today were conceived at an incredible rate in order to meet consumers’ continued demand for real-time communications solutions. The Hispanic community has embraced the mobility, efficiency and speed of mobile technology. In fact, more than half of America’s Hispanic population uses mobile Internet, a significant proportion compared to other ethnic groups. And in 2008, Hispanics outpaced the general population (42 percent to 35 percent) in accessing and downloading digital media — including music, video, movies, television programs, video games and podcasts. These aren’t just dry statistics. As the report advocates, this development offers a new platform to reach a growing population in our country.

The comprehensive study illustrates how advancements in wireless broadband are democratizing both educational and entrepreneurial opportunities by connecting students to additional resources and mobile education tools and connecting small-business owners to suppliers and customers — freeing entrepreneurs to grow and run their business where they choose. The report also outlines important medical advances in remote monitoring and telemedicine, allowing patients to track everything from blood sugar and fitness levels to medication. As a veteran officer for the Houston Police Department, I would add to the list the remarkable impact wireless has had on law enforcement and first responders.

In my role as administrator at both the local and federal level, I have labored over stretching the budget while providing the best security possible to all of our citizens. No one wants to cut corners when it comes to safety, but the reality is many public officials are facing shrinking budgets. My advice: Leverage technology to help officers work smarter and do more for less.

Police in more than 100 communities nationwide, including here in Houston, are encouraging the public to use text messaging to contact local tip lines. In many cases, the police can actually have a two-way anonymous text-messaged conversation, giving witnesses the protection and confidence to come forward with vital information. Additionally, more than 36 cities now employ wireless sensors to pinpoint gunfire. A sensor detects gunshots and using GPS satellites determines the direction of the shots fired and immediately notifies the command center. This gives law enforcement real-time data, which can save lives and valuable man-hours.

Obviously, these advances are not exclusive to the Hispanic community. Anyone can take advantage of the many benefits of wireless, and as the U.S. develops a national broadband strategy and as the Federal Communications Commission weighs significant policy changes, we should remember how wireless became such a ubiquitous technology. Mobile applications revolutionized how we approach and process information. And its adoption has been strengthened by an array of options aimed at putting more mobile products and services within reach of all customers, regardless of income levels — options like pre-paid calling plans, heavily subsidized smartphone offerings and unlimited mobile text, phone and data plans.

The needs and connected behaviors of mobile subscribers are as diverse as the American population, which is precisely why regulations based on consumer profiling could threaten the health of the competitive wireless market. We need to encourage investment, encourage innovation and encourage competition to better serve groups like the Hispanic community and our nation as a whole.

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On a sweltering Columbus Day in Miami Gardens, Florida, it was the General Motors brand GMC that sought to provide a little cool to fans of the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.

Making sure at least one Spanish-speaking representative was on hand to interact with Latinos uncomfortable with using English was an essential element of the high-visibility brand activation event.

GMC’s pre-game presence at Land Shark Stadium, ahead of last night’s National Football League (NFL) Hispanic Heritage Month-themed contest, was the culmination of two days of grass-roots efforts specifically designed to raise awareness for the Terrain – a fuel-efficient crossover vehicle built to compete against the Ford Escape hybrid model.

Street teams were seen across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties throughout the holiday weekend. In Miami, the Terrain made an appearance at Bicentennial Park, site of the Miami-Broward One Carnival – considered the “Mardi Gras” of the Caribbean community. The Terrain also made its way to South Beach and other high-traffic areas of greater Miami. At each event, bilingual GMC representatives shared information about the Terrain’s different features.

The key goal for GMC is to build awareness for the Terrain, especially in a tough market for the brand, says Ed Bailey, who handles marketing and sales promotion for both GMC and Buick in the U.S. Southeast. “We came off a bad month [in September], and this has proven to be extremely cost-effective,” he says.

To help bring traffic to local dealers, GMC teamed up with Hooters. Anyone who visited a GMC dealership and agreed to test drive a vehicle was given a coupon for 10 free wings at the restaurant chain.

Raúl Corrales is one of the Miami street team members, hired by an event planning committee contracted by GMC to carry out its experiential marketing work. Corrales says his one-on-one interaction in both Spanish and English resulted in a lot of positive feedback from mothers and their children, both of whom liked the Terrain’s options and offerings.

That’s good news for Bailey and his team. The South Florida marketplace is still soft for domestic automakers, and GM has a roughly 14 percent market share in Miami, a GMC representative notes. By comparison, General Motors has a 20 percent market share in most U.S. markets.

Thus, Bailey believes GMC is doing its job in educating multicultural consumers about the quality and value of its line of vehicles. “We always build components around the Hispanic and African-American marketplaces,” he says. “We really need to cover the whole market, and putting the buys in the Hispanic market will accomplish this for us.”

While GMC is using a mix of newspaper and radio advertising and some digital marketing to reach Hispanics and non-Latinos, Bailey believes the use of the street team has proven invaluable as the U.S. automotive industry fights to regain its traction in a sour economic climate.

With a crowd of close to 70,000 streaming into Land Shark Stadium ahead of last night’s Monday Night Football match-up, GMC vehicles were on display at one of the stadium’s main entrances. A second was found in the middle of a fan interaction zone complete with pre-game entertainment from Latin recording act Jesse & Joy, family-friendly games and a live outdoor studio for ESPN Deportes.

GMC representatives chatted with fans about the Terrain and its other vehicles. Spanish-speaking representatives were on hand, ready to assist those who were less than proficient in English. Free goodies were given out to those who stopped at the GMC area, including Nerf footballs with the GMC logo.

The message sent to Hispanic consumers is no different than that sent to non-Latinos – that GMC is a brand that stands for quality craftsmanship at a good price.

Even if street teamers were occupied with other football fans, inquisitive passersby took a moment to peek inside the Terrain and check out the vehicle.

To Bailey, that alone is a mark of success for GMC.

“The promotion of the Terrain is designed to show people our product,” says Bailey. “With a newspaper ad, people can see a picture of the vehicle. With our street team, we are taking our product to the people – and there’s nothing better than that.”

* As advertising budgets adjust to a climate where every dollar spent is scrutinized by the C-Suite, the street team has also proven to be a budget-buster for GMC. “We’ve found that they have been especially effective for us in a market like Miami, where the cost-per-point is the highest in the entire Southeast,” says Bailey. Thus, while GMC spends more in Miami on traditional media than elsewhere in the region, experiential marketing efforts have given the brand an extra bump in the highly competitive South Florida automotive marketplace.

by John Gordon

I’ve recently become addicted to tennis. I was glued to the television during the US Open and try to play every chance I get. Originally I was forced to play by my wife, who needed someone to practice with, and my son who at the age of 9 has decided he wants to be the next John McEnroe. But now I love the game and my goal is to be the first unranked 40+ man to win the US Open.

In my pursuit of greatness I’ve taken a few lessons and when playing I try to implement what I’ve learned. I tell myself:

Keep the racket low.

Move the feet.

Bend the knees.

Rotate the hips.

Low to high.

Follow through.

Don’t pass out.

One day I thought I was doing everything right and yet I still wasn’t hitting the ball well. What am I doing wrong I asked myself in frustration? I thought of all the advice I had shared inTraining Camp, and laughed as I realized I had overlooked the obvious.

I was doing everything but keeping my eye on the ball. I was so caught up in trying to do everything else that I forgot the most important part of the game.

I know I’m not alone. I see it happen all the time in businesses, in schools, in sports, and in life.

Distractions cause us to lose our focus.

We allow the trivial to get in the way of the meaningful.

Busyness and stress keep us from developing the relationships that are crucial to building a winning career and team.

We fret about the past, worry about the future and take our focus off of the present.

Bombarded by information and distractions we forget what is truly important.

We focus on the outcome instead of the process and wonder why we miss our targets.

We focus on everything else except the ball.

Today I want to encourage you to keep your eye on the ball. Get back to the basics. Focus on the fundamentals. Remember what really matters. Identify the simple principles and actions that are crucial to your success at work and at home.

Simplify, Focus, Execute.

I played tennis yesterday for three hours. My body was tired and the blisters on my feet were killing me. But I kept telling myself keep your eye on the ball.

I played the best I’ve ever played.

Keeping my eye on the ball helped me take my game to a new level. I know it will help you do the same.

How do you keep your eye on the ball? What does the ball symbolize for you?

As with all wildly popular trends, social networks aren’t immune to consumer backlash and burnout. And we’re increasingly beginning to see such trends emerge in the land of social media. The clutter of information and features on the big social networks — Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and others — has become too much for some consumers to take. In fact, it’s not all that uncommon nowadays to hear from friends who have given up on communicating via big social networks completely.

It’s sad, really. For some consumers, what was once an experience steeped in an ephemeral sense of discovery — the newness of an online domain organized and personalized just to our liking — has now become vast, all-encompassing, commoditized, and impersonal.

Beyond the user experience, the big social networks also present challenges for marketers. Large horizontal networks can be tough to leverage as targeted marketing tools because they have so many diverse users. They have the scale, yes. But brands trying to find their voices in these networks are easily drowned out by the rest of the noise.

Enter niche social networks. Although they don’t boast the gargantuan user numbers widely touted by the Facebooks of the world, these little communities are likely to play a big part in the future of online marketing. They work differently, focusing on specific passionate groups of people who congregate around a targeted subject. And they play by a completely different set of rules than the big guys. 

If you’re looking to cut through the clutter of the big networks and tap into your niche online audiences, here are some rules to live by.

Rule 1

Keep your mind open to interesting communities

When approaching niche social networks, it’s good to keep an open mind — a very, very open mind. More than likely, you have only a vague idea of all of the places your target audience might be. So if users are going beyond big social networks, where are they heading?

Odds are, if you can dream it, there’s an online network of people out there who are into it. Doug Schumacher, founder and creative director at Basement Inc., can attest to this. His firm was tasked with developing the marketing around a new installment of the popular Resident Evil movie franchise — a project with ties to audiences with a variety of interests, including pop culture, video games, horror movies, and CGI, among others. But the weirdest special-interest target audience? Zombie aficionados. And as it turns out, the web is teeming with zombie-centric social networks.

In Basement’s online conversation analysis, the firm found that people were already talking about zombies and “Resident Evil” on these networks — and they were doing so passionately. Thus, these networks represented an ideal niche audience to target with “Resident Evil” marketing efforts.

Zombie social networks might sound pretty niche. But the point is, somewhere out there, people are talking about your brand — and you’d better find them.

Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape, says that in the future, we’re going to see even more fragmentation when it comes to social networks. “You’re going to see niche social networks, and then you’re going to see niche-niche social networks,” he says.

As an example, Weintraub proposes a scenario in which the plumbers of the world, sick to death with the lack of plumber-related features on Facebook, start their very own social network, PlumberSpace. And within that niche social network, niche-niche social networks appear, such as Southern California PlumberSpace. Although this world of niche-niche social networks is largely theoretical at this point — or at least in its infancy — Weintraub believes it will offer great opportunities for marketers. Whether you’re Home Depot or a plunger manufacturer, finding an audience as specialized as SoCal plumbers is a marketer’s dream — a highly targeted audience that will likely be particularly responsive to your marketing messages.

Rule 2 

Respect social network leaders 

Repeat after me: I must respect the leaders of niche social networks. Now, say it again. After all, why should a small social network that’s already operating smoothly and passionately do anything for a faceless corporate brand?

“Those [community] leaders have put their blood, sweat, and tears into these communities,” says Basement’s Schumacher. “They’ve built these groups up, putting a lot of time and energy behind them. And when you come along with a launch campaign that’s not on their site, they can look at it a little skittishly — because why would they want to send their traffic off to somebody else’s site for the content?”

Nobody wants to lose traffic to the corporate overlords, so you have to deal very openly and honestly with niche network leaders. For example, in executing a campaign for a major media company that launched a health and wellness webcast, Basement reached out to all pertinent community leaders first and asked if they would be interested in participating in the launch. Some turned down the opportunity. However, by reaching out, Basement managed to secure a 70-80 percent participation rate among social community leaders, says Jennifer Sparks, vice president of strategic planning at Basement.

On the flipside, social community leaders who decide to participate in brand promotions should also be upfront with their members regarding such participation, says Argelio Dumenigo, senior strategist at Razorfish. As an example of the benefits of these upfront conversations, Dumenigo cites a campaign he helped execute for LifeScan’s OneTouch blood glucose meter.

In launching the LifeScan campaign, the marketers extended a partnership opportunity to TuDiabetes, a social network devoted to people with diabetes; in turn, the site’s leader reached out to his community to explain why it was a good promotion and why the campaign wouldn’t hurt the community. After all, it was important for TuDiabetes members to honestly believe that LifeScan wanted to be a part of the community and help promote it — not take it over. They needed to know that TuDiabetes would remain as vibrant as ever, even after partnering with Corporate America.

“I think it was one of those win-wins for both sides,” Dumenigo says. “TuDiabetes’ traffic went up after the launch, and OneTouch got the halo effect of working with a grassroots organization that was [centered] around diabetes already.”

Rule 3 

Provide the tools for a successful conversation 

Connecting with members of niche social communities isn’t about making media buys, says Greg March, media director at Wieden + Kennedy. Rather, he says, marketers need to deliver “interesting things” to community members — and by “interesting things,” March doesn’t mean targeted takeover ads and sponsored polls.
 
”[These are] your evangelists who will really spread the good word about your company, and you’re going to take care of them,” Fanscape’s Weintraub agrees. “You’re going to give them coupons and information they can’t get [elsewhere].”

In other words, give them exclusive content.

Whatever the content, it has to be appropriate for the given social network. “Some people might want something really light, really easy — like a trailer — and some other communities might want something like trivia — something more challenging and more intelligent for the community,” says Basement’s Sparks. “It really depends on the client and the community.”

In marketing Huggies to the Circle of Moms social network, Dumenigo says the company offered coupons and a cute baby picture contest. On BeingGirl — a social network dedicated to girls entering puberty, sponsored by Tampax and Always — the brands offered free samples. They also hired a female subject matter expert who could communicate directly with girls and answer their questions.

No matter the niche, when questions arise within a social community, brands must be armed with appropriate staff who can answer such queries officially and directly, Weintraub says. These audience-specific Q&As add value to the member experience and drive traffic to niche social sites.

In helping to launch the aforementioned health and wellness webcast in related social communities, Basement focused on sparking conversation. “We gave them discussion guides, discussion aids — we even came up with themes for conversations and topics for each of the episodes in the series,” Schumacher says. And apparently, the weekly guides were met with great approval, as they helped improve the quality of conversations on the involved networks. “[Social networks] are like any publisher: They’re looking for good content with as little time investment as possible,” Schumacher adds.

Schumacher also notes that some niche social networks are “pretty chaotic looking,” meaning they don’t offer good navigation or search functions. But such situations can provide marketers with an opportunity to propose a win-win solution to networks.

“We gave [the social networks] assets with which they could create a discussion destination around the content. We gave them buttons, banners, and widgets that were designed with the look and feel of their site,” Sparks says. “We can’t control the conversation and what they talk about, but we could control some of the look and feel.”

Rule 4 

Don’t be afraid to build it yourself 

While it’s not always a good idea, a lot of companies have the brand value (and corporate leniency) to create their own social networks, dedicated to their fans. Some brands have been doing this for years — and with great success.

Dumenigo says that successful brand-built communities include those established by Harley-Davidson and MINI Cooper. With regard to the latter, Dumenigo adds, “Three years ago, I saw a stat that 70-80 percent of MINI Cooper owners joined this community online. That’s a ridiculous percentage.

“On the MINI Cooper site, they get together to talk about cars and help each other solve problems with cars,” Dumenigo says. “It’s almost like audience-generated customer service with the brand. There’s probably a good ROI on that because, instead of calling you, they’re helping each other.”

Weintraub also points to several success stories of branded niche social networks, including those that sprang up around the Twilight book and movie franchise, as well as Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show.

“The Ellen DeGeneres Show has a social network set up on Ning, and last I checked, they had something like 350,000 members,” Weintraub says. “It’s not like Ellen even goes there; these are just fans of the show going there and talking and creating their own topics.”

That “Ning” that Weintraub mentions is one of a growing number of online services, including Wetpaint and Gather, that give people robust tools to create niche social networks when the big ones just don’t cut it anymore. “On Ning, I can do more with design and layout, whereas with Facebook, I’m just kind of stuck there, and with LinkedIn, it’s very text-oriented,” Weintraub says. “But here I can actually show pictures of product, and videos are better integrated.”

Rule 5

Don’t shun the big networks entirely

Despite the allure of the hypothetical PlumberSpace and its niche-niche cousins, the big social networks like Facebook and MySpace are going to be a big part of marketing in the future. Their numbers are too big and their reach is too great to ever be ignored, notes Ryan Stoner, director of strategy at Omelet. Plus, for certain brands, niche networks offer a limited return in comparison to Facebook and the like, notes Wieden + Kennedy’s March.

In a way, though, this conundrum points to a larger truism about social media marketing. “The bad thing about my business — but the good thing for the client — is that every single campaign is different,” Weintraub says. “It’s different every single time because there are people talking about everything, and I have to find those people.”

So whether it’s Facebook or PlumberSpace, go where people are congregating and then engage and amplify those conversations.

There’s nothing niche-niche about that, right?

Daily newspaper usage dropped 4.1% and TV usage dropped 3.6%, while radio usage increased 2.9% and online usage increased 1.9%, the study found.

Credibility ratings for nearly all types of media except TV rose slightly from a year ago. TV is, however, still deemed to be most credible.

The national study of US adults, now in its second year, measured the percentage of news and information Americans receive from various media sources each month. Consumers reported getting 31% of their news and information from TV, and 19.4% from both radio and daily newspapers.

The media-use rankings from the survey, compared with last year’s results:

• Television: 31.1% (down from 34.7% a year ago)
• Daily newspaper: 19.4% (down from 23.5%)
• Radio: 19.4% (up from 16.5%)
• Online: 14.6% (up from 12.7%)
• Weekly community papers: 4.4% (down from 5.1 %)
• Free shopper newspapers: 2.9% (up from 2.2%)
• Magazines: 2.1% (up from 1.6%)

Educated, Affluent & Hispanic Demos Flock Online

The survey also measured media use among specific demographic groups and, according to ARAnet, revealed a trend toward  increased use of online sources for news and information among the college educated, Hispanics and those making more than $100K per year, compared with the general population.

Not surprisingly, the research also found that the younger the respondent, the more reliant that person was on online sources.

Key demographic differences:

• Respondents with household incomes of $100K or more receive considerably more news and information from online sources (23.1% vs. 14.6% for the general population).
• College grads report using online sources more frequently (20.0%).
• Adults ages 18-34 report the highest reliance on online sources (22.2%).
• Hispanics are more likely to prefer online sources (21.0%).

“The data showing an increase in online use and drop in daily newspaper consumption echoes what we’re hearing from consumers and media partners,” said Scott Severson, president of ARAnet. “Consumers want more of their information online.”

TV Drops Slightly, Still Most Credible

The was designed to gauge which media sources Americans view as the most credible sources of news and information. With the exception of TV, which dropped a tenth of a rating point, all media types stayed steady or increased slightly in credibility from a year ago.

The survey asked respondents to assign credibility scores to seven types of media, ranging from one for “not at all credible” to 10 for:

• Television: 6.5 on a scale of one-to-10 (down .1 from a year ago)
• Daily newspaper: 6.3 (same as last year)
• Radio: 6.3 (up .3 from a year ago)
• Online: 5.7 (up .1)
• Weekly community papers: 5.4 (up .2)
• Magazines: 4.9 (up .3)
• Free shopper newspapers: 4.3 (up .8)

Other survey findings:

• ·College grads are more likely to trust online news (giving online a 6.3 rating vs. the 5.7 rating by the general population), and are less likely to trust TV news (giving TV a 6.1 rating vs. the 6.5 rating by the general population).
• ·Respondents with annual household incomes of $100K and above trust online sources considerably more than the general population (giving online a 6.5 rating, compared with the 5.7 rating by the general population).
• ·Higher-income respondents also view daily newspapers as more credible (6.8 vs. the 6.3 overall rating).

About the survey:  The survey was conducted with 1,000 US adults, ages 18+. It was conducted by phone September 10-13, 2009.

see graphs @ http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/dan-macsai/popwise/report-nine-scientifically-proven-ways-get-re-tweeted-twitter

If I wanted make sure this post did not go viral–according to the standards put forth by Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella in “The Science of Retweeting”–I could promote it on Twitter by posting something like this:

was bored watchin the game on tv and saw this thing about RTs…made me lol after i had really bad stomach cramps

Note the lack of punctuation, the use of of slang and abbreviations, the limited vocabulary, and the awkward overshare–all traits that Zarrella can now definititively say would turn Twitter users off. How? Because the avid Twitter-er and author of the upcoming The Social Media Marketing Book spent nine months analyzing roughly 5 million tweets and 40 million retweets (which are usually symbolized with an “RT” on Twitter). He noted when they were posted, which words they used, whether or not they included links, and more. Then, he says, he compared the two groups to get the first “real window” into how ideas spread from person to person: “Retweets may seem like a small idea…but many of the lessons [they teach us] will be applicable to viral ideas in other mediums.”

The full report is 22 pages, and won’t be available until tomorrow. But Zarrella offered me a sneak peak–via Twitter, no less. Below, his nine most effective ways to get retweeted on Twitter:

1. Link Up (But Don’t Use TinyURLs)


In Zarrella’s sample, links were three times more prevalent in RTs than normal tweets (19% to 57%), suggesting that their mere prescence could help buoy your bon mots. (Not sure whether that holds true for sporadic use of French terms.) But choose your URL shortener carefully: Newer, shorter services, such as bit.ly, ow.ly, and is.gd, were much likelier to get retweeted than older, longer services, such as TinyURL. Ouch.

 2. Beggars Can Be Choosers


Although conventional wisdom suggests that SPAMmy pleas, such as “PLEASE RETWEET,” would be generally ignored, Zarrella found the opposite. “Please” and “retweet” were his third and fourth “most retweetable” words, preceeded only by “Twitter” (duh) and “you.” Also worth noting: “Check out” and “new blog post” were Nos. 19 and 20, respectively.

 3. Avoid Idle Chit-Chat


Okay, let’s face it: We all occasionally tweet about “boring” activities, such as sleeping and watching TV. But alas, these are the types of words and phrases Zarrella dubs “least retweetable.” “There are a number of ‘-ing’ verbs, including ‘going,’ ‘watching’ and ‘listen-ing,’” that were not retweeted very often, he writes. Translation: Unless you’ve got a really interesting life–Shaquille O’Neal, anyone?–do not legitimately answer Twitter’s “What are you doing?” prompt.

 4. Don’t Be Stupid

So much for abbrevs and emoticons. Zarrella’s RTs not only have more syllables per word than normal tweets (1.62 vs. 1.58), but they’re also more intellectual: Per a Flesch-Kincaid test, comprehending RTs requires 6.47 years of education, while normal tweets require just 6.04.

 5. Semicolons = Satan


A whopping 98% of RTs contain some form of punctuation (compared with 86% of normal tweets), with colons, periods, exclamation points, commas, and hyphens leading the way. (Where you at, question mark??) But Zarrella really sticks it to semicolons, calling them “the only unretweetable punctuation mark.”

 6. Break News


This one’s kind of a no-brainer, but original content is way more popular than stuff we’ve already read: The words in Zavella’s normal-tweet sample were each found 89 times in other tweets, on average, while words in the RTs were found just 16 times.

 7. Use Proper Nouns Properly


Most RTs were heavier on nouns, proper nouns and 3rd-person verbs, suggesting that headline-style tweets–such as “Lindsay Lohan Escapes From Rehab Facility”–are more likely to go viral.

 8. Bottle Those Emotions


Sorry guys, but nobody wants to promote your f—ing, stupid feelings: Tweets about work, religion, money and media/celebrities are more retweetable than those involving negative emotions, sensations, swear words, and self-reference.

 9. Tweet at 4 p.m. on Friday


‘Nuff said.

BY KEVIN RANDALL

This is the marketer’s and researcher’s dream.

Reconciling the natural tensions that challenge and befuddle brand planning:

Feelings & Facts

Sentiments & Statistics

Qualitative & Quantitative

Focus Groups & Surveys

Subjective & Objective

Why & What

Art & Science

I’ll admit, when I first heard about Google, Facebook, and Nielsen studying, decoding and monitoring language and chatter on the Web and “listening to conversations,” the consumer part of me got a little bit of the creeps (Big Brother idea).

On the other hand, the market researcher part of me was excited about the all the possibilities. Market research has been stale for a while. Everyone knows about the limitations of the traditional focus group and survey. Do group respondents even tell the truth in an artificial setting where they are served finger sandwiches and paid $100? How can the group think be weeded out to get a real picture of the market? Are the right people answering online surveys? Are panelists professional survey respondents or representative customers?

The explosion of social media channels has the potential to revolutionize market research. New social media-based studies can be conducted more cheaply and efficiently, in real-time and may more accurately capture individual and group opinions. Companies are already mining the words, tones, streams and demographics of social media consumers for their own purposes. User data is deconstructed and then constructed into a picture on brand attitudes, market needs and social habits.

This field is in the early stages of development and there appears to be an overlap and competing terminology among: Sentiment Analysis, Social Media Analysis & Monitoring, Listening, Opinion Mining and Brand Monitoring, to name some.

Sentiment Analysis uses natural language processing (see Google Wave), computational linguistics and text mining to identify the attitudes among writer(s)/speaker(s) on a particular topic.

Companies and brands are interested in using the data to understand how they and their products are perceived and to help predict future developments and market trends.

Bo Pang, a Yahoo researcher and Sentiment Analysis pioneer, identifies three areas for measurement: polarity (positive/negative feelings); intensity; and subjectivity.

More sophisticated service providers include Newssift (Financial Times), Scout Labs, Nielsen Buzz Metrics and Jodange. Twitter and Twittter-based offerings also play in the field.

Sentiment Analysis has the potential to transform not only marketing research but also areas from search to public relations to product development.

But the practice is far from a perfect science.

Computer deciphering of word meaning is not always accurate and tone can be completely missed. Even the leading vendors acknowledge that the data is 70-80% reliable. For example, we may know that the phrase “quite interesting” means one thing in America, another in Britain, but the computer would see the same meaning. Note some of the long-standing issues with voice recognition technology.

There are questions about how robust or representative the data is. Are a brand’s tweeters the key WOM influencers or are they just a small vocal segment?

Some brands and products may be under the radar for this technology. Yes we love to chat about Apple but do we also regularly, enjoy blogging and tweeting about Charmin or business insurance?

There are conflicting approaches, metrics and offerings; over time a common Microsoft, Google, Nielsen type platform may emerge.

We also need to look at social media as just a channel in the consumer experience mix, and Sentiment Analysis as just a market research tool that is part of a bigger research mix; in-person research and surveys for all their shortcomings offer benefits that social media research cannot duplicate. (even aside from the M&Ms and two-way mirrors!)

It is not by accident that the month starts on the 15th day of September, rather than, more conventionally, on the first. Sept. 15 is independence day in five Spanish-speaking nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. (Mexico and Chile also celebrate the anniversaries of their independence from Spain during this month, on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively.)

When Hispanic Heritage Week was initiated in 1968, Congress required that the week would always include Sept. 15. Twenty years later, when the commemoration was expanded to a full month, the dates were fixed as Sept. 15 – Oct. 15 to help fix attention on an important date in the history of Hispanic America.

President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the first Hispanic Heritage Week at a time when migration from Central and South America was beginning to expand. Yet, there have been Spanish-speaking people in what now is the United States for almost 500 years, ever since California, Florida and the Mississippi River were “discovered” by Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.

Although Spain was unable to establish enduring colonies in North America, the early attempts at exploration and settlement did have a lasting impact. Researcher Robert Suro, writing on the facts.com Web site, says that some 30 percent of today’s Hispanic-Americans can trace their ancestry to forebears who lived in Texas, New Mexico and California, among other places, when those states were territories.

But the majority of Hispanic-Americans arrived in the U.S. more lately, though it is only in the last quarter-century that the U.S. Census Bureau has tracked that migration. In 1930, the Census Bureau added “Mexican” among the ethnic origins it included in the national headcount. In 1940, a category for “persons of Spanish mother tongue” was added to Census forms. In 1980, the description was broadened again, to “Spanish/Hispanic” origin.

No matter how Hispanic-Americans are categorized by the Census Bureaus, it is evident that Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates a growing segment of the American population and culture. Today, there are more Hispanics in the United States than there are in Spain. Mexico and Colombia are the only nations with larger Hispanic populations than the U.S.

In 1970, there were 9.6 million Hispanics in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. By 2000, the number of Hispanics had grown to 35.5 million, or 12 ½ percent of the total U.S. population. In 2006, the Bureau estimated the Hispanic population as 44.3 million, 15 percent of the total.

During a single year, from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006, the Hispanic population added 1.4 million people, accounting for half of the total increase in population during that period. By the years 2050, the Census Bureau predicts, Hispanics will represent one-fourth of the U.S. population.

It is the growing place of Hispanics in American culture and community which Hispanic Heritage Month commemorates.

In 1989, the year the commemoration was expanded from one week to a full month, President George H. W. Bush said “Perhaps no single ethnic group has had as profound an impact upon our Nation as Hispanic American … Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican Americans and other men and women of Hispanic descent have not only demonstrated the power of individual enterprise but also added to the cultural diversity that so enriches American life.’ 

Source: KTVQ.com

One of the most common mistakes made by American grocers and other retailers is when they ass-u-me that Hispanic (Latino) consumers are downscale shoppers. Although Hispanics tend to have lower income levels than Non-Hispanic White households, the amount they spend on groceries and other products is actually greater than that of Non-Hispanic White households and many other segments. Furthermore, some find it counter intuitive that Hispanics spend more on premium products such as fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and premium meat products.

To the savvy-marketer, this is not new — although some still struggle on how to take action on these insights. The savvy-marketer knows that Hispanic culture values food prepared and consumed at home because of “family values” that means meals are more-often shared with family members. This is cultural and transcends economics in many ways.

Additionally, convenience is a way of life. The traditional way of grocery shopping in Latin America is to buy fresh products at open air markets daily during the early morning hours — some might consider this an upscale attribute of “upscale/modern-American culture.”

Here are some numbers that might help bring this critical subject into focus:

1.   Median age of Hispanics is 27 vs. 41 for Non-Hispanic White.
2.   Life expectancy for Hispanics is 83 vs. 81 for non-Hispanic White.
3.   Hispanic households spend an average of $313 vs. $241 on fresh vegetables; $308 vs. $256 on fresh fruit; $155 vs. $119 on fresh fish and seafood; and $136 vs. $127 on non-carbonated beverages — this ranges from 7 percent to 30 percent above spending for White households.
(Source: Geoscape Consumer Spending Dynamix 2009 Series.)

From average present life span, Hispanic households will spend far more (on average) than Non-Hispanic whites on food consumed at home. As Latinos form an ever larger part of the American consumer base, they will represent an increasingly large part of grocers’ profits.

Since the year 2000, Hispanics are responsible for 50 percent of the growth in the U.S. population and have contributed a full 13.4 million new Americans north of the border — that’s more than all the people in the Chicago metropolitan area. Each year between 2009 and 2014, about 1.25 million Hispanics will join us — that’s like a new San Antonio every year with nothing but Hispanic people.

Today, Hispanics represent nearly 16 percent of the American population with 48.6 million steady residents (non-transient) in the nation. Fifty years ago, Hispanics were mainly present along the southwestern U.S. border — some of them were here prior to their homes bearing a U.S. address since much of the southwest was once part of Mexico and previously Spain. As of 2010, each and every one of America’s more than three thousand counties has at least one person who identifies themselves as being of Hispanic origin and many of the largest metropolitan areas are “majority-minority” places. (Source: Geoscape American Marketscape DataStream: 2009 Series).

Hispanicity is a term that facilitates the attribution of Hispanic culture. That is, Hispanics are multi-dimensional, meaning that some Hispanics are bilingual (about 60 percent) and about 20 percent are dependent on either English or Spanish. Furthermore, Hispanics can come from any one of over 20 countries, each with its own subculture and in some cases distinct word usage — and certainly varying culinary palettes. When you add constructs like life stage, socioeconomic strata, family composition, housing, psychographics and lifestyles you soon will conclude that a little homework — and honing of the target definition — will go a long way.

Often the biggest obstacle to capitalizing on the Latino boom is not the marketing science but the organizational complexity. Getting buy-in from corporate colleagues and management is the largest initial challenge to getting a meaningful effort off the ground. Many companies fool themselves into believing that assigning one lead person who will “consult” with the rest of the organization to help them “Hispanicize” their marketing will actually deliver significant results. In fact, that approach may do more harm than good — because it can lead to lackluster results and frustration. Essential to really capitalizing on the Latino boom is getting upper management bought into a long-term investment plan that goes far beyond an advertising campaign and starts with strategic-analytics.

Right-sizing for the opportunity is essential for getting ahead of the competition. What we’ve seen among grocers in the West Coast such as Vallarta, Superior and Ranch markets, is an example of how “in-culture” shopping experiences result in high-volumes of consumer traffic. What they’ve done is build stores that have the right products, pricing and staffing that appeal to the palettes and cultural characteristics of Hispanic consumers. Much can be learned from this approach — and it’s not impossible, as large chains including Publix and Walmart have begun to experience with their Hispanic themed stores.

So during your next staff meeting, ask your colleagues if Hispanics are upscale or downscale consumers — and give prizes to the winners!

Source: Convenience Store News