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The Hispanic population boom in the US has sent companies scrambling to win a piece of the lucrative pie.

According to the The Selig Center for Economic Growth, Hispanic buying power for 2002 totaled $580 billion, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 8.7%. (The standard rate for non-Hispanics is 4.8%.)

The center's study predicts that by 2007 the dollar power of Hispanics will rise to $926.1 billion. The Hispanic community clearly holds a great deal of economic clout, which certainly explains why marketers are vying for its attention.

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns are ineffective. Here are the top three reasons.

1. Advertising for Service-Related Products, But Not Educating

There are 39.9 million Hispanics in the US, and half of the adults among them are foreign-born. Obviously, many Hispanics in the US are native-born, but they are typically served by standard marketing campaigns in English.

The market segment that suffers from a tremendous void in services is the foreign-born Hispanics who have been in the US for five years or less. Often, they have limited or no English skills. Most significantly, they have a poor understanding of American systems in general. These immigrants rely on friends and family members to explain, or assist them to access, various services.

If your company is conducting a campaign in Spanish, this segment is most likely the one you are trying to reach. If so, simply translating your materials into English is a mistake.

For example, if you are a tax preparation company and are creating marketing materials for the average American, you would not waste print space explaining that Americans are required by law to file their taxes every year. You would not spend time explaining what a W-2 form is or that you need to bring it to the office when you file.

Americans already know these things. Americans want to hear how fast you can deliver their refund, or they want to hear that they won't have to wait long to get their taxes done. They want to hear that you are an expert in tax law and tax preparation.

But many recently arrived foreign-born Hispanics (and others) do not know that they must file taxes, and that they must do so with an Individual Tax Identification Number.

Therefore, standard English-language advertising, even if translated into Spanish, simply will not work. Such ads might read, "Let us prepare your tax returns. We can get you a fast refund, and we are specialists in tax preparation." Since such information has no relevance, the message is ignored.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Blaire Borthayre

Blaire Borthayre is a Mexican-American consultant in the field of Hispanic marketing and CEO of Hispanic Marketing Resources (www.hispanicmarketingresources.com).