Juan Tornoe

Census Hispanic

Census Hispanic: /ˈsensəs_hiˈspanik/ (Noun) An individual who claims having Latino ethnicity, based on the Census’ definition of, “Hispanic is anyone who says they are”.

The Truth About Hispanics Online

By Juan Tornoe

Don’t get me wrong by what I am about to share with you. I am Google’s #1 admirer and avid customer, using them for just about anything I do online, on a daily – or should I say minute by minute – basis. Bottom line, I am not in a crusade to discredit them in any way, shape or form. Still, there are certain minor details or nuances that seem to have passed undetected on their recent outreach efforts to sell Google as the ultimate tool to reach Latinos. I’m certain that using the web, and Google specifically, is a great way to reach out to a very interesting segment of the Hispanic market, but you must really understand the different segments of the Latino community before making any serious investments to connect with them; you must really know your customer.

Google’s insightful results come directly from interviewing 4,117 Hispanics who are anywhere within the English-Spanish language spectrum, and are US residents age 18+, INTERNET USERS, who in the next 6 months intend to purchase items within at least one of the following categories: Auto, Retail (like a pair of socks at The Gap), Tech, and CPG (I’m guessing a pack of Trident gum counts). A quite broad, although interesting range of people.

Now let’s take a look at the pool from were this individuals were taken from. There are several estimates out there that put the number of Latinos currently online at least at 60% of the entire US Hispanic population. What is not mentioned along with such headlines is that “being online” is defined as “accessing the internet at least once a month for information or entertainment.” At the same time, we have been informed that only 1/5 of online Hispanics are “power users”, defined as those who spend 24 hours a week – about 3.5 hours a day – on the web. According to this last definition only about 12% of Latinos are “online power users.” A much less exciting number than the previously mentioned 60%, don’t you think? It takes one spending three and a half hours a day online to be considered a power user? In that case, I am a Triple-Platinum Ultra Super Power User! But I digress…

So, all the great information included in the Google “Four Truths About US Hispanic Consumers” presentation is definitely useful and worthy of notice, BUT it does not apply to the almost 47 million Latinos living in the US today, nor to the approximately 30 million Hispanics who access the web at least once a month, but it does to the 6 million (give or take a hundred thousand or so) Latino Power Users. Hey, although Latino Power Users still represent the population of a small country, and more importantly the kind of customer most companies salivate over (or should be salivating over), there are 24 million “online Latinos” for whom these numbers might not fully reflect their current web usage.

The Pew Hispanic Center reported in 2010 that 47% of Spanish-dominant Latinos use the internet, compared to 74% of bilingual Latinos and 81% of English-dominant Latinos. By taking these numbers into consideration along with the information shared above and the wealth of data included in the Google presentation, it is likely that most of those Latino Power Users are either English-dominant or bilingual.

Curiously, the Google Insights report along with its case study videos actually reinforces this fact. The “Four Truths About US Hispanics Online” as well as “Connecting with Hispanic Moms Online” videos show English-dominant Latinos sharing how they are connected to the web on a constant basis visiting sites like TED, The Weather Channel, Newsweek, facebook & Gmail (using English language interfaces), The Colbert Report, Fandango, Sports Authority, Macy’s, Orbitz, searching for “best price for tvs” on Google… You get the picture.

Then, when you watch the case studies for Kraft and General Mills, you see takes of the same English-dominant Hispanics, actually navigating the web in English combined with others takes of the corporation’s staffers sharing their success stories and of their Spanish Language websites.

Yes, Kraft’s Comida y Familia and General Mills’ Que Rica Vida are Spanish-only websites that, independently of the great results they are certainly getting, I don’t believe are the first choice for obtaining this kind of information on the web for the “cream of the crop” Latino Online Power User that is being presented.

There is one thing that is being overseen here: Hispanic Marketing is NOT Spanish marketing! The Latino market is quite complex and diverse, with a wide range of levels of acculturation, assimilation, language preference, etc… When you are marketing to Latinos, it is quite risky, and inaccurate, to say that you are helping them navigate life in the US… What about those 2nd, 3rd, 4th+ generation Latinos that have only been exposed to this lifestyle since the moment they were born? They might just be listening to Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band” on their iPads, as one of them is actually doing on one of these videos!

Yes, I am using and will continue to use the internet and Google specifically to reach a very profitable segment of the Latino Market, and recommend you do as well. Yes, I believe there is a great opportunity to reach out to Spanish-dominant Latinos using the web – as Kraft and General Mills have been doing – and will continue preaching just this. Still, you must be careful on how you build your case; the worst thing that can happen is having many advertisers jump into the “Reaching Latinos Online in Spanish” bandwagon, just to become disenchanted because their results don’t meet the high expectations that were set. It is much better to follow one of Tom Peter’s formulas for success: under promise and over deliver.

Reach Latinos through 'the culture,' speaker urges business leaders

March 22, 2011
By Ron Cammel

The growing Latino market is diverse and cannot be reached by clichéd sales pitches, Juan Tornoe told hundreds gathered for the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony Monday at the JW Marriott.

But that did not stop him from having some fun with stereotypes.

Tornoe, a national business consultant and blogger of Hispanic Trending, summed up the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population quite simply: Salsa now outsells ketchup.

But he was serious about businesses reaching the estimated 47 million Latinos in the United States, or 16 percent of the population, whose buying power has grown much faster than the non-Hispanic population’s.

How does a business connect?

“It’s the culture, stupid!” he said.

“Hispanic people overwhelmingly say they want to preserve their families’ culture,” Tornoe said. “If you speak to the heart of the Latino community, it goes a long way.”

He said Latinos value social harmony, social flexibility and social speed — they tend to become friendly faster. It’s important for sales people to spend a little more time on the small talk and getting to know a person in the Hispanic community before talking business, he said.

And family comes first, he said. Hispanic women are a growing force in Hispanic-owned businesses, not for the wealth, but to look out for the interests of their families, he said.

Don’t assume Hispanics want to be spoken to in Spanish, he said. The large majority of Hispanics who use the Internet regularly, for example, use English sites.

If you want to joke around with “Spanglish,” be careful, he cautioned. Some advertisements have turned off the Hispanic community. Regular English-to-Spanish translations are difficult enough: A T-shirt hawked after the pope’s visit to Miami read in Spanish, “I saw the potato.”

Tornoe said businesses reaching out to Hispanics need to remember the broad range of income, education and social levels, while recognizing some common cultural characteristics.

But in any case, the Hispanic market is here to stay, he said. “It’s not a matter of when you reach them. You will. It’s a matter of understanding them.”

Source: MLive.com

How Big is the Latino Market, Really?

By Juan Tornoe

Short answer: It Depends.

Let me elaborate. By 2050 one third (33%) of all persons living in the United States of America will be of Hispanic descent. It is a fact that the Latino community is the fastest growing in the Nation, both in head count as well as in buying power. Currently, depending on who’s measuring, it represents anywhere between 16 and 17% of the entire population of the U.S.

These numbers are quite impressive but they can easily be misused to fool and deceive you into believing a reality that might not fully apply to your specific set of circumstances. Without the detailed definition of who within the Latino market you are trying to reach you run the risk of squandering away your ad budget by investing it into a futile endeavor. You might be enthused by the opportunities of riding the Hispanic Wave only to hit a wall head first and realize that it was not as easy as it seemed to be.

You need to be fully aware of several things in order to truly define how big the Latino market for your product or service is.

First you need to indentify how big your market is: the nation, a region, a state, a city, a ZIP code? Then get a general idea of the number/percentage of Hispanics living there. It is not the same concentration of Latinos living in California, El Paso, TX or Bangor, ME!

Then you need to take a deeper dive into this community: In which language should you reach out to them? What are their levels of acculturation / assimilation? Which country of origin or heritage are they predominantly from? What is their buying power and how is it distributed within the community? Which are their preferred media outlets and how good will these work for you to obtain the best reach and frequency for your advertising message in order to stir them into action?

A very important part of the analysis revolves around the following; do all these specific market demographics match those who are most likely to want or need you product/service and who will be willing and able to purchase it?

Most certainly, there are many more questions needed to be asked and get answered before committing serious time, money, and effort to reach out to Hispanics, but by addressing at the very least what has been mentioned above, you will have a much better understanding of the actual size of the Latino market specifically for what you sell.

Many, who simply wish to make a quick buck, will be eager to tell that it is a no-brainer to “invest” lots of dollars into reaching out to Hispanics, especially if that investment is going directly into their bank accounts. I advice you not to jump in too fast; first do your due diligence and then move forward, with a clear understanding of what you are getting into.

It is most likely than not that indeed there will be an opportunity for your products/services within the Latino community in the area you service. What is important is that you get a good grasp of the potential size and profitability of this opportunity. The last thing I want for you is to go about it the wrong way and believe that it was a mistake to reach out to Latinos.

So yes, Hispanics represent as many as 17% of the population nationwide, as little as 1% in Altoona, PA as much as 95% in Laredo, TX. How much do they represent for your market? Are you ready to cater to them?

Imported appetites: Rancho Mendoza's rise highlights growing demand for Mexican-style foods

July 18, 2010
By Martin Espinoza

 

Even in a sour economy, there are opportunities for Latino markets, said Juan Tornoe, chief marketing officer of Cultural Strategies, an Austin, Texas-based firm that specializes in the growing Latino market.

"The advantage a grocery store has is that we have to eat," he said. "You'll begin to cut a whole bunch of other stuff before you start cutting food. That's an opportunity and an advantage."

Tornoe said Latino markets also are starting to see competition from mainstream giants such as Safeway and Wal-Mart. At the same time, they are beginning to attract more non-Latino customers, he said.

Read the entire article at THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

In This Decade, Every Room Is A Screening Room : NPR

Consultant Juan Tornoe, who studies the Latino market in the U.S., doesn't see his phone as a screen, but as a "window to the world." He says cell phone usage is huge among Latinos — and their user habits are sophisticated.

"You're not only connected to friends and family, you get access to information," he says. "You get to send and receive e-mail. You get to participate in social media, listen to music, you name it."

Tornoe's window to the world is wide open, and that really appeals to Poniewozik. He says that 10 years ago, he'd write an article and have no idea what readers thought of it. No more.

via NPR's Morning Edition

Had the opportunity to chat with NPR's Elizabeth Blair a few days ago :-)

U.S. Population Projections

Right out of the Census "oven" we've received an updated head count projection, which I summarize below (as it pertains to the Hispanic population's size). For more details, please visit the Census' website.

 

Guess who's speaking at the Chicago Latino Network's 2008 Awards Gala?

Yep... I'm honored to be sharing the stage with radio talk show host and author Maria Marin.

Thank you so much to Jaime Viteri for the invitation.

I look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

Read more details at the event's web page.