Ideas for Brands to Join the Hispanic Heritage Celebration

Celebrating the Hispanic culture — and diversity in general — while building the foundation for your brand to connect with the Hispanic community

With the purpose of helping brands to deepen connections with Hispanic-Americans, Spanish SEO provider Hispanic Market Advisors® shares some tips for brands and organizations (private and public) to join the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration (September 15th to October 15^th) with activities that may build and expand multicultural connections and deepens awareness of the cultural sensitivities of the Hispanic community.

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month, and a splendid opportunity for smart and innovative brands to learn more about the Hispanic community and join the celebration without sounding cocky.

Sebastian Aroca, Managing Partner with Hispanic Market Advisors®, reminds brands that, “The Hispanic Heritage Month celebration is a perfect opportunity for conscious companies and multicultural brands to celebrate diversity and honor the Latino culture.” At the same time, it’s important to avoid marketing gaffes and blunders that, instead of honoring and connecting, can turn up your brand rather infamous with the Latino audience. “Some Latinos, like Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of the website Latino Rebels, refer this as Hispandering Month, in reference to the often misguided marketing campaigns aimed at Latinos that during the month,” added Aroca.

Here are a few ideas you may consider implementing and executing:

Acknowledge your Hispanic employees for their contributions – It is important to recognize the contributions that come by employees from different cultures and backgrounds. The U.S. Army, for instance, recognizes the achievements and contributions of Hispanic Americans by celebrating the many different cultures that make up American society.

Hispanics in the U.S. Army

Integrate diversity into your business and promote cross-cultural comprehension – By honoring and taking into account all the unique traditions that characterize Hispanics, this sends a strong message that your organization cares. However, to integrate diversity into your business in a way that promotes cross-cultural comprehension, it requires knowledge of culture, buying habits, and preferred methods of communication. As Blanca Villagrana from the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at FSU wrote a few years ago on a blog post that still applies today named “Hispanic Heritage Month: A Growing Number of Marketers Joined the Celebration”, those who show an understanding of Hispanic consumers are more likely to attract this valuable and growing market.

Join Hispanic Organizations and Minority Business Programs – Becoming a corporate partner with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and/or the Latin American Chamber of Commerce (LACC), sponsoring one local Latino event or workshop, or joining a Minority Business program such as DiversityFran (formerly known as the MinorityFran program) can be all magnificent ideas.Maid Right Franchising, for instance, in consultation with Hispanic Market Advisors, has created the “Maid Right Latino” initiative, and is growing emerging markets in local communities by proactively recruiting into their franchise system Latino entrepreneurs who want to start their own business.

Establish strategic partnerships with Multicultural Agencies – Almost every brand and business owner wants to tap into the $1.5 trillion-dollar Hispanic-American purchasing power; however, connecting effectively and emphatically with the Hispanic market requires cultural knowledge and a serious commitment. Working with multicultural and ethnic agencies with language and cross-cultural skills and unique capabilities, brands can be more competitive and differentiate themselves by complementing their internal multicultural teams and gaining access and additional benefits. In sum, partnering with a Hispanic Marketing or Multicultural Agency can help support specific Hispanic initiatives targeting the Hispanic consumer.

Source MBE Suppliers and Vendors – Working with Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) can have both intangible and economical benefits. Large corporations are sourcing MBE suppliers and service providers to maintain supplier diversity in order to have the opportunity to win government contracts that require companies to maintain a certain level of spend with minorities. May your corporation benefit from maintaining supplier diversity compliance and gaining a government contract or purchase order, consider contacting the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC). The NMSDC is the global leader in advancing business opportunities for certified MBEs and connecting them with Corporate Members.

Create microsites and unique content in honor of the Hispanic Heritage Month – Building rich content and educational resources communicates your commitment with the Hispanic community. Consolidated Credit, for instance, launched CelebrandoLaHispanidad.com as part of Hispanic Heritage month (Sept 15 thru Oct 15). The website contains financial tools, articles, informational brochures and videos geared towards aiding Latino families in their quest for financial health and the natural accumulation of savings.You may want to encourage your Diversity Program Manager or Public Relations Director to consider also:
- Sending a bilingual press release announcing that your company is joining the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration (mention list of activities)
- Creating a YouTube, Instagram or Facebook Live to discuss the Hispanic culture with your audience—engaging with them starts with listening to what they have to say!
- Educating the general population about certain terms emerged in recent years such as Latinx – refer to “A Quick Breakdown Of The Difference Between Hispanic, Latino And Latinx“
- Contributing a unique article to an online publication relevant to your business.
- Matching your brand with top Latino celebrities and trend-setters to reach Hispanic consumers through endorsements. Latin World Entertainment (LWE) is the premier Hispanic talent management marketing firm that can help you on this area.
- Advertise in local Hispanic newspapers to reach Latinos in local communities. For instance, you may want to consider El Informador for reaching Latinos in North Carolina and South Carolina, just as one example.
Connect and Engage BEYOND the Hispanic Heritage Month – As corporations of all types and sizes design programs to connect with the Hispanic market, it is necessary to honor the cultural heritage of Hispanic-Americans not only during this month but beyond by recognizing their aspirations and celebrating their successes all throughout the year.

In conclusion, as a market’s dominant population group continues to change and evolve, you should position your business to be ready to naturally exploit all economic opportunities within your diversified market segments. This however, requires knowledge of customers’ culture, buying habits and preferred methods of communication. Because of increased competition, it is a natural conclusion that all markets eventually become saturated which makes it difficult for even established companies to grow. However, growth opportunities will always exist for those organizations who are prepared with multicultural connections. The Hispanic Heritage Month celebration can be a great platform to kick off or deepen those efforts.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this press release.

“Latinx” is not a typo. Yes, Latinx is, in fact, a word, a gender-neutral neologism, sometimes used instead of Latino or Latina, and even Latin@, to refer to people of Latin American cultural or racial identity in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the standard ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of nouns and adjectives, typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. Its plural is Latinxs.

About Hispanic Market Advisors®

Hispanic Market Advisors® is a boutique company focused on connecting brands with Hispanic consumers digitally, through various Hispanic marketing strategies that are aiding companies of all sizes to reap the growth of the Latin American and US Hispanic market.

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