If You Want Your Hispanic Marketing To Fly High, Upgrade To Business Class

As part of my work, one of the most common questions I get asked, either by clients or prospects, is ‘What is the best way to structure my multicultural marketing efforts from an organizational design perspective?’ This is an important question, as this marketing discipline has evolved over the past decade, and today it requires a much higher level of expertise and specialization.

Here are some of my observations based on several years of experience at the client and agency sides.

First, it is important to note that the vast majority of corporate America doesn’t have a dedicated approach towards multicultural marketing, consequently they have no formal strategy or structure in place to capture this segment’s opportunities.

Some companies leave it to the people responsible for diversity and inclusion (who in most cases may have limited marketing background since most come from the HR sector). Others ask their existing brand teams to manage and informally “handle it” on a reactive basis. Often, this is assigned to an employee with ethnic heritage irrespective of this person’s previous experience in the area – ‘Your last name Martinez? Great, you’re now leading our company’s Hispanic marketing efforts!’

However, there are some companies (probably representing 30% of active marketers) that have some sort of multicultural organization in place. Some organizations prefer a Center of Excellence structure, also known as COE, while others prefer to have multicultural experts embedded in their existing marketing or brand structures.

Recently, though, I have noticed a slightly different type of structure, one that approaches the multicultural opportunity from a more comprehensive business standpoint, creating a Business Unit exclusively dedicated to the multicultural marketing opportunity. Consider it a COE on steroids!

This is an exciting decision, one that makes much sense in my opinion. First, because it elevates the multicultural marketing opportunity beyond advertising, avoiding one of the biggest mistakes marketers make. Of course advertising is essential, but a comprehensive approach would also help companies treat their efforts as a business imperative, bringing with it the discipline other business decisions are exposed to such as the creation of a business case, specific actions to address eventual opportunities and vulnerabilities, allocation of resources on a multi-year perspective, and alignment of key performance indicators, just to name a few.

It is remarkable the number of companies in Corporate America who support multicultural marketing efforts, but don’t have a detailed business plan, often reducing it to just an advertising flowchart instead.

I am privileged to work closely with two brands that are leading the way on this new trend of structuring their multicultural marketing efforts as a Business Unit.

Let’s take Pepsi for instance. After several years of trying different approaches when it came to Hispanic marketing, in 2018 they decided to create a dedicated Hispanic Business Unit, with its own GM, Marissa Solis, a PepsiCo veteran.

I asked Marissa why Pepsi decided to elevate the Hispanic opportunity to the status of a Business Unit, and she told me that ‘It all started with a very strong business case. When you see the actual numbers of what Hispanic growth represents for our food and beverage categories, it would be crazy to ignore it. However, developing a business case is not enough. We have to ensure that there is a commitment to this cohort across the entire business from our CEO to the front line. Having a dedicated business unit signals our organization, our consumers and our retail partners that we are serious about rolling up our sleeves to both engage authentically and meet the growing needs of this diverse and dynamic community’.

One of the aspects of this new structure that is very different from other companies is the fact that Marissa has a dual reporting structure, as she reports to her company’s CMO and their head of sales. This strong connection to sales in my experience helps to push the multicultural business opportunity to the top of an organization’s agenda.

Another company that took a similar approach is Sprint. In early 2015 the then CEO, now Executive Chairman, Marcelo Claure had the vision to reinvest into the Hispanic segment. He established a new Hispanic Business Unit with its own GM, the executive Roger Sole to lead their efforts. Later, in recognition of his leadership, Sole was promoted to be the company’s CMO.

After four years of continuous support, Sprint’s Hispanic marketing efforts brought significant results across different performance indicators and contributed significantly to the company’s turnaround story.

Whether your organization can benefit from this approach or you think your company is too small to create a whole new business unit dedicated to the multicultural segment, there are a few learnings almost any size organization can benefit from:

• Start with a business case, estimate how much the multicultural consumers bring to your organization, and ideally, how much more they could bring in the future.

• Multicultural marketing is more than multicultural advertising, and a comprehensive plan across all marketing functions is the best way to create lasting and effective results.

• Make these efforts a top priority at the C-level suite, starting with the CEO, preferably with strong support from the CFO and the Sales organization.

• Leave multicultural marketing efforts to experts and seasoned executives. If you don’t have one inside your organization consider hiring one.

• Invest according to the opportunity. Do multicultural consumers bring 50% of your sales? Why only invest 10% of your budgets on multicultural marketing then?

• Play for the long-term. Short-term results are welcomed, but real winners in this segment are based on how consistent their efforts are, measured in years, not quarters, and how resilient their programs are to changes in their company’s leadership.

As we start a new year, facing strong headwinds regarding our economy, the takeaways from this article may be a great way to “take off”. Makes no sense to get on the “standby list” if you can upgrade to Business Class, spread your wings and make your brands soar.