How Companies can Increase Market Share in This Tough Economy
By Keri Shane, Convergent Marketing Manager
The best marketers are those who are able to change and adapt their marketing strategy to current consumer demands. Research has shown that the multicultural market has grown enormously over the past 10 years and will continue to grow in the future. In many major DMA’s, multicultural segments have already surpassed the general market. If companies want to succeed today and in the future, marketers should consider broadening their target market to include the multicultural segments.
For example, Hormel’s Herdez product line enjoyed over 70% of the market share with its multiple SKUs South-of-the-Border. Hormel wanted to expand the Herdez line of authentic Mexican food products across the border into the U.S., targeting markets in Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, and Phoenix. Hormel created a culturally relevant brand platform Herdez, Hechos Con Amor (Herdez, Made With Love) giving new life to the brand’s longtime slogan. The new message created an instant association between Herdez products and the Mexican-American consumer’s affection and passion for authentic food. The campaign ultimately generated a 22% sales increase and increased brand awareness by 500%.
Inability to adapt – Using a GM Agency to target Multicultural Brands
General MarCom agencies, who try to create multicultural messaging, are not as familiar with the lifestyles and cultural differences to effectively communicate inside the multicultural market.
Most will simply translate the general market message, causing it to be “Lost in Translation” to multicultural markets. Companies need a multicultural agency on their team that will understand the cultural nuances in translating brand messages.
For example, Royal Prestige, luxury cookware products, owned by Hy Cite Corporation, needed to reinforce their distributor sales efforts across the West Coast, and create a solid communication infrastructure model to support this notably high Hispanic DMA. Hy Cite Corporation built a web site incorporating the Spanish language featuring a bilingual speaking woman who introduces viewers to Hy Cite and helps navigate throughout the site, effectively opening communication across the West Coast Hispanic audience and increasing sales despite this tough economy.
