Baking&Snack - August 2013 - 36

HISPANIC MARKETING

To best market to Hispanic consumers, Sylvia
Melendez-Klinger, founder of Hinsdale, IL-based
Hispanic Food Communications, said companies must
assess their clientele and provide for their needs. “It’s not
just translating materials anymore; it’s about also acculturating it and applying it to their needs,” she added.

Speaking their language
Although many younger Hispanic consumers whom
bakery and snack manufacturers may want to target are
fluent in English, Mr. Seifer said it
would be a big mistake to not use
their native language.
“When you look at the millennial
generation, in particular, it is predominately adults in their 20s, and
many of them are still bilingual even
though they have been in the US from a very young age
and grew up around English,” he said. “The connection
to their heritage is still rooted in Spanish, and if manufacturers and marketers want to connect with this group

and make them feel as if they are familiar with their heritage, it is important to talk to them in Spanish and have
some materials and labeling that is in Spanish as well.”
Yet, a common mistake marketers make is to simply
translate something to Spanish and expect Hispanic consumers will buy the product, Ms. Melendez-Klinger said.
Also, companies should not rely on Google Translate to
put their marketing messages into Spanish and then expect that message to resonate with Hispanic consumers,
she observed. When using a translator such as Google,

“Hispanics value the relationship
between the consumer, the food
manufacturer and the retailer.
”

Hispanics love social media
Hispanics are especially active with social media and
25% more likely to follow a brand than the average US
adult online, according to the “State of the Hispanic
Consumer” report from Nielsen, a New York-based leading global provider of information and insights. Last
year, Hispanics were the fastest-growing ethnic group
year-over-year to Facebook and WordPress.com, Nielsen
noted.
“The time that Hispanics are spending on the Internet,
it is all on social media, said Sylvia Melendez-Klinger,
”
founder of Hispanic Food Communications, Hinsdale,
IL. One of the reasons for their high use of social media
is that Hispanics are more likely to have a smartphone
as compared to a home computer with Internet access,
and it’s often easier to access social media sites using a
smartphone vs. surfing the Web.
Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst,
NPD Group, Port Washington, NY, pointed out that
Hispanics’ high presence on social media sites such as
Facebook and Twitter makes “a pretty big avenue when
trying to reach Hispanics in the US.
”
In addition to launching a smartphone app that can
be viewed in both English and Spanish, Dunkin’ Donuts,
Canton, MA, ramped up its Spanish-language social
media efforts by engaging with its Spanish-preferred
Hispanic guests through special content on the Dunkin’
Donuts Facebook page, said Xavier Turpin, the company’s
director of multicultural marketing.

/ Baking & Snack / August 2013

Mark Singleton, Rudolph Foods

the message can become jumbled and won’t makes sense
because it doesn’t flow. “It basically looks like Chinese to
us,” she added, noting that companies should use bilingual translators who are familiar with the food as well as
the messages they are translating.
“You want to make sure that those translations are
global and not just regional for one country or one
place,” Ms. Melendez-Klinger said.
That brings up another issue companies may have
when marketing to Hispanics. This is a broad demographic made up of people from many different countries, and as such, their tastes are varied. Although 63%
of US Hispanics identify themselves as Mexican, according to the 2010 Census, the other 37% have a wide variety of heritages such as Salvadoran (3.3%), Guatemalan
(2.1%) and Colombian (1.8%) as well as Puerto Rican
(9.2%) and Cuban (3.2%). What’s popular with Mexicans
isn’t necessarily appealing to someone who is Cuban or
Puerto Rican.
“Some companies put chili peppers onto a bread and
think it is going to appeal to all Hispanic consumers, but
it’s not going to happen,” Ms. Melendez-Klinger said.
“You have to understand the different countries and the
foods that they eat, and you can provide something that
can appeal to all of them.”

Diversifying flavors
Dunkin’ Donuts, Canton, MA, works closely with all its
franchisees to respond to its guests’ needs, and in some
cases, it will tailor its menu items to resonate with particular cultures and communities, said Xavier Turpin,
the company’s director of multicultural marketing. “For
instance, in recent years, Dunkin’ Donuts introduced
both limited-time offerings and permanent menu items
featuring bold and exotic flavors inspired by the Latin
cultures in select markets, such as the Cuban sandwich

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