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At #PORTADA13: Is Corporate America Latin Ready?

At the 7th Annual Media and Advertising Conference Portada 2013, moderator Arminda Figueroa, President and Founder of Latin2Latin Marketing and Communications, challenged panelists to evaluate their companies to determine how "Latin ready" they are on a scale of 0 to 50, ranging from "Not-Latin Ready" to "Latin Ready."

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armindaAt the 7th Annual Media and Advertising Conference Portada 2013, moderator Arminda Figueroa, President and Founder of Latin2Latin Marketing and Communications, challenged panelists to evaluate their companies to determine how “Latin ready” they are on a scale of 0 to 50, ranging from “Not-Latin Ready” to “Latin Ready.”

Arminda Figueroa and Jill D. Kaplan, CEO of Hudson Holland Global, have recently written for Portada two articles of our Sounding Off series: “Why Urgent Care Centers are A Viable Solution?” and “Understanding the Changing Face of America: A Matter of Health

Her questions centered around how companies can begin to engage with the Latino market? How many times have companies launched initiatives to reach the Latino market and failed? Do marketing teams or advertising agencies take the blame?

Among problems identified were a lack of bilingual staff, lack of C-level support and a lack internal readiness to launch a campaign. The organization usually isn’t ready internally financially, emotionally.

llanoManny Llano, CEO of Fort Lauderdale Hospital, said his company which owns three hundred hospitals and is largest mental health provider in the world, is “striving to be Latin-ready. One of the biggest challenges is to prepare for health care reform (Obamacare), since they will have access to many more clients than they’ve ever had before.

Five million Hispanics are uninsured. The biggest challenge in the health care system is a lack of information, including understanding reimbursements. Furthermore, the need to determine contracting relationships with managed care companies, HMO’s, and new contractors. Since Medicaid clients will now be enrolled in health care programs, the health care system needs to be prepared for new Hispanic clients.

Emotionally, his company is looking at sensitivity in treating Latin populations.

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How will they use Internet and how will they track business in the digital sphere?

In addition, they are planning to create “literature in Spanish for print and digital, as well as revamping intake forms in English and Spanish. Their staffing will undergo sensitivity training to treat Hispanics. Since Hispanics involve family when they choose health care services, staff will need to be prepared to deal with both clients and families.

alanizElvia Alaniz, Director of Marketing at Modern Insurance Group, was recently hired to develop a Hispanic marketing plan in Cincinnati. She said her company recently begin creating a Hispanic marketing plan.

She said, “the Latino market the market is ripe.” Her company has a product portfolio that is diverse with an ability to create products catered to consumers” since Hispanic customers have unique, culturally specific habits.” Therefore, Identifying segment can provide growth opportunities.

Currently, her company is strengthening its operations to meet the needs of Hispanic consumers. They want to ensure they have an appropriate infrastructure by augmenting current staff with bilingual staff, creating a bigger brand presence, and taking steps locally by engaging with the chamber of commerce. “This is a marketing-driven initiative,” she said. “We believe in customer segmentation. We engaged with C-level suite which will provide her team with support to reach the Hispanic market.

adrianoAdrian Adriano, VP, Multicultural Casting at Comcast said Comcast is Latin-ready.

Every city has a director or VP of Hispanic marketing. In the major cities, Comcast has Hispanic marketing managers. On the product side, Comcast strives to create products that cater to the Hispanic market.

Among suggestions to attendees, Figueroa said, “top-down buy is critical. The demographic is changing. Are you ready? Hire multicultural experts to lead and manage resources accordingly.”

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