Thread: The Ignorance of Marketing in Spanish

Today, I used a coupon that was printed on a full page sheet and on the back side, it was printed in Spanish.

Marketing and Advertisement are a sizeable chunk of the cost of doing business.

I started thinking, who are they targeting in Spanish.

With over 301 million people in America, with Spanish they are trying to reach the 12 million exclusively Spanish readers and that's assuming they are all literate.

They are spending all this money translating and printing materials in two languages to reach less than 4% of the population. However, the cost is equal to printing and marketing to 100% of the population. They have more than doubled the cost of advertiseing just to reach 4%.

Can you see the stupidity in this. Every time they print something in Spanish, they are sending it to 100 potential customers but only 4 recipients will have to have it printed in Spanish. I'm not even considering households with translators.

What a waste. If I were a financial consultant, I would advise these companies to cut their advertising budget by knocking out the Spanish because it's not yielding that big of a return. Not only that, the cost of prining those materials is coming out of the current customer's pocket because it is added into the cost of products and services.

Dixie

Dixie,

this is no secret. All of us in the world of marketing know how much of a joke it is. The problem is that La Raza and LULAC continually force it down businesses throats. The "Habla Espanol" campaign of the early 90's was just the beginning.

The groups have successfully told american companies the hispanics MUST be talked to in spanish. BROWN = SPANISH is the equation, and many english speaking hispanics find it racist and degrading.

In fact it is costing americans jobs as well. Many companies are setting policies forcing their managers to hire 50% bi-linguals (english/spanish) to accomadate that small part of the country. This has put many well intentioned teenagers, college students and adult americans out of jobs and made it more difficult to locate them.

Look at DISD. It took pricipals rebelling against the school board to overturn a rule requiring all of them to learn spanish.

The goal of these groups is simple, to force spanish as a primary language, because then they have control of half of the country and access to a majority of the population.. not a minority. They would inturn use that access to generate billions in 'strategic funding' from major corporations like GM, GE etc... so that those companies could advertise directly to the groups members.

It would be like the NAACP trying to make everyone black or the AARP trying to make everyone age and get old real quick.

This is why I have long advocated for an "English Only" organisation that would provide support for businesses that only operate with english. Much like the philly cheesesteak place that stood up and finally put up a sign demanding that everyone order in english.

And it is also why I advise everyone to call stores and companies and let them know you are not doing business with them because they print in spanish. If it starts to lose them sales, the trend will reverse because the little gain they are getting now will not be enough to out weigh the losses the majority are handing them.

Unfortunately I do not see lazy americans changing their habits and calling and demand that target, cvs, wal-mart, walgrens, lowes, best buy, circuit city, sears and other major retailers stop advertising and printing in spanish.

And it is also why I advise everyone to call stores and companies and let them know you are not doing business with them because they print in spanish. If it starts to lose them sales, the trend will reverse because the little gain they are getting now will not be enough to out weigh the losses the majority are handing them.

These businesses were harassed into their behavior, and they can be harrassed out of it. English speaking Americans are subsidizing this thing and they can stop it. I've had some success myself with advertising that comes here. Gee, I love postage paid envelopes.

What really kills me also is Sears. We have a Sears nearby, and even the overhead signs, the BIG marketing tools are in Spanish now. This is SEARS ROEBUCK! You know - where people used to buy their overalls and hand crank washing machines ...it used to be as American as apple pie -- and now you go into it and you're fighting to find the signs in English.

I think many of us just ought to start a campaign against it. We DO have the buying power -- we're just not exercising our influence like we could. Heck, we're not fighting a lot of things like we should.

I love to boycott their products and services. Now, I will let them know I am boycotting them and why, that's a double whammy...Great!

Thank you

Originally Posted by dragons5

many english speaking hispanics find it racist and degrading.

And patronizing.

in order for any boycott to work we need to get family, friends and co workers to join in. and we must talk to managers at these offending stores and tell them why we are going to switch to a competitor. yelling at some clerk does nothing and is just mean.

They should be sued

Aiding and Abetting under U.S. Law
Courts often refer to aiding and abetting as an alternate theory of liability rather than a separate crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2, aiding and abetting liability is available in all federal criminal prosecutions; however, the availability and extent of civil aiding and abetting liability varies from statute to statute. Where available, aiding and abetting liability generally requires three elements: 1) an underlying violation by a principal; 2) knowledge of that violation and/or the intent to facilitate the violation; and 3) assistance to the principal in the violation. As indicated by the Supreme Court, “In order to aid and abet another to commit a crime it is necessary that a defendant 'in some sort associate himself with the venture, that he participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about, that he seek by his action to make it succeed.â€

Originally Posted by Dixie

Today, I used a coupon that was printed on a full page sheet and on the back side, it was printed in Spanish.

Marketing and Advertisement are a sizeable chunk of the cost of doing business.

I started thinking, who are they targeting in Spanish.

With over 301 million people in America, with Spanish they are trying to reach the 12 million exclusively Spanish readers and that's assuming they are all literate.

They are spending all this money translating and printing materials in two languages to reach less than 4% of the population. However, the cost is equal to printing and marketing to 100% of the population. They have more than doubled the cost of advertiseing just to reach 4%.

Can you see the stupidity in this. Every time they print something in Spanish, they are sending it to 100 potential customers but only 4 recipients will have to have it printed in Spanish. I'm not even considering households with translators.

What a waste. If I were a financial consultant, I would advise these companies to cut their advertising budget by knocking out the Spanish because it's not yielding that big of a return. Not only that, the cost of prining those materials is coming out of the current customer's pocket because it is added into the cost of products and services.

Dixie

You are only assuming that 12 million speak/read in Spanish. There are U.S. citizens who read/speak Spanish.

[quote="Triumph"]They should be sued

Aiding and Abetting under U.S. Law
Courts often refer to aiding and abetting as an alternate theory of liability rather than a separate crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2, aiding and abetting liability is available in all federal criminal prosecutions; however, the availability and extent of civil aiding and abetting liability varies from statute to statute. Where available, aiding and abetting liability generally requires three elements: 1) an underlying violation by a principal; 2) knowledge of that violation and/or the intent to facilitate the violation; and 3) assistance to the principal in the violation. As indicated by the Supreme Court, “In order to aid and abet another to commit a crime it is necessary that a defendant 'in some sort associate himself with the venture, that he participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about, that he seek by his action to make it succeed.â€