Marketing of Cessation Products:
Reaching Latinos Effectively
By Pablo Izquierdo
STEREOTYPES OF
HEAVEN... AND HELL
• The Cooks are
French
• The Police are British
• The Mechanics are
German
• The Lovers are Italian
• Everything is run by
the Swiss
• The Cooks are British
• The Police are
German
• The Mechanics are
French
• The Lovers are Swiss
• Everything is run by
the Italians
Cultural Perceptions Color
The Way We Craft Messages
Or Why Marketing To Hispanics Is
Not a Matter of Simple Translation
“Ready”
“Listo”
Understand Your Target
Mindset
• Spanish is more persuasive than English even to
bilingual speakers!
– 5 times more persuasive, 57% better message recall†
• Research: Understand nuances for fact finding.
– Polling vs. Focus Groups vs. Anthropological
• Recognize cultural differences:
– Strong ties to family and religion; different approach to
health
† Roslow Research, 2004
Understand the Media
Landscape
• TV continues to be a dominant force (92%
vs. 80%)
• Radio shows much higher audience share
(58% vs. 19%)
• Proportion of Latinos reading newspapers
is still inferior (45% vs. 85%)
* Nat’l Assn Minority Media Execs, 2003
The Importance of the
Unconscious
•
•
•
•
•
Expectation of info-tainment
Creative flair is welcome
Connect culturally and emotionally
Be sincere
But…
…Please Refrain from
Translating
• “Smells” and “feels” like it
• It can backfire…
– Budweiser, el rey de la cerveza?
– American Airlines, volar en cuero?
– Bic pens are embarrasing “embarazoso”
– Perdue Chicken is a “tender” lover
What Works
A Case Study of a Tough Sell:
Stopping Deaths at the Border
The Challenge
• Develop a comprehensive Border Safety
campaign, aimed at curbing deaths along the
border by Mexican illegal immigrants.
• Enormous communications challenge never
attempted before by the American government
• Craft an unwanted message for an elusive target
audience (illegal Mexican immigrants), make it
extraordinarily persuasive and “export” it to
Mexico.
The Solution
• Ethnographic research found that, among motivators for
people to cross illegally, the most vulnerable was a “right
of passage” for young Mexicans.
• We created “No Más Cruces en La Frontera,” a catchy
slogan and overall theme with dual meaning (no more
crossings/crosses on the border).
• We developed a twin set of creative executions called
“Tumbas” and “Funeral” rooted in Mexico’s culture of
death and using unique tools (such as Corridos).
– Tumbas targeted what we call the “point of decision”
– Funeral targeted the “change of mind”
The Results
• We tested the campaign in key Mexican states and in
the U.S. border areas (all markets exhaustively vetted to
match top points of origin of illegal immigrants in Mexico
and destination in the U.S.)
• The test provided astounding results:
– near 70% recalled the radio spots unaided.
– almost the same (67%) recalled the content explicitly (mention of
death because of crossing the border).
– The overall persuasiveness of the ads was measured at 60%
(convince someone to not cross the border).*
• The full rollout occurred this year but we expect the
tipping point to occur long-term
* NuStats, 2004
Final Thoughts on
Hispanics & Tobacco
1. Latino smokers do NOT blame the cigarette companies
for their habit – they blame themselves.
2. Latinos are particularly sensitive to third party issues
like second-hand smoke because (while they might not
care about themselves), they will care about hurting
others, especially their kids.
3. Latinos think “generationally” and messages about the
negative impact on their kids (habit forming, bad health)
and “not being there” for the next generation can be key
motivators.
4. Guilt is a powerful tool, but Latinos don’t feel guilty
about themselves, they feel guilty about others.