Latino Focus Puts Communities First

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The U.S. Hispanic population has grown 58 percent in the last decade, and the resulting $450 billion Hispanic consumer market is looking muy caliente to corporate America.
Experts say bonding with the nation's 35.3 million Latinos requires more than translating press releases; a Hispanic PR program without a community relations component is like
salsa without the chilies.

"Certainly there's a need for strong media relations, but in the Hispanic market, you also need to do in-community programs at the consumer level," says Alejandro Hernandez,
SVP and regional manager for Porter Novelli Latin America, based in Miami. Latino consumers are not only family-focused, but also intensely community-driven, he says. Corporations
are more likely to cultivate brand loyalty when they demonstrate that they are in tune with the needs of local Latino communities, and not just out to make a buck.

Porter Novelli recently helped ingratiate P&G's Tide brand with Hispanic consumers through an initiative that spruced up neighborhood soccer fields in Los Angeles, New York
and San Antonio. The program, known as "Tide Renueva tus Canchas" (Tide Renews Your Fields) enlisted hands-on support from local families and soccer leagues in re-seeding run-down
fields. As a bonus, trained coaches gave kids safety tips in soccer clinics. Each local effort culminated in a weekend tournament, with the Tide logo temporarily emblazoned on the
newly rejuvenated turf. "This made for a great photo op. It wasn't just a certificate and a handshake with a local official," says Hernandez. "It gave [Tide] an opportunity to
show that it was giving something back to the community" - and getting those grass-stained jerseys clean in the process.

The advantage of community-based events is that they actively engage consumers on a visceral level. This June, Kraft launched a campaign bringing its Oscar Mayer Wienermobile
to five Latino-heavy markets and challenged kids to sing Spanish renditions of the brand's infamous bologna jingle. The winner of "Concurso Cantando Hasta La Fama" (Sing for
Fame), will be selected this fall and will snag $20,000 in college scholarship money from Kraft.

The whimsical contest scored popularity points, but also nailed a major Hispanic American concern, says Linda De Jesus, SVP and managing partner with The Bravo Group, the
agency on the campaign. "Education is probably the most important major issue to the Hispanic community," she says, noting that high school dropout rates run higher among Latino
teens. In a similar move, Coors Brewing sponsored this summer's "Watcha Tour," a 21-city, rock-en-Espanol fest. The beer-maker gave away scholarships to lucky concertgoers through
a partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Culture Soup

Under the Hispanic umbrella stand a broad range of nationalities, colloquialisms and income brackets, meaning PR programs that are exclusively national in focus run the risk of
either alienating an entire cultural slice, or being too generic to make an impact.

"For example, if you go to South Texas, you'll find Hispanic families that have been there for generations - even before that area was part the U.S.," notes Hernandez. "They've
been part of the fabric of that community for years, and have a strong Texan pride. Compare that situation to the heavy influx of new Central American immigrants in central L.A.,"
he says, emphasizing an entirely different demographic.

Dora Tovar, director of PR for The Bravo Group, observes that there is a united Hispanic-American identity emerging. "We come here and start to find the commonalities
associated with being immigrants and with being culturally similar. There is a growing consensus toward being Hispanic," she says.

Hiring is Believing

Perhaps the strongest evidence of Hispanic solidarity a corporation can offer is through employment practices. Big guns such as Coors Brewing, Ford, GM, PepsiCo, Verizon,
Chevron and Qwest have made Latino recruitment and advancement a priority, with dedicated internal programs for mentoring, executive development and retention. In most cases, such
targeted employee communications programs are part of a diversity communications triumvirate that includes external community affairs and minority supplier initiatives.

The biggest challenge for corporate communicators charged with setting up such programs is that they're largely paving their own roads. "There's nothing about this stuff in the
textbooks yet," notes Olga Garcia, manager of corporate relations for Coors, a member of the National Hispanic Corporate Council, a coalition of Hispanic advocacy organizations
and Fortune 1000 companies that routinely share best practices.

Latino communities are now proliferating in previously untouched markets. It's an ethnic segment already bigger than the combined population of 22 states, surpassing Canada's
population. And it's expected to top 100 million by the year 2050. Serious business? Si.

(Contacts: Linda De Jesus, Dora Tovar, The Bravo Group, 212/614-6214; Alejandro Hernandez, Porter Novelli Miami, 954/745-3823; Olga Garcia, Coors Brewing, 303/277-6269)

You Say Hispanic, I Say Latino

Which is politically correct? "Hispanic" or "Latino"? It's an ongoing debate, according to Alejandro Hernandez, SVP with Porter Novelli Latin America. While the formal
descriptor 'Hispanic' is the official designation on government documents, its linguistic roots infer a relation to Spain. Many who identify more closely with a Latin American -
as opposed to Spanish - heritage, therefore prefer the new world term "Latino." Hernandez says that as a general rule, "Hispanic" is the more conservative word choice. "Latino"
is most often used in communications targeting younger, hipper audiences.

Mira Mira on the Web

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