HABLA USTED ESPANOL? - Steve Yanovsky - MediaBizBloggers

With the results of the impending Census 2010, marketers, and the rest of the country at large, will wake up to find the growing segment of the population that is Spanish speaking first, English second. As a result, the generation coming up behind us, or more accurately, behind them, will need to be bilingual.

Recognizing this need, several companies, many started in the past five years or so, have created multi-media teaching tools for instruction in Spanish to young children, ages 1+. They offer DVD's, CD's, printed material, games and puzzles to teach infants how to speak Spanish. At their young age, they are apparently better equipped to learn a second language even as they are learning a first.

After looking at the materials available to accomplish this objective, the company that seemed best at it is out of Tampa, Florida, BocaBeth. Beth is a former school teacher who lived in Latin America for 10 years and created her program utilizing what is called the Parallel teaching method. Following this method, young children learn both the English and Spanish word for objects, animals, days of the week, colors, etc. If you have a young child, or grandchild, check it out at www.bocabeth.com.

The results of the census will also have a profound impact on marketers. Marketing and advertising in Spanish is nothing new. It has been used by marketers for decades. Univision, and other Spanish speaking media outlets, have enjoyed the growth of that segment of the market and have ratings to prove that the population segment continues to increase every year. This increase is taking place beyond the usual DMA's of New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Houston, but is also taking place in unexpected markets like Little Rock, Minneapolis and cities across the country.

This growth in the Hispanic market outside of what was traditionally the "expected" cities with large Spanish speaking populations tells us that to continue to grow brands in the next decade will require that marketers to accelerate their efforts in this area. That kind of concentration will, of course, have to recognize that this is not a homogeneous market, but rather is made up of several sub-segments, i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Columbian, etc.

So, to play as effectively in this new marketing game, with new rules, marketers will literally, or figuratively have to habla espanol. And, and as you learn these new rules

Disfrute de usted mismo

Steve Yanovsky, a marketing and marcom consultant with Customer Focused Solutions, can be reached at steve@stevenyanovsky.com.

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