Hispanics, especially those who are more recent arrivals, give higher ratings in product surveys than their non-Hispanic counterparts, according to a study designed by Jeffry Savitz, President of Savitz Research Companies and Professor of Marketing Research at the University of North Texas. The study found that Hispanics rate products higher than what they may actually feel. In the study, Hispanics and non-Hispanics were asked to assign a numeric value to five rating labels using a scale of 0-100 with 100 being the best. The rating labels, "Excellent," "Very good," "Good," "Neither Good nor Poor" and "Poor" are common in survey research. Hispanics consistently gave higher marks than their non-Hispanic counterparts to each label except "poor." The average difference was 5.9 making it statistically significant.

In this landmark study, Professor Jeffry Savitz a graduate of Columbia University, found that Hispanics rated Tylenol 85.7, significantly higher than non-Hispanics at 80.6 implying Hispanics favor the brand. However, after the adjustment of 5.9 points, the ratings were at parity. Among cellular providers, ratings of Verizon, 65.4 and 68.1, were similar. After the adjustment was applied, however, the ratings indicated that Hispanics do not like this provider nearly as much, 59.5 versus 68.1. In the soft drink category, Hispanics rated Fanta 80.0 versus non-Hispanics at 57.6, a highly significant difference. Even after the adjustment the result was still significant implying Hispanics are more favorable toward Fanta.

The results of the study have significant implications on multicultural advertising and marketing as well as which products and services should be offered to Hispanics. "This study finally sheds light on the reason some Hispanic research ends up with faulty conclusions or results. This 'cultural lift' must be taken into account," says Juan Faura, author of two books on Hispanic marketing. "Hispanics are taught from an early age that it is in poor taste or inappropriate to openly criticize or berate when asked their opinions." Savitz says, "The article discusses levels of acculturation, consumption of Hispanic media and country of origin, but more research is needed to measure the effect of the 'cultural lift' on various categories and other factors."

Hispanicad.com

http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2009/06/05/why-pr-pros-need-access-to-social-media-at-work/

Look smokin’ on a hot date! *A halter, sleeveless or cap-sleeved dress is a perfect date look. Be flirty and show off a low-cut neckline.*Punch up the look with one bold accessory…an eye-catching cocktail ring or layered necklaces will make a statement.

Go off the shoulder!*Want to look sophisticated, but with an edge? For your next night out, rock the one-shoulder look in either a hot dress or a flirty top. *Leave the accessories at home. Aside from earrings, keep the look simple. Tousled or “messy” hair will complete the look perfectly.

Sparkle in jewel tones! *For a special occasion this season, choose a dress or gown in a jewel-inspired color, and shimmer in deep purple, garnet, emerald or sapphire.*Complete the look and feel regal in ruby, sapphire or amethyst jewels. For simple elegance, wear diamond stud earrings—even if they’re faux.

Time to wear shorts!  *Bring on the fun in the sun, put on a pair of classic summer shorts. For a more casual style, wear long and bright shorts, and for a more elegant and summer-type look, wear short shorts with a colorful blouse. *Play up your look with a pair of 4-inch heels or platform shoes, a fabulous thick belt or a cute cardigan with lots of color!

For more tips check out www.caressyourstyle.com. And the next time you're at the drug store, pick up the new Evenly Gorgeous Exfoliating Body Wash from Caress... even your honey will think you smell delicioso!

 I think the research conducted by author Natalie Augustin of The Professional Advantage consulting group shows how important it is for managers and staff alike to understand and learn how to bridge the gaps that exist between multiple generations who work together in the same environment. Understanding better the generation traits of your supervisor can help improve your overall effectiveness and relationship with him or her. By the same token, those who supervise others can more effectively manage their staffs by understanding their motivational drivers.

Of course there are a number of other factors that contribute to an effective work group, but knowing, understanding and respecting those things that make each generation a little different from the other, can help get teams to that high performance state that employers seek. 

Will P&G lead the way In Social Media by reinventing Soap Operas?HispanicAd.com, April 29, 2009 For brands, doing social media right will be about telling stories. It will be about blurring the lines between advertising and content. And while there will be an opportunity for brands to attach themselves to stories people choose to share, it's even better when brands help by getting those stories started. This means taking advantage of an old-school marketing playbook: the soap opera.  Recently Dow Jones published a story titled "P&G Puts Added Focus On Digital Media As TV Soap Ends." What's most interesting is that P&G is not winding down its soap opera operations, but rather refocusing those resources on digital efforts. This got me thinking of all the similarities between successful social media marketing and the soap opera. Rather than inserting your brand into someone else's content, the best practices for social media thus far have been to create stories around your brand, making the integration more seamless. The difference, of course, between traditional soap opera and social media is that social media is "participatory." This means that brands won't need to produce stories, as much as they will need to create settings where people will feel compelled to tell their own stories. Another benefit of brands integrating themselves within the content is so they can easily take advantage of the pass-along nature of social media.  So where will the line of responsibility lie between brands and agencies for producing content and facilitating people telling stories? The answer will depend on who more quickly develops expertise and resources for managing social media efforts in an ongoing manner. Rather than looking at a singular campaign concept and staffing for the plan, with an execute and evaluate marketing model, marketers will evaluate how best to develop and manage conversations around their brands. Years ago P&G realized that it would be easier for the company to produce the content itself and then put it on because it gave them the greatest return. Will the story play out the same in social media?

By Joe Marchese, President of socialvibe.
Courtesy of http://www.mediapost.com

In the world of American advertising, racial harmony is now reality _ um, sort of  By TODD LEWAN

  The Associated Press

  Ever see an inner-city schoolyard filled with white, Asian and black teens shooting hoops? Or middle-aged white and Latino men swigging beer and watching the Super Bowl on their black neighbor's couch? Or Asians and Latinos dancing the night away in a hip-hop club?

  All it takes is a television.

  Yes, that mesmerizing mass purveyor of aspiration, desire and self-awareness regularly airs commercials these days that show Americans of different races and ethnicities interacting in integrated schools, country clubs, workplaces and homes, bonded by their love of the products they consume.

  Think about one of Pepsi's newest spots, "Refresh Anthem," which debuted during the Super Bowl. The ad, which features Bob Dylan and hip-hop producer will.i.am, is a collage of images from the '60s and today that celebrate generations past and present.

  Whites and blacks are shown returning from war, surfing, skateboarding, dancing and waving American flags at political rallies, while a boyish Dylan and a present-day will.i.am take turns singing the Dylan classic, "Forever Young," each in his signature style.

  Or, take the latest hit spot from E TRADE, which stars the E TRADE Baby, a 9-month-old white boy, and his newest buddy — a black infant who, from his own highchair, agrees with the wisdom of online investing even in a down economy.

  Ads like these are part of a subtle, yet increasingly visible strategy that marketers refer to as "visual diversity" — commercials that enable advertisers to connect with wider audiences while conveying a message that corporate America is not just "in touch," racially speaking, but inclusive.

  It wasn't always like this. For much of the past century, "minorities were either invisible in mainstream media, or handed negative roles that generally had them in a subservient position," says Jerome Williams, a professor of advertising and African-American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

  "Today, you're starting to see a juxtaposition of blacks and whites together, doing the things people do ... Now, advertisers are not in a position of pushing social justice. But to the extent that they can put whites and blacks together in situations, I think that's a good thing."

  These "multiculti" ads may be evidence of the vitality of assimilation, America's distinctive, master trend. To advertisers, though, they're simply smart business — a recognition of a new cultural mainstream that prizes diversity, a recognition that we are fast approaching a day when the predominant hue in America will no longer be white.

  "Going forward, all advertising is going to be multicultural by definition, because in most states, majority ethnic populations will no longer exist," says Danny Allen, managing director at SENSIS, an ad agency in Los Angeles that specializes in reaching multicultural audiences through digital and online media.

  Just as the Obama campaign sensed the nation's desire to reconcile its racial problems, he adds, "advertisers are also tapping into that same yearning, particularly among younger Americans, to put racial divisions behind us and move forward in a more unified way."

  And yet, some critics wonder if depicting America as a racial nirvana today may have an unintended downside — that of airbrushing out of the public consciousness the economic and social chasms that still separate whites, blacks and Latinos.

  Even on Madison Avenue, which is generating the inclusive messages, recent studies find few nonwhites in decision-making and creative positions within the advertising industry itself.

  Are multiculti ads, then, an accurate barometer of our racial progress, a showcase of our hopes in that direction — or a reminder of how far we still have to go?

  ———

  In the days when Aunt Jemima appeared on boxes of pancake mix as a servile "Mammy" character — a plump, smiling African-American woman in a checkered apron and a kerchief — advertisers aimed largely for the so-called "general market," code for white consumers, rather than smaller, satellite "ethnic" markets.

  Whites still hold most of the economic clout in the United States — 85.5 percent of the nation's annual buying power of $10 trillion, according to a 2007 study by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

  In recent years, though, marketers have been revising old assumptions and campaigns in anticipation of profound shifts in the nation's demographics, and in reaction to changes already under way in what the Selig Center describes as "The Multicultural Economy."

  They note that:

  —African-American buying power has risen from $318 billion in 1990 to $845 billion in 2007 — a 166 percent gain. Whites' buying power rose 124 percent during that period.

  —The combined buying power of African-Americans, Asians and Native Americans was $1.4 trillion in 2007, a gain of 201 percent since 1990. Meanwhile, the economic clout of Latinos rose by 307 percent, to $862 billion, over that span.

  —The number of black-owned companies rose 45 percent from 1997 to 2002 — 4 1/2 times faster than the national average — and their receipts grew slightly faster than all others. Native American-owned businesses increased by 67 percent, Asian firms 24 percent, Latino companies 31 percent.

  —The black population grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2007, compared to 15 percent for whites and 21 percent overall. And the percentage of multiracial citizens, though just 1.6 percent of America's 302 million people, is swelling at 10 times the rate of white population growth.

  If current trends continue, demographers say, nonwhites will be in the majority in America by 2042 — a prospect not lost on advertisers, says Melanie Shreffler, editor of Marketing to the Emerging Majorities, an industry newsletter.

  Marketers "aren't turning out multicultural ads for the good of society," says Shreffler. "They recognize there is money involved. If you skip out on a group that is going to be half the population by 2042 — good heavens, who are you marketing to?"

  Which, perhaps, explains a couple of other current ads: A black-and-white commercial produced by Spike Lee for Gatorade Mission G features close-ups of white, black and multiracial athletes, staring straight into the camera to tell viewers about heart, hustle and soul; a spot promoting Cash4Gold.com has two famously bankrupt celebrity pitchmen of different races, Ed McMahon and rap artist MC Hammer, explaining how easy it is to liquidate gold cufflinks, golf clubs and the like.

  Karl Carter, chief executive of the Atlanta marketing agency GTM Inc. (Guerrilla Tactics Media), calls this the "Benetton Approach" since it echoes a 1980s campaign by United Colors of Benetton that pictured interracial close-ups, such as a white woman and a black woman hugging an Asian baby.

  Such ads often depict, Carter says, "a bunch of different races playing along, side by side, Kumbaya."

  The ads may play well now, but Carter wonders how long they will be effective — particularly as America "beiges" and race becomes less essential to how individuals self-identify. Over the long run, advertisers would do better, he says, to focus on a cultural approach with versatile images and campaigns easily adapted to highly individualized tastes. Put another way: How do hip-hoppers feel? What are the common desires of surfers, or skateboarders, or kayakers?

  "With young people who've grown up biracially or surrounded by different cultures and races, it's more about what connects them."

  Pepsi appears to have digested the message. Though its "Refresh Everything" ads include people of multiple races, "We're targeting anyone who embodies optimism and the spirit of youth," says Nicole Bradley, a Pepsi spokeswoman. "It's more about a mind-set than a demographic."

  In these times, multiculturalism is cool — and likely to get cooler, says Sonya Grier, a marketing professor at American University who is studying how consumers of different races respond to multicultural ads and "ethnically neutral" models in ads.

  The Obama presidency, in her view, will have enormous impact on the industries that set out to mold our desires at a subconscious level.

  "Advertising has to reflect reality, to some degree," she says. "So, now that the president is African-American, I think companies that were once afraid to put members of multiple ethnic groups in their ads might see a chance here to go ahead and take a risk, or even see it as necessary."

  ———

  Four men in suits and ties are eating in a Holiday Inn Express breakfast bar when they see a pretty white woman enter.

  "We're going to send her a plate of bacon," says the black member of the group.

  His white colleague suggests a cheese omelet. No, an English muffin would be more proper, advises an older, white friend. How about a hot cinnamon roll, asks a fourth man, who looks multiethnic.

  "Cinnamon roll?" the black man asks, incredulously. "That's something you send your sister. I'm going to send her some bacon." He hands a plate of bacon to a waitress, who delivers it to the young woman — "Compliments of those guys."

  "Ohhh," the woman exclaims, uncomfortably, and with an awkward smile and a sheepish shrug, holds up what she really wants for breakfast: "Yogurt?"

  This 2008 spot is clever not only for its humor, but because it gingerly tests one of several racial boundaries most advertisers are still loath to cross: The presentation of interracial courting or romance.

  "It's still one of the three taboos in the industry," says Williams, the University of Texas advertising professor.

  Each semester, he hands a Valentine's Day ad to his students that depicts a black man presenting flowers to a white woman in a romantic setting. Most of his students don't see anything wrong with it.

  However, he adds, "When I ask them to take it home to show their parents and grandparents, the reaction I get is still, 'We're not quite ready for that yet.'"

  Other no-nos?

  There aren't many ads depicting multiracial families or biracial couples interacting normally at home, whether having supper or watching a movie. And in ads that depict professional settings, people of color rarely appear in charge — as CEOs, say, giving presentations to their board of directors.

  "Every now and then you see something that bucks the trend," says Williams. "But when you do content analyses of ads, you are astounded by how much stereotypes are still part of the advertising we all digest."

  One reason that racial distortions persist may be the relatively low numbers of blacks in the $31 billion advertising industry, and a dearth of blacks in positions of power.

  A report released in January by the Madison Avenue Project, a coalition of legal, civil rights and ad industry leaders, found dramatic levels of bias in the industry, with African-American professionals lagging in pay, hiring, promotions and assignments.

  Some findings:

  —Black college graduates earn 80 cents for every dollar made by their equally qualified, white counterparts, and salaries of $100,000 are disproportionately less likely for African-American managers and professionals.

  —Sixteen percent of large advertising firms employ no black managers or professionals; in the overall labor market, 7 percent of companies are without blacks in those positions.

  —Blacks are only 62 percent as likely as whites to work in the powerful "creative" and "client contact" functions.

  Numbers are not the only reason black voices go unheard as ads are made. Says Grier, the marketing professor at American University: "I often have former classmates and MBA students who are in brand-marketing or advertising-related functions call me and say, "My company showed an ad, I thought it was stereotypical, but I was the only one in the room and did not know how to bring it up.'"

  Despite their flaws, it would be hard to argue that the multicultural messages of today aren't vastly more dignified and realistic in their portrayal of minorities than those that appeared a few decades ago.

  And yet, might today's ads also be implanting false assumptions that our race problems have been fixed, that all Americans are living comfortable, upper-middle-class lifestyles in racially harmonious settings?

  Charles Gallagher, chair and professor of the sociology department at La Salle University, worries about just this.

  "If you were to come down from another planet and watch TV, you'd think that all of these human beings share a lot of intimacy, regardless of the way they look," Gallagher says. "But the reality is, people of different races don't share social space like that."

  An ad showing Latinos and Asians eating potato chips at a softball game or whites and blacks sporting pricey watches while dining out can, he says, "hide the fact that poverty disproportionately affects certain groups."

  Indeed, African-Americans' median income is just 61 percent that of whites, and blacks are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed, government figures show. Whites 65 or older receive 25 times as much income from retirement investments as elderly blacks, and poverty rates for black children are 2 1/2 times higher than for whites.

  About 80 percent of whites live in neighborhoods in which 95 percent of their neighbors are also white, and census data shows 90 percent of the neighborhoods that were predominantly or exclusively black in 1990 remained that way a decade later.

  "My students always say to me, 'Isn't it better to have these ads? It's kind of a fake-it-'til-you-make-it kind of thing,'" Gallagher says. "The problem with that, I tell them, is that distortions and false impressions never do anyone any good."

  Shreffler, the ad industry newsletter editor, says marketers aren't sociologists and in the end green — not black or white or brown — is often the most important color.

  "Advertising is aspirational," she adds. "It's who we want to be, a lifestyle we want — not always who we are."

I am convinced that Latinos love Facebooking because it allows us to do what we do best....to gossip, in a good way!  OK, now I have to go update my status.

Social Media Marketing Is A Multicultural World

Social media is now ubiquitous. Usage of blogs, social networks, and video sharing sites is increasing rapidly, and millions of people now look to social media sites as their primary source of news, opinion, and entertainment. As we witness this dramatic shift from traditional to social media, we believe it's important to examine its cultural dimensions - that is, who is driving this shift, what are the cultural factors behind it, and what are the implications for marketers seeking to reach specific ethnic/cultural groups via social media? We recently conducted an analysis of newly collected data to examine the patterns of social media behaviors of different ethnic/cultural groups in the U.S. ...We found broad diversity in social media behaviors among different ethnic/cultural groups and that emerging minorities visit social networking sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites. 

Percent of respondents who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics,36%
Asians, 34%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 27%
African Americans, 26%
Non-Hispanic whites,18% 

Percent of respondents who visit MySpace or Facebook "regularly":

English-preferring Hispanics,44% (MySpace) 18% (Facebook)
Spanish-preferring Hispanics,35% and 13%
Asians, 31% and 18%
African Americans, 29% and 12%
Non-Hispanic whites,22% and 7% 

Percent of respondents 35 and younger who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics, 58%
Asians, 58%
Non-Hispanic whites, 57%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 33%
African Americans, 33% 

Percent of respondents 36 and older who visit social networking sites more than 2 or 3 times a month:

English-preferring Hispanics, 24%
Asians, 24%
Spanish-preferring Hispanics, 23%
African Americans, 17%
Non-Hispanic whites, 13% 

Please visit this link for the full article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=100595