mind in the media

I unfortunately missed last week's class, but I wanted to write an entry touching on the the class prior to that. In this class we watched The Bronze Screen. A documentary-type movie reflecting on how Lations are portrayed in the media; more specifically, Hollywood. The film really put a little light some

I'll tell you why. Because Latinos are a highly diverse (read highly segmented), highly complex group of people. Let me give you a real world example: my friend Monica is a first-generation Mexican-American twenty-something living in San Francisco. She is a marketer's dream, as she is extremely trend-conscious, loves gadgets and is willing to spend a little extra to get something newer or better. She has some disposable income that she is willing to part with.

How does a marketer target Monica? Well, they've got to get to know her first. Monica is fully bilingual. She speaks both Spanish and English at the native level. She "feels" more Latina than anything else, but responds mostly to Gen X American humor a la VH-1 specials and SNL. She treasures her heritage but is completely integrated into American life. She is truly a Mexican-American.What does this mean? It means that Monica represents only one segment of the U.S. Latino market. While there are thousands more potential customers who will respond to the same things Monica responds to, there are thousands more will respond to just the opposite.

So, instead of one huge market, we have maybe ten mini-markets within the Latino market. Unfortunately, no one has been able to recognize this (at least as far as I know) or at least they haven't been successful at manifesting this knowledge.

Monica is not Western Union-ing money back to Mexico. Let that serve as a reminder that much of your Latino audience is completely different from the one you are attempting to market to in Spanish. Oh, she'll respond to an ad in Spanish (or better yet Spanglish), but it better be for something relevant; like high-end purse or a new iPod.

Until marketers realize that "Latino" is a term that we lazily use to define a community -- one that doesn't exist outside of the United States -- that is extremely diverse and comprised of people as different among themselves as they are from you, no one will truly conquer this market. Come out of your boardrooms and get to know your customer. Stop going to Hispanic marketing conferences and start thinking about who you're talking to and how."With the tremendous growth of the Latino demographic in the Unites States, companies are realizing that Latinos have a lot of purchasing power. So companies want to tap into this market, but they are recognizing that in order to do that they need more Latinos working within their organizations that understand the Latino culture. It's hard to market effectively to Latinos if you don't have any Latinos in your marketing department," he says. "Latinos tend to be brand conscious and brand loyal when it comes to making purchasing decisions, so organizations with a strong employment brand will benefit. Employment branding does not refer to an organization's products or services, but instead to an organization's reputation as an employer." What is not so clear is how businesses can best respond to this demographic shift and the growing economic power of Latinos. What should businesses do to attract and retain Latino employees? How can businesses build brand awareness and loyalty among potential Latino customers?The issue of building an employment brand that appeals to Latinos is one that Rodriguez explores in the Human Resources Strategy course he teaches at Capella University. It is also a topic that is discussed in Capella's HR Community of Practice, an online resource library of discussion boards, position papers, presentations and more that is available to Capella students with an HR background or interest.

Tying into our class from the third week in the semester where we discussed women's representation in the media, I had a friend point out a video from Germany that was incredibly disturbing.

To start of, one of the things we discussed in class was the fact that advertising has become more and more about male dominance. To be more specific; the high-fashion industry. Bondage is shown as appealing, sexy, and somehow glamourous. To be fair, the D&G ad above, ended up being pulled after an uproar of controversy. However, ads such as this one for Duncan Quinn (right) are out there, for the public to see, where sexual abuse is portrated as something that is okay. We talked about the fact that women are quite often shown in subordinate poses, even in ads for children, where the boys are rough-housing with the girls. This isn't to say that the media should sugar coat everything. I believe it is important to help spread awareness of sexual abuse. But the issue is that, on one hand there are ads suggesting that is okay, and others aiming to reach out to victims. Mixed messages over a very serious topic is the problem here.



My thoughts are this: where is advertising going if these are the types of ads that are out there? What is going to be out there in 20-30 years?

If this is the only way to break through the clutter, then we have very, very big problems ahead of us.

So, last week my childhood Disney movies were ruined by watching, Mickey Mouse Monopoly. It was rather upsetting. However, I was babysitting earlier today and as we were sitting there, watching old-school Looney Toons cartoons, I started picking up on the terrible stereotypes that were on the screen.

It started with Yosemite Sam; the short-tempered cowboy who's all about hunting with his big 'ole guns. Way to go Looney Toons. Good job on depicting the southern cowboy as a trigger-happy, pigeion-toed, verbally-challenged fella with distinct southern twang. Do we want to show our kids that it's okay to wave around two big guns and chase after bunnies? No, guns don't need to be waved around the salon as we hoot n' holler. Guns shouldn't be fired around to scare people (or bunnies) into doing what we want them to.

Oh, and then there was Speedy Gonzales "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", who was the real inspiration for tonight's blog. He has his oversized yellow sombrero, a white shirt and trousers, and a red kerchief. (stereotype much?) Apparently, Speedy can't speak proper english either. He talks in broken english and is called stupid. He runs around at his speedy pace yelling the classic, "Arriba!" and his mice buddies are lazy and hard-drinking. He lives in the town of Tamales, and speaks often about his desire to "eat a burrito!"

So, then I started thinking a little. Monsieur Pepé Le Pew came to mind. He is constantly going after a cat who he thinks is a skunk and simply will not take no for an answer. He is constantly manipulative, aggressive, and apparently believes "no" means "yes". This clip that I found below is a perfect example of the crazy stuff that is on the boob tube where kids are seeing Pepé Le Pew manipulate miss Pussycat into getting what his wants, her attention.



So you see, it is by no means just Disney giving kids all the wrong ideas about people, and relationships. It's in other classic tales in cartoon form. Let's just hope there are good parents there to help them sort out good from bad and right from wrong.

I recently saw a Clorox commercial that was kinda upsetting. The concept was pretty neat, but there was an underlying note that just didn't sit right with me.

The commercial shows the evolution of the Clorox brand, and how it really hasn't changed too much. The messaging being that they remain consistent because it's a good, trusted product. The thing is; as the time change happens, the clothes, the decor, the clorox bottle design all changes, yet one thing stays the same. No matter the decade, or moment in time that is being portrayed...it's always a woman.

The underlying note being that, all in all it is the woman's job to do the laundry. To take care of the husband and kids. While I understand the earlier years to some degree, they had a real opportunity to show the progression of today's society and instead kept with the gender roles.

Interesting.

(Although it's a Tide Ad at the top, it still has the same lovely message).

bam⋅boo⋅zle–verb (used without object)
to practice trickery, deception, cozenage, or the like.

Well, last Thursday we watched Spike Lee's deliberately shocking movie, "Bamboozled." As I watched the movie, my jaw dropped at the audacity of some parts, laughing at the all-too-familar representations of some characters, and uncomfortably looking around at times to catch the rest of the class's reactions.

Within the first few moments of the movie, I couldn't help be frustrated that Savion Glover, who is a world-renown tap dancer (I've been lucky enough to see live), was playing a bum who tap danced for change.

I understand the messages Lee was trying to get across, but as usual, he had to bang it over the head a little too much. What was the most interesting part of the class to me, was the aftermath.

Once the class began our discussion, reflecting on what we had just seen, I personally didn't know where to begin. Racism is such a touchy subject. As is most of the topics we discuss, (which is one of the best things about the class). I just found myself trying to walk on eggshell, afraid that I was going to severely insult people and cause an uproar.

I must say that every week I am reminded that no matter how far we come as a society, we are still evolving, trying desperately to create an equal, non-judging world.

So...I have a couple of friends who are taking a Copywriting class this semester. Every week or so they get a new client to come up with a campaign for. Their most recent one was "Hallmark for Guys."Apparently, the professor has done this particular assignment for the past two years and it always turns out pretty interesting.

As I said, a couple of my friends are in the class so I helped them out, (at least with the brainstorming aspect of it). It was one of the more fun but tricky assignments I've worked on in my classes.The whole idea of breaking out of the stereotypical Men's "usage" of Hallmark to push them to shop there on a more regular basis, was pretty fun. I actually worked at Hallmark for a little over a year and there really is a particular "type" of person that shops there.

You have the "Soccer Mom" with kids in tow, rushing around trying to find a last minute birthday gift for the kid's down the street's bounce-house party. You have the "Sweet Little Grandma" who wanders around the store, on her own sweet time picking things up, putting them down, and moving on to the next little trinket. You have the "Collector," who comes in with a particular purchase in mind; whether it's the newly released Precious Moments figurine or a special addition Christmas ornament, they know exactly what they want and are furious if you are out of stock.

And then you have the men.

The man that forgot the anniversary and has to make up for it pronto. The man who has no clue what to get his 13 year old daughter, but figures he can certainly find something at Hallmark. The man who's trying to find that particular toy his kids keep going on about that's only available at Hallmark. And of course, the hundreds of men who wait until the last minute for Valentine's Day, rush in and grab the nearest Ready-To-Go-Bag that looks a least half-way decent.

But what can you do as an advertiser to get a man to come to Hallmark, just because?

What can you do to make them think that they should shop there more frequently just because a card is a sweet gesture (that will put them in most ladies' good-book rather quickly). It was tricky, but fun. And yet another example why I love my future job. I'll be trying to figure out what makes men's minds tick.

Although, on second thought, do I really want to know?