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Inside the Minds:
Advertising Best Practices
Nationwide Book Published by Aspatore Books
CHAPTER TITLE: Building Strong Brands: New Ways to Reach Emerging U.S.
Communities
An Early Awareness of the Power of Branding
I began to sense the power of media and branding at an early age. When I was only six
years old, I came from a small pueblo in my land of birth, Guatemala, to Washington,
D.C., where I was often the only Hispanic child in school. My father was a human rights
activist, and as I grew up, I remained keenly aware of international human rights
violations in Guatemala.
Through mainstream media, the news didn’t present the full story of the Mayans and the
repressive government. Why were the Mayans being killed? Why were people striking?
Media reports didn’t answer these types of questions. I found the silence and the lack of
balanced coverage disturbing.
While in college, I began to volunteer with Voice of Central America, the WPFW-FM
(Pacifica) radio program where my father worked. This experience taught me about how
news gathering and production works. Soon, I understood a concept I had heard from a
fellow activist, which is central to both branding and advertising: “Words move
mountains.”
That experience led me to develop the idea for my company, MAYA. I launched MAYA
in 1990 with a mission in mind: to increase the quality of life for U.S. Latinos and other
underserved communities. I wanted MAYA to use marketing to create social change and
ultimately to become the premier, blue chip communications agency in the nation.
We began by concentrating on marketing to Hispanic Americans. While we retain that
focus, over the years our clients have asked MAYA to design and implement multi-
cultural and general market branding campaigns. MAYA’s clients include the
Department of the Navy, GEICO, Department of Homeland Security, The Office of
Minority Health, Pepco (the Potomac Electric Power Co), FreddieMac and other leading
organizations.
Our services evolved as well. While the firm initially offered public relations, its focus
became more expansive as the demand grew for services in other areas. We now assist
clients with brand development, advertising, interactive projects, public relations and
market research.
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Our office locations were chosen for strategic reasons. The headquarters office in
Washington, D.C., is at the seat of the federal government, a major client base and home
to one of the world’s most important cities. The Los Angeles office is in the midst of the
largest population of Hispanics in the United States. This demographic is six million
strong and represents an amazing creative force worldwide.
Why the name? The word “maya” has several meanings. It means “mind,” which
corresponds with our strategic thinking. It also means “measure,” and we produce
measurable results. It is synonymous with “illusion,” which is what we create through
advertising and public relations. Finally, the word is pronounced the same the world over,
and has additional, favorable meanings in other languages. To those in India, “maya”
means money. To South Africans, it symbolizes beauty.
To further build the MAYA brand, I assembled a diverse, international group of
employees who bring rich perspectives to their work and share a keen interest in
improving U.S. Latinos’ lives. MAYA’s staff members hail from Latin America—
Argentina, Columbia, Uruguay, Guatemala and Panama—as well as the USA, France,
Spain and Canada. MAYA employs a dynamic group of communicators, and our
headquarters in Washington, D.C., is woman-led.
Some of MAYA’s employees come to us through word of mouth. Others see our ads in
local newspapers, on Internet job postings, on our Web site, or on professional
association job listings.
We evaluate candidates on two equally important criteria—their expertise in their field,
and their ability to deliver exceptional client service. We can teach someone how to edit a
press release, but we cannot teach courtesy and friendliness. Our business is much like a
hotel in that regard; we are truly a service industry. In addition, MAYA looks for
employees who are passionate about their work.
Our hiring process involves a brief introductory phone call, an initial interview to
determine chemistry and fit, a writing test, a second interview, a three-month trial period,
and an annual review. Flex time, profit sharing, subsidies for transportation and gym
memberships, friendly colleagues, and a modern, home-like office keep turnover low—
the average employee stays with MAYA for five years.
Over the years, MAYA’s recipe has been highly effective in helping clients influence
people’s behavior and generate social change. One of the ways we reach U.S. Latinos—
whether to communicate a new product that can benefit them or a free service that can
improve their health and welfare—is through branding. In this chapter, I share with you
the approach to branding that MAYA has used over the years to bring my vision to
reality.
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Defining a Brand
What is a brand? A brand is the totality of who you are: It is your company, your product
or service, the idea that guides you, and everything for which you stand. A brand
embodies the attributes and qualities of your product or service, along with the promise
you deliver for your target audience. The promise of the Department of Homeland
Security is that Americans will be safe 24/7 in the air, land and sea. The promise of
ENERGY STAR is that you will help America stay greener by using products with this
logo. Ultimately, the brand is what makes your offering unique.
Your audience can determine what your brand is. Market research can help you identify
what people want, and what they like about your service or product. But no matter what
your branding concept is, it must clearly convey to your audience how your offering
differs from everyone else’s. An effective branding concept takes all of your offering’s
attributes and distills them into a single thought that, in the audience’s mind, becomes
synonymous with your product or service.
Your brand is your value proposition, boiled down to a single, thought-provoking image
or idea. A logo or slogan can represent your brand, but the brand itself is a concept. When
you see the GEICO gecko, you think of saving money on car insurance. When you see
the Verizon icon, you think of phones. This association is the essence of branding.
Examples of Strong Branding
If the concept of branding seems elusive, simply look around you to find many strong
examples in daily life. Jennifer Lopez is an example of someone with a strong brand. Her
brand is her persona, and she lives in two worlds with great success. She is a dynamic
Latina who embraces her Latina roots and relishes her urban, hip hop lifestyle. Her
movies range from the comedy The Wedding Planner to Selena, the true story of a tejana
singer who topped the Latin music charts. Her own music is hot on the Billboard charts,
and she tours with her husband, singer-songwriter Marc Anthony, who is popular in Latin
America for his salsa music.
Branding was key to the success of the DC HealthCare Alliance of the DC Department of
Health/Healthcare Safety Net Administration, which had an immediate need to raise
public awareness of—and enrollment in—the DC Healthcare Alliance program. At the
time, while an estimated 30,000 District residents qualified for the program, only a total
of 16,000 were enrolled. The Mayor’s FY 2003 Score Card Enrollment Goal was 26,000.
Research and an integrated branding campaign came to the rescue. A strategic mix of
television, radio and newspaper advertisements, combined with the distribution of
brochures via point-of-purchase displays in high-traffic DC businesses, gained the
attention of the District community.
The campaign achieved the Mayor’s goal, which represented a 62.5 percent increase in
enrollment. The saturation of media placements generated a positive awareness of the DC
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HealthCare Alliance’s offerings, and the new tagline “Free Healthcare Everyday”
strengthened the Alliance’s brand position.
The Importance of Branding: MAYA’s Eight Steps to a Solid Brand
Good branding separates you from the competition and crowd. It gives your audience an
idea to adopt and remember. With good branding, you can rise above others’ advertising
clutter and bring your product or service to prominence. In fact, brand recognition can
mean the difference between sales and no sales, action or inaction, a bright future or
extinction. It is the art and cornerstone of effective marketing.
At MAYA, we use an eight-step process. While we most often target the Hispanic-
American community with our branding efforts, this process works exceptionally well to
build brand recognition for all audiences, spanning diverse and general markets.
1. Research the core values that drive acceptance and benefits of your brand.
The first step in building brand recognition is truly knowing about the members of
your target audience, and how they react. Research can help you determine more
about them.
An example of detailed research is the work MAYA did for the U.S. Census
Bureau. A key target for the 2010 Census effort is the richly diverse and dynamic
Hispanic-American community. Outreach to this group will be crucial, because
this is one of the most difficult groups to reach effectively and to convince to
participate in the census. The Bureau was quite aware of the hurdles it faces, and
in the run-up to the 2010 effort, a serious effort to understand and to confront
these hurdles became a reality.
MAYA proposed to conduct sub-population research through focus groups with
persons identified as less likely to respond to a census. The goal of the research
was to identify levels of knowledge about census, previous behavior toward the
census, motivations for and barriers to completing the census form, privacy
concerns about responding, and feelings toward the U.S. Census Bureau overall.
The goal—to find the best marketing approach to get U.S. Latinos to fill-out the
Census 2010 form.
Deciding which Hispanic-American sub-populations to ultimately target was a
challenge because the community is complex and diverse. In the end, MAYA
proposed to target both U.S. and foreign-born from a mix of countries of origin
because it is likely that different points of view would emerge. For all of the
immigrant communities, we felt it important to control the age at which they
immigrated. Persons who were born outside the U.S. and emigrated as very small
children are often indistinguishable from persons born in the U.S. from immigrant
parents. Therefore, we recommended that for each of the foreign-born groups, we
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focus our effort on those who immigrated to the U.S. as teenagers or adults and
eliminate those who were raised here from childhood.
The sub-populations tested were, in order of priority, 1) Hispanic, born in the
U.S.; 2) Hispanic immigrants (Mexican); 3) Hispanic immigrants (Central and
South American); and 4) Puerto Ricans. MAYA proposed to conduct two focus
groups for each sub-population. For those groups whose native language is not
English, MAYA proposed that the moderator conduct the groups in-language.
The level of detail in the targeting will greatly increase the U.S. Census Bureau’s
success in surveying this population. You can apply the same principle to
branding, drilling down until you know exactly who within your broad target
audience is most likely to buy your product or need your service.
Once you have identified your audience, instill a need and promote a positive
message. During this process, do not rely on your instinct alone to develop the
branding concept. Instead, brainstorm for the best concept, and then test it with
members of your target audience. If you have multiple target audiences, run the
concept by a sample of people in all audiences. You can use surveys of
individuals, either formal or informal, or focus groups to glean feedback.
You will want to establish answers to the following questions: Do members of
your target audience understand what you are trying to achieve? Do they like your
branding concept? Do they clearly see how your offering is different from
everybody else’s? Most importantly, do they think your concept is memorable?
Take their feedback seriously, and incorporate it into your brand development
process. If your initial concept was not on target, revise it, infuse it with even
more creativity, and then test it again.
MAYA did this when developing conducting branding research for
AMERIGROUP Corporation, which owns health maintenance organizations
primarily serving the healthcare needs of Medicaid beneficiaries.
MAYA tested branding concepts with 250 street intercepts and at least two focus
groups per test market. MAYA felt that for brand-image generation, these
methods are far more useful than less-personal phone surveys. Street intercept and
focus group interviewers, for example, gain extra insight through body language
and probing follow-up questions. And unlike phone interviews, the target number
of completed surveys is often exceeded because of the people’s willingness to
participate.
This research helped AMERIGROUP identify elusive motivators among target
groups to enroll in AMERIGROUP’s CHIP and Medicaid Managed Care
programs. It also identified which of AMERIGROUP’s brand attributes were
mostly valued and why, and it provided consumer perceptions of advantages and
disadvantages of AMERIGROUP and its competitors.
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Enticing members of the target audience to participate in studies can be a
challenge. Providing cash payments, transportation, day care and the like can be
effective incentives. We’ve also found that afternoon sessions draw more people
than ones at night. You also can go directly to your audience and ask questions
informally—a two-way mirror is not always necessary. And Webcasts eliminate
travel needs entirely.
Combined, research and creative thinking produce results. With those elements,
you can develop a branding message that your audience will hear, understand,
trust and embrace. In the face of strong brand loyalty, your competition will find
it difficult to dominate the marketplace.
2. Analyze your competition and its role in the marketplace.
Know the market better than your competition and understand the niches, nuances
and dynamics driving your target audience, both today and in the future. Who
makes up your audience? Are they mothers? Single moms? Do they respond
better to lower price or to higher quality? Do an environmental media scan to see
what messages your competition is sending to your audience.
To research competitors, gather as many insights on them as possible. Read
everything you can about them, and ask members of your target audience about
them as part of your own market research.
Stay on top by keeping up with your industry. Learn about trends and new players
through professional organizations, conferences, industry publications and more.
Take advantage of opportunities to train your employees so that your firm always
has a finger on the pulse of the industry and is ready to react—or to proactively
pursue new business.
Competition is real. Plan how to manage it. One good resource is the classic book
The Art of War, one of the earliest books on military strategy, by Chinese military
general Sun Tzu. Read it, and you’ll learn tactics you can apply to outsmart your
competitors—and win new clients.
Finally, keep this concept top of mind: Never be asleep at the wheel. You cannot
be complacent about your customer base. You must earn—and keep—your
clients’ trust. Visit your clients often. Send them gift baskets and holiday cards.
Extend warmth toward them. If people let you into their personal space, you are
more likely to keep their trust. Hang out with your clients as much as possible.
3. Communicate your brand's fundamental benefit with absolute clarity.
A clear, targeted message will stand out from the herd. An ambiguous one will
never be embraced.
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A successful brand must target unique audiences with a relevant benefit to get
results. Effective marketers know that branding is the heart of marketing. When
the brand is targeted toward a marketplace that includes diverse ethnic groups, it
is essential to analyze the specific wants, preferences and cultural sensitivities of
each group. To do this, research existing materials online, then conduct focus
groups and surveys with members of your target audience.
You will also want to involve members of the target audience while you are
developing your message. The perspective of staff or consultants who have an
insider’s view of the target audience is invaluable.
By calibrating the branding strategy to account for ethnic considerations, your
brand will have a much greater chance of success, as well as avoid a potentially
embarrassing misstep, within that community.
4. Position your brand for specific target markets.
Trying to reach everyone with generic messages and materials is a sure formula
for reaching no one. Using what you have learned through research about the core
values that drive acceptance and benefits of your brand, devise a strong branding
concept that resonates with your target audiences.
Your branding concept must be unique; in addition to this, it must explain your
value proposition in a memorable, succinct manner. Let your creative juices flow,
and think about how your brand is directly relevant to each of your target
audiences.
As I mentioned above, if you are targeting specific cultures, make sure that your
staff includes people from those cultures. Then involve them in the brand
development process. Ask them what the hot buttons for those cultures are—and
use their feedback to develop your brand.
Inviting all your staff members to participate in brand development is important,
because then all employees can give their input to the process, and can buy into
the results. You then can use a core team of branding experts to refine and polish
the final branding concept.
Here is how the car insurance company GEICO positioned its brand for bilingual
U.S. Latinos in the Florida market.
GEICO understands the value of direct mail—and the value of branding itself as
sensitive to Hispanic Americans. GEICO sends about 2.5 million pieces of direct
mail in English to Hispanic-American households a month. When GEICO wanted
to target acculturated English-language dominant Hispanic Americans between
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the ages of 18-44 nationwide, it hired MAYA for a direct mail design and
copywriting services.
MAYA created a campaign called “Everybody Wins with GEICO.” The
messaging platform was positive and focused on reinforcing that GEICO equals
savings—and saving money. The letter introduced “Latin American” cultural
habits and simple words in Spanish that English-dominant Hispanic Americans
know and connect with, such as “dinero.”
MAYA’s creative concepts for the letter and the envelope included bright colors,
such as green, red and yellow, to avoid the common white envelope used in
business mailings. The letter and the envelope promoted a special offer,
communicated a benefit and provided plenty of information for the buyer to make
a decision.
The bilingual package “Everybody Wins with GEICO” produced a significantly
better response in the test market of Florida (72.45 percent response lift) than
GEICO’s control package called Megaletter, particularly in the month of July. In
this market, both packages had a Spanish callout on the outer envelope that read:
“Obtenga una cotización en español en miGEICO.com.” (“Get a quote in Spanish
at miGEICO.com.”)
5. Develop a brand image that is contemporary, exciting, and on target.
To maintain brand appeal, avoid using an outdated, unpolished brand message or
image. As they become stale, refresh your logo, handouts, Web site, office space,
even the music you use on your phone’s hold button. Fun, bright colors, hit music,
fast-pace editing and animation are now in.
A fresh concept will attract people, create excitement, and motivate them to use
your brand. The buzz your novel concept creates will generate word of mouth,
which is the best and most cost-effective method of advertising there is.
Do not interpret this advice, however, as meaning that you should change the
brand itself. Remember, the brand is the idea, the singular concept that you and
only you hold in the market. That will stay the same. You will not change the
personality, only the clothes. Verizon will still mean phones. And GEICO will
still mean car insurance, no matter what color border is on the new ads.
6. Create brand consistency by using media, public relations and research.
Use of inconsistent logos, images and messages will confuse the target market.
Once you arrive at a consistent message and look-and-feel, commit to it; then
promote your brand everywhere. Your brand logo should be prominent in your
brochures, on your Web site, and even as part of your e-mail signature. Use the
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same branding concept on your ads, your company T-shirts, and your building’s
signs.
Consider your brand attributes when deciding which events to sponsor; for
example, if you support health promotion programs for Hispanics, sponsor a
reception for the opening of a Hispanic health clinic instead of a golf tournament
that benefits an entire hospital.
When you talk with reporters, always mention your branding message and use the
same branding message every time. Ensure that other members of your
organization do the same in their conversations with the media. Designate a
spokesperson who you believe will reflect well on the company and will carry
your brand. For example, at MAYA our best Spanish speaker handles interviews
with Spanish-language press, because she helps to reinforce our image of an
international firm.
Details as seemingly minor as where you hold an event are important as well. For
example, the cellular phone service provider TúYo held a launch party at a very
stylish and upscale D.C. restaurant to establish itself in consumers’ minds as a
quality, hip mobil phone (TúYo) created just for U.S. Latinos.
In short, make sure that every time someone interacts with your brand, that person
receives a consistent message about your organization.
7. Use media and public relations to expand awareness and build goodwill for
your brand.
By promoting your brand through public relations, you generate exposure and
remain top of mind.
Here is how media relations worked for the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security. TSA
wanted to educate the public about how to best prepare for crowds at major
airports right before the beginning of the heavily trafficked Memorial Day
weekend. Despite high fuel costs, summer air travel was expected to increase, and
wait hours at the busiest airport check points in the country were generally
predicted to peak. Each month, TSA Security Officers intercept more than 1.2
million prohibited items, including approximately 30,000 lighters a day. TSA
wanted to communicate to passengers that preparedness can greatly alleviate
congestion at major checkpoints.
To assist, MAYA executed a Satellite Media Tour on location at Ronald Reagan
National Airport near Washington, D.C. MAYA secured 17 national, regional and
local (ABS, FOX, NBC) television interviews with TSA spokespersons about
summer travel tips. Interviews covered such topics as planning ahead, airport-by-
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airport wait times and a detailed list of prohibited items—and reached an
estimated 396,100 viewers.
As the number of Hispanic Americans buying homes in the United States
increased tremendously, Freddie Mac / Mortgage Banking Association used
public relations to respond to the shortage of bilingual professionals needed to
handle home buying. The Welcome Home program provides free online
education and certification in several mortgage banking sectors to veterans and
transitioning service men and women and their families. The program then
attempts to place graduates in ample positions.
The Welcome Home team contacted MAYA for assistance in recruitment and
media outreach in 2005. A communications audit, a media relations blitz near
Veteran’s Day, “guerilla” marketing and recruitment visits to key bases and a
New Year’s Day public service announcement were part of the strategic plan. A
“Hispanic American” overhaul made all English and Spanish communications
materials culturally sensitive. Considerable news coverage included a major piece
on Dallas’ CBS affiliate and more than six stories on major Spanish-speaking
radio, including CNN En Español and WADO-AM in New York City. From the
day MAYA initiated the campaign, the number of new registrants in the programs
increased by over 100 percent.
Even ENERGY STAR, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy dedicated to helping Americans save
money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and
practices, builds awareness through branding. Since 2005, MAYA has been
carrying out ENERGY STAR’s national Cool Your World, Heat Smartly and
Change a Light campaigns to increase outreach to the Hispanic-American
community, sharing the cost savings benefits and practical tips.
The campaigns included eight energy-efficiency educational in-store sessions at
SEARS in California and Texas for Hispanic-American homeowners, plus a
market-to-market radio tour with a Spanish-language spokesperson from EPA that
garnered 20 interviews nationwide.
Public service announcements, news articles, fact sheets, and media alerts
produced more than 50 hits in national and local Spanish language print
publications. Information also appeared in a special promotional campaign called
the ENERGY STAR Hispanic Newspaper Network. Several television news
stories appeared on CNN En Español and Univision. All together, this campaign
had an ad value of $85,000 and more than one million impressions.
In 2007, a micro Web site “En Español” launched for ENERGY STAR’s National
Campaign Support for Heating, Cooling, Electronics, and Energy Efficiency
Outreach.
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Media relations tips for securing news coverage
What are the best ways to generate good publicity? Do your homework when
creating materials. Don’t assume that a press release, Web site or brochure that
works for one marketplace will directly translate to another. Make it easy to cover
your story—and if you have a solid news angle, state that angle clearly and make
it part of your core message. Keep your media lists up to date, and include both
mainstream and Hispanic-American reporters.
Great media relations programs are based on personal relationships. Take the time
to find out reporters’ needs, deadlines and areas of interest. Follow up with them
and ask if your materials were useful and newsworthy. Take them to lunch, and
make friends.
Provide interesting, on-message B-roll to reduce costs for television stations. If
you’re planning an event for Hispanic Americans, invite the mainstream media as
well, and create materials in both Spanish and English. Involve community
leaders in your PR efforts to build your credibility.
Last but not least, hire an agency to ensure that you have the finest resources
possible. And make sure that you have a multi-cultural expert on your team.
8. Plan and invest in your brand’s future and continue to evaluate your
marketing results.
Branding takes times, but with persistence it will grow strong and become a long-
term asset. Understanding this is critical to avoiding the frustration that may
impede your ability to fully harness the power of the brand.
Consequently, do not expect your brand to grow overnight. Instead, consider it as
you would a long-term financial investment. Review where you are headed at
least a couple of times a year, and always track your results. Do your branding
efforts seem to be following the course that you have charted? Do you need to
adjust them slightly? Set measurable goals for your progress—such as garnering
one million media impressions by May—so that you can tell when you need to
change what you are doing, and when you need to be patient.
As the situation changes, reevaluate your position, and make any needed course
corrections. Then sit back, hold steady and have faith the market will take you
where you want to go.
Branding Meets Marketing
With respect to the power of your brand, marketing is an effective tool that you can use to
brand your product or service—with the U.S. Latino community or any other target
audience.
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Marketing incorporates everything you do to promote your brand. While it can include
unpaid efforts such as public relations and media relations, usually you must pay for
advertising unless you barter for ad space. The beauty of such advertising is that when
you do pay for it, you are guaranteed to get your message out and see a quantifiable
return on investment. Media relations, in contrast, leaves your message in the hands of
journalists who can spin the news in any way they see fit.
Advertising gives you the luxury of controlling the messages that reach the public’s eyes
and ears. Furthermore, you can place this controlled message anywhere you want,
whether it is on Internet banners, TV, radio, trashcans on the beach, bus shelters, signs on
the subway, billboards, or pretty much anywhere else you can think of.
The Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) has learned just how effective advertising
can be. Through an aggressive branding campaign that includes creative advertising,
Pepco has attracted and kept new customers in the Hispanic-American community. Based
on customer service surveys, Pepco is one of the most trusted and recognized brands in
the U.S. Latino community.
As a first step in Pepco’s branding, MAYA rewrote the Pepco slogan in Spanish to be
less literal and more effective in meaning. The new slogan “Pepco, siempre en contacto
con usted” (Pepco, always in contact with you) expresses the characteristic goal and
personality of Pepco as a company that is reliable, responsive and customer-focused.
Integrated mass media campaigns using print, radio and TV get Pepco’s messages to the
Spanish-speaking customer—and keep the company at the top of the customer’s mind.
One ad to promote a PowerWatcher’s Program used original illustrations and graphic
design to educate the public on ways to conserve energy in a fun and engaging manner.
The ad’s light-hearted caricatures, a llama and quetzal, also aimed to associate Pepco
with an accessible, less-conservative style. This approach broke down preconceived
notions that many have toward large government and quasi-government entities. Pepco’s
ad was well-received by the public.
Another ad positioned Pepco as a leader in minority business development by featuring
prominent U.S. Latino entrepreneurs doing business with Pepco. As a result, Pepco built
customer loyalty by promoting the power of partnerships and fulfilled its business-to-
business marketing and recruitment objectives.
In 2004, the Federal Reserve Board launched Go Direct, a multifaceted campaign aimed
at increasing the number of Social Security and Disability recipients who receive their
payments via direct deposit.
This integrated marketing campaign targeted Hispanic elderly in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It
included effective communication tactics, identified key community and media partners
and appropriate messaging, and produced multi-media ads. In addition to research and
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strategic planning, MAYA played a critical role in the overall messaging of the Hispanic
component and product development. By the first month, the campaign had reached 30
percent of its two-year overall goal.
Advertising is a bit like making chicken tortilla soup. Everyone does it differently, and
every way is good. Here is my recipe. To make advertising work, I pay equal attention to
five elements:
• The Audience: It is critical to know the audience you are trying to reach. Is it
comprised of business leaders or soccer moms? Your approach will differ greatly
depending on your audience. Earlier in this chapter, we touched on how important
knowing your audience is to your branding effort, and the same is true for
advertising. Before you begin to develop an ad, consider everything you know
about the members of your audience: their age, gender, where they live, their likes
and dislikes, their behaviors and buying habits, and much more. Then confirm
those assumptions with actual market research so that you can formulate an
advertising concept that will speak to those people.
• The Message: Why will the product or benefit your audience, and how can you
best convey this? To make your execution both strategic and creative, take the
information you have learned about your audience and fold it into your creative
mix. Then test and re-test your ads until you have one that electrifies your
audience’s emotions.
• The Execution: Once you have solidified a strategic and creative message that
will capture the attention of your audience, you must make sure they receive your
message in the most memorable TV spot, out of home billboard, online banner,
radio spot and/or print ads to cut across commercial clutter.
• The Media Buy: Where and when will you run the ad? Before buying media
space, review your research learnings and evaluate your target market. Find out
what your audience reads, watches and listens to and which electronic devices
they use. Nowadays, media is complex; it is much more than radio, TV and print.
Choose media placements that give you the best exposure.
• The Tracking: To be sure your campaign is effective, track it. What were the
results? Did you sell enough products and/or gain enough brand awareness?
Neilsen TV ratings and Arbitron radio ratings services can help you measure how
many people received your message, as can sigma encoding that tracks the usage
of B-roll and satellite media tours by TV stations and networks.
You can also survey potential customers before and after a campaign to
benchmark how well your product or service was known before the campaign,
and how well it was recognized after. Use these results to answers whether the
campaign met its goals. Did it generate new inquiries or sell a million widgets?
Did it successfully produce a new image for your organization? If it did, you are
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in excellent shape; yet even if it did not, your tracking was highly valuable,
because it helped illuminate the areas in which you can improve. You can retool
your approach to yield even better results.
Changes in Advertising to Hispanic Americans
Those who market to Hispanic Americans have seen large-scale changes in advertising in
recent years. The percentage of Latinos in the United States population is climbing
rapidly, and advertising is changing along with it. More advertising oriented toward
Hispanic Americans is taking place; for example, ads in Spanish and ads that are
culturally relevant to Hispanic Americans are growing in prominence. Y sí, more and
more U.S. Latinos rely on English-language media catered for us.
Even the method of advertising is adjusting to meet the preferences of U.S. Latinos. “The
AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy” found that there are more than 16 million
Hispanics online, or 55 percent of the total U.S. Hispanic population, according to
Synovate’s 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. Of those 16 million, 77 percent have
access to broadband. The study shows that more than two-thirds (68 percent) of online
Hispanics consider the Internet to be the best source in making final brand decisions,
making it the most relevant medium for marketers.
The study also finds that online Hispanics enjoy social networking online: 68 percent use
instant messaging, 63 percent share photos online, 52 percent read or post blogs, 43
percent visit social networking sites, and 40 percent talk on a phone using the Internet.
Internet games are popular as well, as are social networking sites for Hispanic Americans
and general-market sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Because this demographic also
uses cell phones more extensively than the general population, text messaging and other
phone entertainment services have become prime avenues for advertising to this market.
English-language magazines written for Hispanic Americans, such as Catalina and
Lowrider, are also taking off. The key is to have staff that has walked in the audience’s
shoes. That staff will know what the hot buttons are, and the best approach and timing.
Yet traditional tried-and-true methods, such as using partnerships to launch marketing
initiatives, remain a popular strategy. And word of mouth is a low-cost, highly effective
tool that will never go out of style.
Branding and Advertising to Promote a Social Cause
While branding is a proven way for companies to sell products, that is not its only
potential. Branding also can promote social causes and to create a social moment.
A social cause that is properly branded becomes friendlier and more comprehensible to
the public. Here are more examples. In the late 1980s, Amnesty International sponsored a
tour of concerts that traveled the globe, called Human Rights Now! Many people didn’t
fully understand the issues involved with human rights, but the concert brought attention
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to those issues. Al Gore is using his film, An Inconvenient Truth, to share with the masses
the importance of global warming. And Smokey the Bear has impressed upon countless
numbers of Americans the importance of fire safety when in the forest.
By linking a single memorable concept with a social cause, branding can enable words to
move mountains.
The ProVisión Amigos partnership in Baltimore, Maryland, used branding and
advertising to encourage U.S. Latinos with diabetes, who have a special risk for
blindness, to get an eye exam.
For the partnership, MAYA produced a mass media campaign that included two 30-
second radio spots, exterior and interior bus panels, a bus shelter panel and posters for
distribution at health care provider sites and at various points within the U.S. Latino
community. These materials portrayed the health care system positively, educated
Latinos about diabetic eye care, and reassured Latinos that the identified clinics are
affordable and provide the best eye care.
The branding concept was built on a personal, poignant concept—“Moments,” or
snapshots. All creative highlighted the wonderful moments in life—from friends winning
a soccer tournament to the graduation of a son. Each piece concluded with a powerful call
to action to schedule a screening for diabetic retinopathy at an inexpensive partner
clinic—and safeguard the ability to see the very best that life has to offer.
The number of Latinos who scheduled an annual eye exam increased by 250 percent,
while ProVision’s logo recognition increased by 80 percent.
The “A Healthy Baby Begins with You” campaign used a celebrity spokesperson to
generate buzz and put the campaign on the lips of mothers nationwide.
On behalf of the Office of Minority Health, a division of the Department of Health and
Human Services, MAYA launched this public education campaign to raise awareness
about high infant mortality rates in the African-American community and educate that
community on how to reduce the risk of infant mortality.
Tonya Lewis Lee, producer, author and wife of Spike Lee, agreed to be the campaign’s
celebrity image. She was featured in two Public Service Announcements, one in a print
format and the other in radio.
Press conferences produced media hits nationwide, including on NPR and CBS stations
in Washington, D.C. The radio PSA already has had 1,038 scheduled airings on 14 radio
stations in 10 markets to date. These airings translate to 12.3 million audience
impressions and over $124,000 in equivalent media value. These impressions help
substantially in generating word of mouth.
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While their strategy, creative materials and execution have been very different, these
campaigns have one important element in common: they have used words to move
mountains and to bring about needed social change. Through proven processes of
branding and advertising, they have captured the hearts and minds of their intended
audience, and little by little they have increased the quality of life for US Latinos and
other Americans.
