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BRADENTON --
Starting this fall, new radio ads for retail chain Bealls will
tell shoppers to "vive el estilo de la Florida."
The new Spanish language ads are more than a rough translation
of the company's familiar "live the Florida lifestyle" tagline.
They're an attempt to reach out to the state's growing Latino population,
a group wielding more spending power than ever and one sought after
by retailers selling everything from groceries to cell phones.
Bealls has tapped Sarasota-based Nuevo Advertising Group for the
new Spanish language radio campaign expected to kick off for Thanksgiving
sales in November. The ads will run in the Tampa Bay market, which
includes Sarasota-Bradenton, as well as in Orlando, Fort Myers and
West Palm Beach.
The contract, for an undisclosed amount, is one of the biggest ever
for Nuevo, a small firm that officially launched in July 2004 and
develops campaigns for clients looking to target Hispanic communities.
"
I've seen this market grow from what it was to what it is to what
it's projected to be," said Pedro Pérez, vice president
of sales and marketing for Nuevo.
The push for retailers to do more to appeal to Spanish-speaking customers
came after the numbers for the 2000 Census came out, showing a booming
Hispanic population in the United States.
"
They started feeling they really had to do something," said
Felipe Korzenny, a professor and director of the Center for Hispanic
Marketing Communication at Florida State University.
The efforts have grown in visibility and in financial heft over the
past few years. The top 10 biggest department store and discount
department store spenders spent more than $180 million on targeted
advertising to Latino consumers in 2005 -- a $20 million jump from
2004, according to Neilsen Monitor-Plus.
Bealls wasn't on that list, but competitors J.C. Penney, Kohl's and
Sears are there. J.C. Penney's spending went up 71 percent from about
$15.5 million to about $26.5 million, while Kohl's drastically increased
spending from less than $18,000 to just over $2 million, according
to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
Bealls' spending varies by market and event, said Gwen Bennett, Bealls'
vice president for advertising and e-commerce.
Bennett said the targeted advertising campaign that Nuevo develops
will be one of many marketing efforts that Bealls uses to attract
business. Bealls might use the results to determine other opportunities
to regionalize its marketing efforts, she said.
Bealls started a formal push marketing to Hispanic customers last
year when it hooked up with Miami-based ViVa Partnership for targeted
media buys and a campaign to appeal to Latino communities. The company
later decided to do its own ad buying, which saves money, and has
switched to the local firm to create its new campaign.
To win over Bealls, Pérez said he and his colleagues visited
every Bealls store in the Orlando market, the first place Bealls
had started to formally target Latino customers with advertising.
In his research, Pérez said he found the Latino customers
shopping in groups of three or four, primarily at night and on
the weekends.
To attract them, communicating well can make a difference, he said.
Bealls will be handing over the scripts for English language ads
to Nuevo as it works on the radio campaign, but the Spanish language
ads won't necessarily be a direct translation, Bennett said.
As retailers ramp up their marketing to Spanish-speaking communities,
Korzenny said bilingual marketing pieces can be especially effective.
For example, some families might be made up of some family members
who speak only Spanish, some who speak mostly English, and some who
easily speak both.
Putting an advertisement in Spanish as well as in English can also
send a message to potential customers that "they really want
to attract me," he said.
" It gives you a friendly, welcoming message."
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