Yes, I get questions and funny looks from people who learn I help companies market to Latinos. "But you're ... " the response usually trails off.
The thing is, not all Latinos are Hispanic marketers (or marketers at all!) and not all Hispanic marketers are Latino. Like me.
Good marketers possess the experience, the research and the insight to make the right decisions, no matter what their ethnicity, and no matter who their target.
This Ad Age article makes this important statement. It also defines the quadrant of "getting-it-ness" (a word I just made up). Where do you sit? Take a read!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Venice is Sinking!
Got your attention, good!
It's time to order your tickets for Venice is Sinking, a Venetian Masked Carnival Ball! It's a party with a purpose--proceeds to benefit Crooked Trails and its La Casa de los Niños school in Chinchero, Peru, which offers young girls the opportunity to study.
WHEN: April 18, 8pm - 1:30am
WHERE: The Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
WHAT: All-Night Entertainment:
See more about the charity and the event itself at www.carnivalseattle.com. Big discount for early ticket purchase (but if you pay at the door, remember it's for a good cause).
(Oh, and when the ticket form asks how you heard about the event, please respond with "Lauri Jordana" - I want to win a night of free drinks, thank you very much!)
I hope to see you there!
It's time to order your tickets for Venice is Sinking, a Venetian Masked Carnival Ball! It's a party with a purpose--proceeds to benefit Crooked Trails and its La Casa de los Niños school in Chinchero, Peru, which offers young girls the opportunity to study.
WHEN: April 18, 8pm - 1:30am
WHERE: The Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
WHAT: All-Night Entertainment:
- Darek Mazzone, KEXP DJ
- Pure Cirkus Performers: Aerialist, Fire, Grinders, Burlesque, Break Dancers, and More
- Tumbao, one of the best Latin/Caribbean salsa bands EVER (8:30 - 9:30pm)
- and more!
See more about the charity and the event itself at www.carnivalseattle.com. Big discount for early ticket purchase (but if you pay at the door, remember it's for a good cause).
(Oh, and when the ticket form asks how you heard about the event, please respond with "Lauri Jordana" - I want to win a night of free drinks, thank you very much!)
I hope to see you there!
TODAY: Bilingual Latino and Diversity Career Expo
If you're Latino and/or bilingual English/Spanish, they say this is the job fair for you!
WHAT: Bilingual Latino and Diversity Career Expo
WHERE: Holiday Inn, One South Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057
WHEN: Today, 1-5pm
Dress Code: Professional
Job Opportunities: Sales, Customer Service, Clerical, Administrative, Engineering, Finance/Accounting,Government Opportunities, Marketing & Advertising, Business Administration/Management and many more.
For more information on the program and the organizers, see the Latcareers site! If you go, please comment here on your experience. If you get a job, let's celebrate!
WHAT: Bilingual Latino and Diversity Career Expo
WHERE: Holiday Inn, One South Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057
WHEN: Today, 1-5pm
Dress Code: Professional
Job Opportunities: Sales, Customer Service, Clerical, Administrative, Engineering, Finance/Accounting,Government Opportunities, Marketing & Advertising, Business Administration/Management and many more.
For more information on the program and the organizers, see the Latcareers site! If you go, please comment here on your experience. If you get a job, let's celebrate!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Every Sunday at the Triple Door
Every week at the Triple Door across from our office there's Sunday Night Salsa.
I just learned that while I was working on taxes last night, my friends were out enjoying a packed house, Wild Ginger food at happy hour prices and the live music of Expresión Latina. Yes, there was dancing. "Everybody!"
Apparently there's a different band every Sunday, but it's always Sunday Night Salsa. Give it a try!
Triple Door website
I just learned that while I was working on taxes last night, my friends were out enjoying a packed house, Wild Ginger food at happy hour prices and the live music of Expresión Latina. Yes, there was dancing. "Everybody!"
Apparently there's a different band every Sunday, but it's always Sunday Night Salsa. Give it a try!
Triple Door website
In this week's Puget Sound Business Journal
I've talked before about Seattle's Global Partnerships and the amazing microlending they're doing in Central and South America.
But did you know there are microcredit programs right here in Washington State?
Take a look at this week's Puget Sound Business Journal for an article on local microcredit opportunities, including a bit on Washington CASH and their new focus on helping immigrants start and grow their businesses.
Our own Gigi Basaure is volunteering for Washington CASH and sees first-hand how the programs works. After completing an 8-week systematic program of education, participants have the opportunity to apply for a small loan. These programs are now targeting Latino, Somali and Ethiopian entrepreneurs with coaches, like Beto Yarce, who work with them in-language.
I've invited Gigi to post her experiences with the program here, to give us an inside look at how it works.
But did you know there are microcredit programs right here in Washington State?
Take a look at this week's Puget Sound Business Journal for an article on local microcredit opportunities, including a bit on Washington CASH and their new focus on helping immigrants start and grow their businesses.
Our own Gigi Basaure is volunteering for Washington CASH and sees first-hand how the programs works. After completing an 8-week systematic program of education, participants have the opportunity to apply for a small loan. These programs are now targeting Latino, Somali and Ethiopian entrepreneurs with coaches, like Beto Yarce, who work with them in-language.
I've invited Gigi to post her experiences with the program here, to give us an inside look at how it works.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Our Friends at V-ME Need Your Help!
We have learned that V-me services are in jeopardy due to tough economic times. Funding for V-me and many other state programs is being debated in Olympia.
In order for V-me's crucial local services on air, online and in the community to survive—services such as statewide free broadcast, parent and caregiver workshops, local community resources, and unparalleled public affairs—V-me needs your help. Contact your legislators to tell them how important Washington's V-me service is to the fastest-growing community in our state. V-me not only engages Latinos with quality public television, it helps prepare our children, Latino and non-Latino alike, with a global edge. Help preserve V-me services:
• Contact your legislator and tell him/her why V-me is an important service to you and to the state. You can find your legislators by going to http://leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/o OR call the in-state toll-free hotline number, 1.800.562.6000.
• Contact the office of our senate champion, Senator Margarita Prentice. Thank her for her efforts to keep V-me in the budget and urge her to support raising our funds to $180,000, the minimum annual budget we need to continue the offerings of local services, including early learning outreach, local production and transmission from the Puget Sound to Tri-Cities. E-mail her at Prentice.Margarita@leg.wa.gov.
Why support V-me?
V-me is a cost-effective way to serve the fastest-growing segment of our Washington population. It provides resources for parents and caregivers through quality bilingual workshops that provide information and tools to help prepare children for school. Thousands of children and childcare providers have benefitted from these bilingual early learning workshops.
V-me connects Spanish speakers with vital local public affairs through programs including Ask the Governor, Tough Times: Rising Above the Financial Crisis, and a host of shorts on education, culture, arts and financial literacy found nowhere else on television.
The educational and entertaining award-winning content for children and families—the type of programs that help children grow and thrive—is not available anywhere else in Spanish-language broadcasting.
V-me is catching on! In a recent study of Latinos in Yakima and the Tri-Cities, 17.7% of respondents reported having watched V-me in the past 7 days. V-me reaches tens of thousands of homes from the Puget Sound to the Tri-Cities. In our own Conexión Marketing online survey of media consumption, V-Me was right up there.
Let's show this important medium our support!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Seattle U welcomes newly admitted Latino students
Seattle University held a special reception last night welcoming Latino undergrads to the University. Students who had been accepted, some with their parents, attended to hear about current student experiences and how SU supports each student as they enter the University and find their path.
Victor Zamora of the school's admissions office put the event together and invited Latino faculty and other staff to share their roles, and to join in recognizing these students.
Victor read off some statistics that remind us that in the U.S., Hispanics lag behind non-Hispanic whites and every minority in terms of high school graduate and college entrance, and he applauded not only the students in attendance but their parents for encouraging them to achieve more than perhaps others in their family had before them.
Our own research shows that a whopping 39% of Puget Sound region Latinos have not finished high school, 37% have their high school diploma, and 16% have at least some college.
How does this compare to the national statistics? Considering that 32.5% of U.S. Hispanics (twice as many) have at least some college, we're lagging way behind. And this issue will be compounded when Latinos represent 30% of our entire country by 2025.
Victor mentioned that of all universities in the U.S., only 4% of the professors are Latino. This explains a lot, because students don't have the same encouragement or mentorship they might have if they enter a school with a professor that looks like them or speaks their language.
To download our free study on Hispanic Consumers in the Puget Sound Region (produced in conjunction with Seattle University), please visit our site.
Victor Zamora of the school's admissions office put the event together and invited Latino faculty and other staff to share their roles, and to join in recognizing these students.
Victor read off some statistics that remind us that in the U.S., Hispanics lag behind non-Hispanic whites and every minority in terms of high school graduate and college entrance, and he applauded not only the students in attendance but their parents for encouraging them to achieve more than perhaps others in their family had before them.
Our own research shows that a whopping 39% of Puget Sound region Latinos have not finished high school, 37% have their high school diploma, and 16% have at least some college.
How does this compare to the national statistics? Considering that 32.5% of U.S. Hispanics (twice as many) have at least some college, we're lagging way behind. And this issue will be compounded when Latinos represent 30% of our entire country by 2025.
Victor mentioned that of all universities in the U.S., only 4% of the professors are Latino. This explains a lot, because students don't have the same encouragement or mentorship they might have if they enter a school with a professor that looks like them or speaks their language.
To download our free study on Hispanic Consumers in the Puget Sound Region (produced in conjunction with Seattle University), please visit our site.
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