Before You Pay a Dime for Translations or Begin a Hispanic Campaign, Look Internally

I get calls and e-mails every day from businesses and organizations who want to know if I can translate something. Well, of course I can!  However, inevitably, as I get into the translations, I always look at the totality of the campaign that is being produced and find a few questions.

I recently worked on a translation for a government agency that needed a survey for the community into Spanish. On the survey was a number to call for questions. I simply asked my contact, when I was done, "Who will the people speak to when they call? Do you have a Spanish speaker in the office?" A long, silent pause. "No, um, we hadn't thought about that," was the final reply. This situation speaks volumes about what must happen before a business or organization ventures into the Hispanic community.

You have to look internally at your organization and truly assess if you have the manpower and understanding to truly begin serving all groups within the Hispanic community. I have spoken about the six points that all businesses should asses in a previous post. Assess your current bilingual staff or ability to hire new staff. Is it financially feasible and is there enough time?

Assess your business' operating hours and procedures. Are you available during hours that both blue collar and white collar Hispanics are available?

Do you have the time and manpower to research what your target Hispanic market truly wants and/or needs? While national data, facts, and figures are extremely helpful, if you are a local or regional business or organization, you'll need to understand the Hispanic community in your own back yard.

Peruse my previous article for the rest, but long story short, make sure you get your house in order before you start inviting others in.

These are my two cents. What do you think?

The Hispanic Community is More Than Just Dollar Signs

In addition to doing public relations, I have co-owned a tax company for the last 5 years; with a clientele that is about 96-98% Hispanic. Not only do I co-own it, I also prepare taxes, am a Certifying Acceptance Agent with the IRS, for the Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) program, and know the name of almost every client that has ever walked in the door. (Interesting because I can barely remember what I ate yesterday!)

This business has been given me the opportunity to do the most real time research and informal focus groups within the Hispanic community, in Memphis, the Mid-South, and because of the migratory nature of the majority of my clients, the Southeast. My clients love a great deal on goods and services and love knowing about what’s new and next. They also enjoy the latest tech gadgets. As such, consumer goods and services are absolutely on point to launch Hispanic PR, marketing and advertising programs.

In all of the conversations, I have found a few common things that the Hispanic clients I speak with are concerned with, including:
•Quality medical care
•Quality education for their children and many young adults want to know about financial options to attend college
•Government assistance programs

Unfortunately, it seems that most of these service industries are slower to create well rounded programs to communicate with the Hispanic community. I have had numerous clients whose children’s birth certificates were wrong because there were not enough (or no) interpreters in the hospital. Many quality educational institutions offer exceptional financial aid for minority students, but haven’t created programs to communicate with parents, the real decision makers, instead of students. And I can’t count the number of times that families in need of food, shelter, and other assistance have gone underserved due to a lack of quality staff to assist with questions and provide quality information.

Perhaps it’s time to stop looking at all of the money the Hispanic community has to spend but at how we can create campaigns that speak to the core needs of the entire community.

That’s my two cents, what do you think?