Juan Tornoe

Juan's Talking Latino Marketing on NPR

I had the honor to share my thoughts on Hispanic Marketing on NPR's Tell Me More, with Jennifer Ludden. You can listen to it on NPR's site.

Home Depot’s Spanish Outreach: in Their Own Words

By Juan Tornoe

Curiosity did not kill this gato (although it almost drove him crazy!). I’m alive and kicking, thank you very much (and borderline sane). Honestly, I was going berserk because I did not have access to the whole scoop regarding the sudden closure of Home Depot’s Spanish website. Yes, I did read what was said in the news; cathartically posted my own POV on the subject, and interviewed another big box retailer who’s maintained a Spanish online presence for quite some time… Through it all I did gather some insights, but there is nothing like hearing the story first hand from those directly involved in making these complex decisions.

So I reached out to Home Depot’s Corporate Communications, who promptly replied and in no time set up an appointment with Leonard Wortzel, their Multicultural Manager, who stepped into this role just 7 weeks ago. Leonard has been with The Home Depot for 4 ½ years, working in various advertising and marketing roles. Prior to that, he spent several years working mostly creative side advertising, with a small agency in Dallas, as well as with the BBDO and Grey affiliates in Costa Rica.

Following, please find the interview/conversation I had with Mr. Wortzel…

Juan Tornoe: What was your U.S. Spanish online presence prior to the launch of the now closed site?

Leonard Wortzel: We had some minimal how-to content on a secondary website.

JT: Why the closure of your Spanish Site only 4 months after turning it on?

LW: When we launched the site, our research told us that this was the right thing to do. The reality was, it wasn’t; not in this current environment. It just simply did not perform the way we thought it would. Because of the very robust solution that we adopted, maintaining the site would require a good amount of manpower behind it. It would have not been simple to just maintain a piece or portion of it, technically it just didn’t work that way.

JT: Why not leave up general company info, store locator info, How-To guides, etc… and lead people into buying in English OR visiting their nearest location for some “Skin time” with a bilingual associate?

LW: The landing page that is there takes you to the store, takes you to our online site, or it takes you to apply for a job. There are a couple of resources that we still have out there: You can shop our online circulars in Spanish and a bilingual employment site. What we’ve heard and learned from our customers is that we need to engage them in the stores, person to person. So right now that is where every ounce of every type of effort is being placed; serving this customer where they told us they want to be served the best, right there in our isles. 

JT: It was cited on the Wall Street Journal that one of the reasons the site was closed was that half the visitors came from other countries… Only 33% of Univision.com’s traffic comes from the U.S. Although we’re talking about completely different business models don’t you believe there could’ve been a way to keep at least a part of the site up and running – referring specifically to the How-To guides?

LW: Again, it wasn’t a simple transfer of data. The amount of resources and effort that would have been required at this particular point in time to keep that part of the site live led us to making a decision on where do we want to put our efforts right now; is it going to be in the digital space or are we best served serving our customer in the place they want and need our help the most, which is in the isles every day?

JT: Was a good chunk of the international traffic coming from México?

LW: Without getting into specific numbers that is pretty safe to say.

JT: Couldn’t you have redirected that traffic to your Mexican website and/or stores?

LW: Although Mexico has a pretty robust site, it isn’t an ecommerce site.

JT: Could you comment on your Spanish site’s conversion rates and customer satisfaction?

LW: Again, without getting into any specifics, we made the decision to shut it down because it wasn’t performing anywhere near where it needed to be.

JT: Is there a future for Home Depot en Español online? If so, what is it?

LW: Without talking about specific plans, we are always looking for the best way to serve our customers and we are always researching and developing new ways to fulfill our Hispanic customers’ needs. To say that Home Depot is done with the digital space for the Hispanic customer, or that we dipped our toe in the water and said, “No, we are done with this”, is absolutely untrue.

JT: Excellent! That is really comforting to learn. One final question… By the way that your current Spanish landing page addresses the Latino community, it seems that The Home Depot is assuming that all Hispanic clients are Spanish-speaking clients. What about Bilingual and English-dominant Latinos? Don’t you believe that specifically addressing Spanish-dominant Hispanics on that one landing page would be more appropriate?

LW: I think that is a valid point; I am going to get back with Vidal [The Home Depot’s Hispanic Agency of Record] and have them take a fresh look at that.  One last thing, I enjoyed discovering your blog, I think you’ve got a lot of good content on it.

So, there you have it. Don’t know about y’all but I am quite satisfied with Home Depot’s answers. They do clarify many of the questions I had written on my initial post on the subject. Hey, I even got a chance to do a bit of free consulting for Vidal… You are very welcome guys! I’ll make sure to add it to my CV. :-)

Christine Webster Moore on BestBuy.com en Español

May 7, 2009
By Juan Tornoe

Two days ago I had the opportunity to have an interesting conversation with Christine Webster Moore, VP of Business Initiatives at Best Buy. Christine is part of BestBuy.com and works with the Latino initiatives team, helping support their Latino customers across all their channels: Online, in their stores, in their call centers, as well as being responsible for BestBuy.com en Español. I believe that given the recent shutdown of another major U.S. Retailer’s Spanish language website, it is important for you to get inside the head of one of the decision-makers at Best Buy, a big box retailer which actually is putting all its chips on the growing Hispanic market.

Juan Tornoe: When and why did Best Buy launched their Spanish Website?
Christine Webster Moore: We soft-launched in September of 2007 and the intent was and is part of a holistic strategy to better serve our Latino customers, and especially those Latino customers who were interested in engaging with us in Spanish. We felt that it was important to be able to have an in-language experience for these customers whether they were walking in our stores, whether they were going online, or whether they were calling our call center. We believe that an in-language approach is of particular importance when people are dealing with products and services that are more complicated; they need to be able to understand what they are, how they work, and if they meet their needs.

JT: What has been your experience with the Spanish site?
CWM: We have learned a lot! We measure the success of the Spanish site in three ways. One, it is important that the kind of relationship we have with our customers, from an overall standpoint, is one in which we are able to say that we reach out to them in-language across our channels; this is something we believe our customers recognize positively. The second way are the transactions done on the site; we are continuing to see progress in this particular area and will continue to improve our efforts in growing the business specifically for the channel. The third area is what we see in terms of the online space and specifically the Spanish site as an initial step to going in the store. We know that our Spanish speaking customers are going online, and doing research, looking at products, looking at our store locator, comparing different products, and then going into the store to actually make a purchase or to have more a conversation with one of our sales associates in the store. We feel that all three of those together are huge benefits to the dotcom business and to the whole company.

It is hard to track exactly what percentage of business online drives into the store. Still, we hear employees telling us more and more that people are coming in with printouts from the Spanish web page and/or employees are using the kiosk inside the store as a way to access the Spanish site and get more information or deepen the conversation with a customer.

JT: What feedback have you received from visitors to the Spanish Site?
CWM: On a monthly basis we track customer satisfaction and we find that the feedback continues to be overwhelmingly positive and is higher actually than what we see on our English site. We think we are getting a little lift because there are not many retailers out there with a fully translated site. We hear that customers like the translation; they are able to find what they are looking for, and that they have a really positive experience on the Spanish site.

JT: Conversion...That's the name of the game. How do the Spanish and English site's conversion rates compare?
CWM: The Spanish site has lower conversions and some of that is due to the fact that a good chunk of our traffic is from outside of the U.S. and we are currently not able to fulfill outside of the U.S. So, obviously the conversion will be lower. But what we are doing, even though we cannot ship outside the U.S. we are trying some different things that would allow customers who are shopping from outside of the U.S. to make easy payments using international credit cards and/or shop from outside the U.S. and then pick up in the U.S. if they are planning a trip; which would be essentially in-store pickup that originated internationally.

JT: Do you have information on what percentage of the visitors to your Spanish site come from outside the US?
CWM: Without sharing any specifics, we can say that a good chunk comes internationally. We are seeing a lot of traffic coming from Mexico, Venezuela, Spain and Brazil; these would be the principal sources of traffic outside the U.S.

JT: So, what's the future of Best Buy.com en Español?
CWM: We will continue with our commitment to the Spanish site as part of our holistic strategy to better serve this customer. We will continue to build awareness around the site and the capability that it offers customers. I think that’s the focus right now. We think we have a great capability that when customers find it, are really happy with it. So we are staying the course!

Well folks, don’t know about you, but I am a happy camper after learning Best Buy’s commitment to serving Spanish dominant Latinos.

Cinco de Mayo Thoughts on Nevada's News 88.9 KNPR

Listen to Nevada Public Radio's 5 de Mayo coverage, where I had the opportunity to give my two "centavos".

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Source: KNPR.org

Online Latinos say Adiós to Home Depot

By Juan Tornoe

A good friend sent me a quite disturbing message late last week: “Home Depot is shutting down their Spanish language website”.

I was quite perplexed given that just a couple months ago Home Depot was announcing with much fanfare the site’s launch, “a replicate of the English language e-commerce site, with 40,000 products available to online shoppers”.

I agree that maintaining 40K plus pages up to date can be a Goliath-sized feat, especially in the midst of this economic crisis, but completely eliminating all Spanish language online presence is quite a radical shift. Wasn’t there a middle of the road compromise? At the very least they could have kept (as they had before) a basic Spanish language online presence, sharing, in their own words, “know-how information for home improvement projects”. From there they could have clearly redirected people to buying online IN ENGLISH or to visit any of their convenient locations where bilingual personnel would be willing and ready to serve them in their own language (ad jargon intended).

It has been reported that the main reason of shutting the site down was “that half of the visitors to the site were from other countries”, which is not the same information that Spanish speaking do-it-yourselfers now encounter when visiting espanol.homedepot.com: “Hemos escuchado a nuestros clientes hispanos y lo han dicho claramente: el lugar más importante para centrar nuestros esfuerzos son nuestras tiendas”. Paraphrasing in English: We have listened to our Hispanic clients’ voices loud and clear: Our stores are the most important place where we should center all our efforts. Hmm. Can someone please tell me how these two statements relate? It is a well known fact that many U.S. Spanish language sites get a fair amount of traffic – to say the least – from Latin America. Given the lack of quality information currently available from South of the Border websites, Latin American web surfers are attracted, like flies to honey, to U.S. based sites, especially if they are in Spanish. Just check Univision.com in Alexa and you’ll see that only 33.1% of their traffic comes from the United States… Wow! They are even in a worst position than what Home Depot en Español claimed!

To say the least it is quite disappointing to see one of the largest retail companies in the U.S. take a step back on this arena. I've always said that giving Latinos access to INFORMATION in their language of choice is of primordial importance to any company in America. Also I have said that companies should not expect to get the same results they are getting from their English site on its Spanish counterpart. Traffic will most likely be lower; visitors will be mostly looking for information, rather than to buy online, but those who do end up buying will be delighted (if the experience is a good one) to be able to purchase right there and then in their own language, from a brand they’ve come to know and trust. Thankfully, there are other major retailers, like Best Buy, who are still committed to maintaining a Spanish online presence.

Having a Spanish language section of their website is now part, from where I stand from, of a company’s  cost of doing business. If the largest minority in the States were from Denmark, I’d say they’d have to also have their sites in Danish! Bottom line, it is all about dollars and cents. If early on you manage to turn some of those visitors into paying customers that would be some very sweet icing on the cake. At this point in time you are mostly establishing a relationship with, and gaining the trust and goodwill of, the small but growing number of online Spanish dominant Latinos, knowing that they will become more sophisticated online consumers as time passes and they will have your company’s name right there at “Número Uno” when they are ready to purchase online whatever product or service you are offering.

Then there’s the emotional aspects involved with establishing deeper, more emotional and profitable relationships with English-dominant Latinos who will see your company as one they want to do more business with, given that it openly recognizes, through – among other things – the investment in the Spanish language site, that the entire Latino market is important to you. 

As far as getting traffic from outside the U.S., it is actually an opportunity. Through geo-targeting you could sell advertising on your information pages while at the same time develop partnerships with similar companies in Latin America, with whom you could service clients in the region. Doesn’t Home Depot own stores in Mexico? They do! And even have a website for it: http://homedepot.com.mx BTW, it is (drum roll please) En Español!

Giving credit to part of Home Depot’s strategy, indeed it is important to cater face to face to Spanish dominant Latinos at your place for business, and it is good business practice doing it through the use of signage and the hiring of bilingual staff. That said, not all Latinos are Spanish dominant and you must never mistake Spanish outreach with Hispanic outreach. The Latino community is way too diverse to try simplifying it that way.

I truly hope that Home Depot reconsiders its decision.

Texas Companies Share Uses of Social Media in Brand Management at Interactive Austin 2009

April 16, 2009
Press Release

Austin, Texas - Growing participation from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio companies builds support for the second annual conference of Interactive Austin 2009 , "How Social Media Can Enhance Enterprise Profitability.” Recognized nationally as a growing social media center, Austin will be hosting companies from across the state as they gather to share their expertise in using social media for brand management.

Business District Magazine’s one-day conference is designed to bring the use of social web technologies down-to-earth. The event hosts compelling dialogues and case studies from prestigious speakers and panelists who are the thought leaders in the field of web marketing and social media.

Texas companies are being drawn to the event to hear globally-recognized business strategist and Web 2.0 architect, Dion Hinchcliffe open the conference with a keynote on “Reinventing Business with Web 2.0.” The theme of this year’s conference is to explore how social media expands business activities online, helping companies to survive and thrive during the current economic times.

BMC Software headquartered in Houston will be represented at the event by William Hurley (whurley) chief architect and chairman of the open management consortium, who will open the afternoon session with his keynote, “Future Technology Trends and their Impact on Business and Culture

Southwest Airlines’ Christi Day, emerging media specialist, will provide case studies on how the airline has learned to meet their consumers online through the use of social media. San Antonio Express-News columnist, Alan Weinkrantz, known for his expertise in using social media along with traditional public relations practices, will participate in the social media strategies panel at the event.

“With Texas so well represented at this year’s event”, states Jason Myers, editor of Business District Magazine, “we anticipate the Interactive Austin conference becoming of national interest next year. We welcome thought leadership from every city to meet with us in Austin annually to learn of global technologies that unite us all.”

Supporting Austin organizations include the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Austin Technology Council, the Austin Interactive Marketing Association, Bootstrap Austin, Leadership Austin and door64 encourage local businesses to attend the event to better understand how to grow their businesses online.

”FG SQUARED is committed in bringing the thought leadership together to maintain the sharing of knowledge at Interactive Austin,” states Steve Golab, president and CEO of FG SQUARED, the title sponsor and driver of the event, “The use of social media in brand management and web marketing can improve profitability for companies as they expand their business presence online.”

Program, speakers, sponsor packages, exhibit details and on-line registration – are available at www.InteractiveAustin2009.com.

Exclusive for the Juan Tornoe Blog Readers:
Use code JT100 to get $25 off online registration.

See you there!

Is Dora the Explorer Turning into a Bratz Kid?

You be the judge:

  

Who's "maturing" next? Barney!?!?

Mamboing with the Walmart Moms

Saturday Evening I was invited by my friends at Mercury Mambo to a mixer they threw for Walmart's 11Moms. The guys from Bentonville, AR recruited these female bloggers, now actually up to 22 and growing, to share their valuable tips and idea on how to stretch their dollars. All but two of them were in Austin for this year's SXSW Interactive conference, courtesy of Walmart, and Mercury Mambo decided to show them some good ol' Texan hospitality. The two missing, by the way, one is about to give birth to her new baby at any moment, the other just had had hers :-)

I tell you, the Mambos showed the Moms a mighty fine Latino Texas time! Besides the Margaritas and great Mexican beer, there was Mambo-made, finger-licking good, Tex-Mex cuisine, and extremely cool screen printed t-shirts with in-house developed designs (I'm wearing mine right now!).

The Moms were awesome! Down to earth, high-tech, business-savvy, very – and I mean – very knowledgeable ladies. Had a blast chatting with them about blogging, Walmart, kids, and each of their areas of expertise. Walmart did an exceptional job at recruiting them. One thing I really apprecited about the whole program is that the Moms are not pushing Walmart products, they are sharing honest, straightforward advice on dollar-stretching issues; if that means putting down a product being sold in Walmart, so be it. Now THAT, is strong, reliable advice.

Their “11 Moms” stickers were awesome as well... great move!

I've been "Lonely-boyed"!

Some of you might have heard me talk about during one my seminars (If you haven't, what are you waiting for to book me???) about a term I coined myself, "Lonely Boying", which I've defined as reaching the Latino market through short, yet powerful, tidbits within your general market outreach efforts.

I've noticed some very wise marketers are jumping on the bandwagon... You are very welcome :-)

Having seen/heard/read multiple examples in varied media outlets, I was pleasantly surprised to see it on a website I use quite frequently and for which I have often questioned the effectiveness of the advertising placed on its pages: facebook.

In the midstof an all-English home page, there it sat, all by itself the poor thing, sticking out like a sore thumb, an ad in Spanish:

Yep, I immediately noticed it and saw it was in the language in which my mamá sang me all those children's lullabies not so long ago (Right... Who am I kidding!), and it just happens to be the same language I still speak at home every single day :-)

I saw it and reacted to it; well, sort of... I am sharing it with you, aren't I?

The point is IT WORKED! It grabbed my attention like no other ad on facebook has been able to do so since the day I joined the social network, which had been a while now. I was Lonely-boyed and I loved it!

See the power of the technique? Use is with caution... it is part of advertising's dinamyte; masterfully used it will work wonders, missuse it and it will blow up in your face.

Remember?

Tu que estás en alto cielo
hechame to bendición...

There's something NOT Hispanic about this...

 
Says the Latino guy with the DANISH last name... (me, for those slow to figure it out). Then again, what is Latino?

“If I were an aging white person”

Note from Juan: Usually I am not this insistent, but today I am compelled to urge you to read my friend Dave's article. It is a must read for anyone living in the United States today, especially for those with "issues" regarding the nation's increasing diversity.

March 3, 2009
By Dave Schechter
CNN Senior National Editor

“If I were an aging white person,” Ron Crouch begins provocatively, “I’d want to find some young black and Hispanic families and ask them how they’re doing because those young Hispanics and blacks will be taking my butt down the road” as they become the taxpayers and leaders of an increasingly multi-cultural America.

Continue reading Dave's post on CNN's AC360 Blog.

Knowing what you are good at and getting help from the experts on what you are not

A couple weeks ago I was all hyped up by the launching of my new project, the Hispanics in Austin Blog. I went ahead, maybe a bit prematurely now that I think of it, and shared it with the world. Here is a screen shot of it the day it went live:

Some of my good friends, those who don't think twice about being very - and I mean very - honest with me, congratulated me on the initiative, but flat out told me it's look and feel sucked. Ouch! They were talking about my baby... Still, they were right.

So I pleaded for help from my creative secret weapon, a person who shall remain unnamed for now, let's call him "Cabazorro". Just a couple hours after that El Cabazorro came back with the blog's new look:

I'm doing cartwheels (mentally at least) after admiring the 1000% improvement, when I hear from Cabazorro again telling me he's not fully satisfied with the banner's resolutions and that he'll be sending me a new one a bit later.

So, the lesson for us all, as mentioned on this post's title, get help from the professionals when you really want to get things right. I did... Do you?

Who's developing your Latino strategy? Let's talk about it.

I'm Presenting @ Austin's RISE '09 Hispanic/Latino Series

A non-profit initiative, RISE – a Relationship and Information Series for Entrepreneurs – has been growing exponentially each year. At RISE ’09 more than 1,500 entrepreneurs are expected to participate in more than 100 sessions. RISE engages entrepreneurs at all stages of business growth – from idea to startup to post-IPO – and is free for all participants

This year, the RISE Hispanic/Latino Series, sponsored by Capital One Bank, was organized by Armando Rayo, Hispanic Engagement Consultant. The focus of the Hispanic Sessions is to engage people in learning more about the Hispanic community & to showcase the expertise of some local Latinos.

I am honored to participate on this event by presenting the session, "Understanding the Latino Community", March 4th @ 4PM at the Mexican American Cultural Center. If you are in Austin, I'd love to see you there.

RISE's Hispanic/Latno Seriers also features Elizabeth Avellan (Troublemaker Studios), James Aldrete (2008 Obama Media Team), Omar Gallaga (Austin American-Statesman/NPR’s All Things Considered”), Monica Caivano (Esquina Tango), Armando Rayo (Hispanic Engagement Consultant), Lynn Currie & Matt Reyes (Mercury Mambo), and many more.

Particpant registration is now open.

A Hispanic/Latino Networking Happy Hour will take place at Nomad Bar
Wednesday, March 4, 5-8 pm
To RSVP, please click here

Holy Burrito Batman!

My friend, Eva Melo from Nashville, TN, shared this "News" on facebook:

I've heard of huge burritos, and eaten my share at Chipotle's (boy, are those suckers huge!), but come on!!!

I certainly was cracking up after reading it...

BTW, my friend Bill Santiago says that a Wrap is nothing but a gentrified Burrito!!

The Mediabrands Guatemalan Connection

It is a little known fact, even amongst Guatemalans in the Hispanic Marketing Industry, that Mediabrands’ new managing director of Hispanic operations, Rick Marroquín, is of Guatemalan descent. This my friends, makes this Guatemalan feel darn proud; please bare with me those among you who are monolingual, while I scream, “¡QUE VIVA CHAPINLANDIA!”

Earlier today, I had a laid back and very interesting conversation with Rick, about his new position and how he foresees its evolution.

Here’s a summary of what we discussed… I’m paraphrasing, since we had most of the conversation in Spanish (Did I told you Rick is fully bilingual?).

Rick’s marching orders are to find innovative ways to reach out to multicultural audiences, starting with Hispanics; he has to look for "never before seen in the market" ways to connect with the Latino consumer. The relationship between media and its consumers has evolved into a two way conversation; Hispanic media has to adapt to the idea that a dialogue must be created between brands and the consumer; currently there are only a few doing it right.

As far as the different companies under the Mediabrands umbrella, Rick explained that they are as diverse as they come; from those extremely traditional and who would think twice before taking a risk to those who were conceived as risk-prone, innovative entities.

Almost everyone who’s taking with Marroquín these days does not fail to ask him which clients he will start with. The short answer is that there are no clients; he has to win new clients one by one. He must convince them that through this new opportunity they will be able to add value to their brands and make them grow within the Hispanic market. First he will talk with Mediabrands’ clients who already posses a Latino ad budget, who are already working with the Hispanic market, and look for ways to help them achieve even better results. Among Mediabrands’ companies who are already doing some Latino work are Initiative (Hyundai-Kia, Carl’s Jr., Dr. Pepper, and Lionsgate Pictures) and Universal McCann (J&J, Microsoft, and the Army).

As to how many persons are in his team, Rick gallantly explains that he is employee Numero Uno, he’s in charge of everything, from managing director’s duties to taking out the trash :-). Wisely, he has a plan to grow organically depending on the income he is able to generate.

As for a name for Mediabrands’ Hispanic Operations, it is still too early in the game; Marroquín is currently writing their business plan. (I have a couple of ideas Rick… let’s talk!)

Have I already told you that Rick is of Guatemalan descent? Thought so…