Guest Blog: For Successful Marketing, Put Hispanic People Front and Center During Hispanic Heritage Month

By Aliana Ramos

What do the dollar sign, lassos, cowboys, horses, corn, and barbecue all have in common? These things have Hispanic roots, and all – except the dollar sign – existed before the creation of the United States in 1776. However, the Hispanic origins of these items are rarely mentioned.

Hispanic Heritage Week – later extended to a month in 1988 – was intended as a way to ensure that Latino contributions weren’t overlooked. It was meant to put Hispanic heritage at the front and center of American consciousness.

Decades later, brands are still trying to find their footing in their Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. Challenges include everything from who qualifies as Hispanic to whether to call this diverse ethnic group “Latino,” “Latinx,” “Hispanic,” or “Latine” in marketing materials and whether to communicate the message in English, Spanish, or Spanglish.

Since the Black Lives Matter movement, organizations have become more aware of the need for inclusive marketing, and they are under pressure to avoid being seen as tokenizing and monetizing a culture. At stake are brand reputation and trillions of dollars in revenue.

Over 50% of people ages 13-49 have stopped buying from a culturally illiterate brand, saying it offended them or disrespected their values, according to the Hispanic Marketing Council. And a majority of people in the U.S. (57%) say that brands have contributed to racism in their communications and advertising, according to Kantar & Affectiva’s 2021 “Power of Inclusive Portrayal in Advertising” report.