KEYS TO MAKING YOUR DIRECT SELLING COMPANY
LATINA-FRIENDLY
By Elianne Ramos
They’re young, they have $300 billion dollars in spending power and unless you haven’t
been paying attention lately, they’re also wise. They’re Latinas, a 22 million + market
that is growing four times faster than any other, becoming a driving influence in fashion,
trends and culture, as well as the one market segment that direct selling companies are
racing to win over.
What’s not to love? Entrepreneurial and hard working by nature, Latinas own 39% of all
women minority-owned companies in the US. And because they are natural networkers
who love shopping and socializing, they make the perfect prospect for any direct selling
company across any category.
Companies like Avon, Mary Kay, Royal Prestige and many others, have been making
concerted efforts at targeting, recruiting and selling to the Hispanic market for years,
building a solid base in the market. “I think direct selling companies have finally realized
the tremendous growth the market is having not only in numbers but also in terms of the
purchasing and spending power the market has,” says Nelly Sepúlveda-Rathmill, VP of
Sales, Hispanic market at Princess House, a cookware and decorative products direct
selling company. Princess House, she says, has seen their Hispanic market grow from a
few hundreds in the late 80s to a current 12,000 distributors, or around 75% of their total
sales force.
So how does a company go about winning a Latinas heart?
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET
“Most people think Latinas as a market are very homogeneous, and it’s really not. We’re
incredibly diverse,” says María Eugenia Bermúdez Price, President and founder of Mia
Mariú Cosmetics. “We may all be united through our language and similar values, but we
all come from very different kinds of backgrounds.” Mrs. Price should know. A Mexican-
American, Mrs. Price used her many years of experience in the corporate world to found
the only direct sales company built specifically for Latinas, by a Latina.
The Latina market is a complex one, to say the least. Besides the fact that Latinas comefrom 22 different countries of origin, there are differences within the market in terms of
language preference, geographical concentration, and acculturation levels. To take into
account only one of those factors when marketing to Hispanics is a common mistake.
Many companies, for example, try to go into the market thinking their only barrier is the
language, yet the truth is language preference is differ largely by generation. According
to the Pew Hispanic Center’s latest report, only 41% of Hispanic adults speak mainly
Spanish while 88% of second generation of adults, and 94% among the third and higher
generations speak mainly English.
This means that speaking to the market goes beyond just translating your copy to Spanish
and adding a picture of a Latina to your printed materials or adding a couple of Latinothemed
to your product line. As Mrs. Price puts it, “It’s truly about taking the time to
understand needs, preferences, desires and values of the market. You need to tap into the
experts in the market who can advice and guide you through the potential missteps that
can happen.”
BUILDING YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE
Once you have done your preliminary ‘homework’, it is important to develop your
company’s internal infrastructure, including customer service, sales staff, management
teams, independent distributors, and beef them up as needed to support your field.
According to Mrs. Sepulveda-Rathmill, “you must identify the people you may already
have, both within the sales force and within the company, who not only speak the
language but who are truly part of the culture, who live it and understand it. If you don’t
have anybody who does this, you must find them.”
This cultural connection is very important to Hispanics, regardless of their acculturation
level. Lisa Andrade, a top-ranked San Antonio-based field representative for Mia Mariú
who herself is a second-generation Latina, agrees. “It is very important, whether or not
you may be comfortable with speaking English, to feel that when you do something as
simple as picking up the phone to call the company, the person on the other line can
support you, not just in language, but can understand you from the cultural standpoint.
For this market, familiarity with the culture is essential.”
DEVELOPING A RELATIONSHIPJust as important is to bring everyone on board, including your sales distributors, and
work in a concerted effort with them to help them build a base. Some companies are
doing a very good job at this. Mary Leal, a top-ranked field representative from
Herbalife, says that in her company, some executives go as far as “taking Spanish lessons
just to be able to understand us and help us succeed. For me, it means we are valued, that
they are interested in my success.” Mrs. Leal, who is from Mexico and conducts most of
her business in Spanish, says she translated that company support into earnings of more
than $720,000 last year alone.
For Lilliam Melgar, who is the top-ranked representative for Princess House, says the
company support has been the key to her building a lucrative business that earns her over
$600,000 a year, even in the middle of this recession. “It has to be a team effort, working
together with your field,” says Mrs. Melgar. “The company has to keep the teams
motivated they have to invest in terms of people who understand us, in terms of
promotions and incentives. This partnership between us and Princess House, from
customer service, sales executives and communications teams dedicated to our market, is
what has allowed us more growth, more projection, a lot more success.”
While entering the Hispanic market can seem like a complex proposition for many
companies, at the end of the day, it is quite simple. As it is with trying to reach any other
market, reaching Latinas is about developing a relationship: a relationship with the
culture, a relationship with your employees as well as with your distributors. And just
like any relationship, it requires consistent actions that show your true, sincere
commitment. “A lot of companies are trying to create ‘divisions’, but sometimes it can
feel like the Hispanic division is the step child,” says Mrs. Price. Though she concedes
it’s very tough to gear to an individual market, “the key,” she says, “is finding the right
balance between catering to the needs of this market enough without abandoning your
general market position.”
In the end, it is about having a strategy that truly and actively reflects the diverse,
multicultural dynamic present in America today. Given how much there is to gain, the
key question a direct selling company must ask itself is not “can I afford to market to
Hispanics?” but really “can I afford not to?”
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