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Reaching
Hispanic Entrepreneurs
Thursday,
May 20, 2004 By Elizabeth Lloyd, Contributor
Ford
and AOL spark trend of teaming to reach Spanish-speaking small business
owners in U.S. On
April 29, Ford Motor Company and America Online launched the first-ever
Spanish language community hub for entrepreneurs. This hub, called Mi
Negocio -- which means "my business" -- is designed to be a
one-stop shop for Hispanic small business owners, featuring live chats,
in-person forums and informative articles from Fortune Small Business
and Business 2.0. Mi Negocio is powered by AOL Latino, one of the
largest Internet service providers for the U.S. Hispanic population. Does
this collaboration of Ford and AOL Latino signify an increase in
Hispanic small business owners who are going online? With more than 13
million Hispanics online and an estimated 2 million Hispanic business
owners in the United States already generating $300 billion in annual
sales, the answer is a resounding "Si!" Marketers
who fail to see the connection between Hispanic small business owners
and Internet use are missing the boat. Hector Barreto, administrator for
the U.S. Small Business Administration, says, "We believe that 15
percent of all businesses in the United States are minority-owned, which
includes African-American, Asian and Hispanic-owned businesses. But
arguably, the fastest growing segment right now is the Hispanic-owned
business market. And more importantly, these trends are expected to
continue to significantly grow over the next five to 10 years." Peter
Blacker, vice president of International and Multicultural AOL Media
Networks, describes the thinking process behind the creation of Mi
Negocio. "The launch of Mi Negocio represents a partnership between
AOL Latino and Ford which directly answers the need for more Spanish
language content aimed at small business owners and entrepreneurs. The
recent AOL Roper Starch Hispanic Cyberstudy highlights the fact that 84
percent of online Hispanics use the Internet for research. Additionally
70 percent of Spanish-dominant online Hispanics wish there were more Web
sites in Spanish. It is a natural extension of both AOL's and Ford's
commitment to offering products and services that aims to help the U.S.
Hispanic Community to grow." For
Ford, getting involved was an easy decision -- the company leads the
industry in vehicle sales to U.S. Hispanics. "Mi
Negocio deepens our historic relationship and ongoing dialog with
Hispanic entrepreneurs. Of great interest to Ford was data from the
America Online and Roper ASW study that showed a definite link between
the Hispanic community, the Internet and automotive sales. An amazing 12
percent of Hispanics who participated in the survey bought a car online.
Clearly, an online connection between Ford and the Hispanic community is
important to our future," says Nick Scheele, president of Ford
Motor Company. Apparently,
Mi Negocio is a well needed resource to Hispanic small business owners.
According to Blacker, within hours of a kick-off luncheon in New York
City, the Mi Negocio community areas of AOL Latino chat rooms and forums
were filled with comments and positive participation. AOL Latino and
Ford are hosting three more Mi Negocio community events across the
country to physically bring the concept to life. "The
primary goal of the AOL and Ford partnership is to empower Hispanic
Entrepreneurs and Small Business Managers with the Spanish language
business content, advice and connections they need to succeed,"
says AOL's Blacker. "Additionally, by offering online community
elements like Spanish-language business chats, forums and interactive
advice areas we hope to connect Hispanic entrepreneurs with the contacts
they need to get ahead." In
a vertical that is dominated by Yahoo! En Espanol, MSN Latino and
Univision, how does the launch of Mi Negocio position AOL Latino with
regards to Hispanic small business owners? According
to Blacker, "This project showcases AOL's unique ability to create
customized solutions for clients by combining its strength of content
from the Time Warner family as well as its reach as the No. 1 ISP for
the Hispanic Market. With the power of such content giants as Fortune
Magazine, Fortune Small Business and Business 2.0 adding support to this
project, AOL Latino proves it is an ideal resource for Hispanic business
owners." Will
lead to more partnerships between Hispanic portals and major marketers?
Blacker says, "We have already been approached by several leading
marketers who would like to do similar projects with AOL Latino. Our
unique heritage as part of the Time Warner family allows us to tap into
exclusive content such as news, sports and entertainment. At the recent
AHAA Conference (Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies) Nick
Montes, VP multicultural marketing of Verizon Wireless presented a case
study highlighting his success in working with AOL Latino, People en
Espanol magazine and the rest of the Time Warner Hispanic Group." To
maintain a leadership role in the online Hispanic market,
Spanish-language portals must partner with top offline entities. Another
prime example is the recent Yahoo! En Espanol and Fox Pan American
partnership which I will highlight in my next article. Elizabeth
M. Lloyd is director of corporate marketing for a start- up online
marketing company in Silicon Valley. Previously, Elizabeth was the
director of marketing for opt-in email provider NetCreations, Inc. in
New York City. Prior to NetCreations, Elizabeth was responsible for the
public relations department of ValueClick, Inc.
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