Essay 277

Marketing y Medios, the Hispanic marketing magazine from the publishers of Adweek, never fails to deliver interesting material. The December 2005 issue features an interview with Graham Hall, Chief Insights Officer at The Bravo Group.

Hall has worked in research, planning and brand development since 1983, playing on the client and agency sides in the U.K. and U.S. He founded youth brand agency Informer in the 1990s, focusing on 15- to 30-year-olds. The Bravo Group hired Hall around September 2005.

Hall is an anomaly in his new position. Mostly because he’s an Englishman who just started learning to speak Spanish. While he acknowledges the controversies of his appointment, he also makes statements that might fuel criticism.

For example, when asked about his lack of linguistic fluency, Hall says, “It takes [more] years to get the expertise in strategic planning than it does to learn how to speak Spanish.” Perhaps, but some might argue that mastering a language is not nearly as complex as understanding the meanings behind and beyond the spoken words. There’s serious immersion involved in honing these skills.

Some of Hall’s most provocative comments are left dangling for details. When probed on the challenges of Hispanic marketing, he offers, “A lot of the issues troubling this market are based on hegemony and vested interest.” Unfortunately, Hall sidesteps any deeper explanations.

When discussing the changes needed for progress, Hall proclaims, “Take away this whole Hispanic overlayer. [We] would move a lot more quickly if we get out of this idea that there is an Anglo market and a Hispanic market.” Let’s hope he didn’t mean for this notion to be taken literally.

Regardless of how you interpret the interview, Hall represents a unique twist in the category. Sadly, he’s discovering things that multicultural specialists already know too well — from inferior budgets to superior general market agencies. And his observations about the culture are hardly revolutionary. But maybe Hall’s outsider status can provide others with a fresh perspective. Time will tell.

Read Hall’s dialogue and decide for yourself. To view the interview, click on the essay title or simply continue scrolling.

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The interview

Graham Hall

Born and raised in England, Graham Hall only recently began taking Spanish lessons, after landing at Young & Rubicam’s The Bravo Group this summer as chief insights officer, a newly created position. Prior to joining the New York-based shop, he ran Informer, a brand development firm in London. Marketing y Medios’ Mariana Lemann spoke with Hall about strategizing for the U.S. Hispanic Market.

Q: Chief insights officer? What does that mean?

A: You have to ask [Bravo chairman and CEO] Gary Bassell. Y&R has a chief insights officer, so we probably just got [the title] from there. The idea behind it is that Bassell wants Bravo to be planning-centric. One of our main goals is to elevate planning in the Hispanic agency and in the Hispanic world. He wants to make planning part of the decision-making, not just a department.

Q: What are the biggest challenges you face as a planner?

A: The U.S. Hispanic market, the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world, [has] fairly rudimentary marketing techniques. A lot of the issues troubling this market are based on hegemony and vested interest.

Q: Vested interest?

A: I don’t want to paint a picture of anything sinister going on. At least, within the Hispanic market, there is a good reason to question how we think about consumers.

Q: Do you think there is a misperception about consumers?

A: I am talking about how we define Hispanics: By country of origin? Who they think they are? What language they speak? It is actually more complicated than that. It is the same way in the general market. We put too much emphasis on income level and educational experience. From those definitions, an awful lot is assumed of somebody, but that is too simplistic. More controversial is that the Hispanic market is still patronized; there are a lot of assumptions in the general market of the less sophisticated audience, which isn’t true. But there is also the assumption that because you are Hispanic you are [all] the same. Good marketing addresses primal needs.

Q: So what needs to change?

A: Take away this whole Hispanic overlayer. [We] would move a lot more quickly if we get out of this idea that there is an Anglo market and a Hispanic market. There are markets full of consumers, and we have to start developing techniques and specialties that understand the various needs of the consumer.

Q: What, in your opinion, are the barriers to the best practices?

A: Clients are beginning to realize and allocate higher budgets, but they’ve got to start having much more of a dialogue with all their agencies and align their Hispanic agencies to contribute more to the general marketing strategy of their brands. The Hispanic agency has to be at the beginning to contribute to the strategy.

Q: Do you find any resistance from the people you work with?

A: Yes. I still see a [skeptical] mentality in general-market agencies. The clients are more aware of the numbers than general-market agencies. I still talk to my [former] colleagues and they are not aware of why I moved to the Hispanic market. They think it is a small, marginalized audience.

Q: How do people react to the fact that you don't speak Spanish?

A: Obviously there is a debate [about] me coming to Bravo. It takes [more] years to get the expertise in strategic planning than it does to learn how to speak Spanish. I am not a woman, but I can market to women. You can generally come up with a great strategy regardless of whom you are talking to.

Q: You said recently that the Hispanic market is not the melting-pot model. What is it then?

A: If you imagine a big pot and you have some ingredients, then you add some more ingredients, the flavor will change gradually. America's culture is being inundated with Hispanic culture to the degree to which the nature of the meal has changed dramatically. This is a torrent of ingredients in a short space of time. The melting pot idea assumes that the status quo remains constant and that is not what is going to be happening here. The status quo is changing because of the scale of the influx of new culture.