http://www.cheskin.com/blog/perspectives/ en-us http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000791.html When Mexican treasury officials released the numbers on how much money passed through the US to Mexico in the form of remittance in 2004, companies began to pay attention to the cross-border opportunity. The $16.6 Billion figure was enough to draw people’s attention, second to Mexico’s oil income and accounting... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2006-01-27T17:16:15-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000781.html This blog takes up a second element of cultural innovation. Previously, I wrote about thematizing an ad hoc practice so as to re-articulate it for consumers. A second important element is intensifying a bridge practices, i.e. identifying what makes the practice reduce or resolve a tension and designing attributes that... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2006-01-10T20:01:41-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000767.html This blog is a different take on an article I co-authored and published in 2003 in the California Management Review, called “Developing Productive Customer in Emerging Markets”. The theme here is one of identifying ad hoc cultural bridge practices that produce economic value and at the same time bridge a... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-12-15T18:16:05-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000738.html In helping companies enter emerging markets, the first task at hand is to work with senior managers to debunk common myths or to question their own assumptions regarding consumers in these economies. Most of these myths are related to communicating price and accessibility of a product. Here, I discuss two... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-09-06T18:06:48-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000701.html At the 6th annual Hispanic Boom conference in Los Angeles on June 13th and 14th, the theme of biculturalism emerged as a dominant theme among panelists and speakers. The theme of Cheskin's panel was “Cross Border Strategies” . While no one else talked about this theme explicitly, most of the... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-06-22T15:39:00-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000660.html There has been much interest in capturing the billions of consumers in emerging markets in recent years. A commonly cited statistic is that there are 4 billion people making less than US$1500 per year worldwide. The “bottom of the pyramid” appears to offer great potential for market expansion for many... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-04-14T17:11:36-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000648.html A question that many executives ask is whether they should really divide up a market. Does it really make sense to cut a market into parts? Isn’t segmentation really a last resort, a strategy for those small players trying to grab a niche in the market? Some executives will grant... Methods & Techniques Maria Flores Letelier 2005-03-27T21:41:29-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000587.html In the recent December Holidays, I spent my first Christmas and New Years in Mexico. I witnessed many "Posadas" during the Holiday season, with lots of parties and festivities. But I also noticed the crowded highways with the influx of people who had arrived from the U.S. to their home... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-01-24T10:40:38-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000560.html There is an ongoing conversation we at Cheskin have with our clients regarding whether or bilingual documents should be used in marketing materials or in contractual documents with the Hispanic market. Both cases are very different and require different approaches. Taking the first case only, our collective experience at Cheskin... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2005-01-12T12:08:51-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000455.html This blog is taken from my travel journal on my trip through small towns near rural areas in Mexico in the last two weeks. Last week, I covered Matahuala. This week, I went to Atlixco near the city of Puebla, a beautiful town near a Volcano called El Popo. Unlike... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2004-07-19T09:33:21-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000447.html In the last week, I was out in field exploring the customs of those who live in the small town of Matahuala in Mexico. I discovered that folks residing there live with the US as a constant part of their lives, emotionally and financially. What they call, “El Otro Lado”... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2004-07-12T08:33:36-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000340.html In my 11 years or so of helping clients understand and market to the Hispanic market, both in the US and in Mexico, I have encountered some overarching background values that appear to come into tension for immigrants of Hispanic origin. By background values I am referring to those values... Hispanic Markets Maria Flores Letelier 2004-05-06T10:37:17-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000286.html Every so often, people in the valley start to talk about a new buzzword. Lately, social networking has been the buzzword. The growth and prevalence of social networking sites, such as Friendster and Linkedin, Orkut, and Tribe is generating serious curiosity from many folks in the business community. But are... Etcetera Maria Flores Letelier 2004-04-23T14:23:44-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000256.html A new kind of business is emerging that bridges the gap between the conventional realms of commerce and government. These new businesses are profitable and gaining a strategic advantage in the critically important markets of the future. At the same time, they are engaged in effective and caring development activity,... Maria Flores Letelier 2004-04-05T14:26:13-08:00