Fresh Perspectives
Senior Consultant
Growing up in Bogotá Colombia and living in the U.S. since 1993, Gomez Winebrenner walks in two cultures simultaneously. An economist, analyst, researcher, marketer, and media expert, Miguel helps organizations to cut through cultural biases, outdated belief systems, and multicultural miscommunications to understand and effectively meet the challenge of doing business in US Latino and Latin American markets.
As a consultant at Cheskin, Gomez Winebrenner guides clients in achieving a new and nuanced understanding of Hispanic market opportunities. He is a passionate advocate for understanding the complexities of intercultural communications, as evidenced in his recent article The Inverted Triangle Dilemma. He is also a lead early thinker in the area of Hispanics and sustainability.
He began his career with Yankelovich in LATAM, then moved to C&R Research where he worked primarily in Cable and Telecommunications Group and established their Hispanic division called LatinoEyes. He has led innovative and groundbreaking multicultural projects in financial services, CPGs, QSRs, cable TV and telecommunications, entertainment, healthcare, HBAs among others.
He is a member of the Nat’l Ass. for Multiethnicity in Comm., is Past President and has served on the Board for NAMIC SF and the CTAM Multicultural Committee.
Miguel is published in Marketing News, BrandWeek, Restaurant Business, Time Magazine, Multichannel News, Diversity Inc, Cable Advertising Bureau, and Hispanic MPR. He is the co-author of “Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations.”
12 March 2010
The recent activation of the 2010 Census should be a reminder to all of us on how far Hispanic market thinking has evolved since the last iteration of the Census in 2000. Over the course of the past 10 years, thousands of customized research projects have been commissioned by companies, secondary data from Pew and others has been widely distributed, blogs have been written and twittered daily… the list goes on.
All of these efforts have advanced the conversation from what now seems like very basic (yet key) insights like “Hispanics are loyal consumers” and “they live in large households” to far deeper discussions about this culture. At Cheskin Added Value for instance, we’ve analyzed the trajectory of multicultural marketing relative to CSR, how Isabel Allende’s “House of Spirits” casts a light on Hispanic female empowerment, the emergence of a new American mainstream, and other trends that in one way or another map to how these consumers’ brand relationships and purchase behaviors are evolving.
No question, there has been a lot of deep exploration of this market, and there is more that needs to be done. However, the opportunity for success in the next 10 years will highly depend on how we are able to harness all of this information.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
5 November 2009
As an economics major in college I was overwhelmed by predictors of economic success that were based on hard variables such as GDP, unemployment, velocity of money, among others. All of these variables are important in predicting the state of economic affairs, but at the time I was also intrigued by other “softer” variables. For example, I was curious about the role that patriotism played in the economic success or failure of a nation- my hypotheses was that a nation of highly patriotic individuals was more likely to outpace countries with a lower index of patriotism. The premise being that the more patriotic, the more likely one is to work in unison with other members of society towards the greater good- thus resulting in higher productivity and prosperity. The lesson being that a country’s leader should invest as much into building loyalty towards one’s flag as he/she does into building new factories.
More recently, having been involved in the realm of consumer marketing within the context of a global economic crisis, I’ve been drawn to the relationship between “hope” and “predictability” and how the tension between these two helps determine consumer economic mind-states.
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Posted in
Consumer Goods
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
14 October 2009
On-demand technology like Apple TV is one more piece of evidence that consumers, thanks to the Internet and DVR capabilities, have and will continue to hold more and more power over what they watch, when they watch, and how much/little advertising they want to see. TV as we know it, including TV for Hispanics, is drastically changing. But there is debate as to how concurrent the new general media paradigm is to the Hispanic media evolution.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
30 July 2008
As published in the book Hispanic Marketer’s Guide to Cable 2008, available soon from the Cable Advertising Bureau.
An abundance of information has been garnered in the past few years on how to win the hearts and minds of Hispanic females. Major CPG, healthcare, media, and HBA businesses have conducted research about what it entails to be a Latina, the meaning of beauty, what makes them feel special and appreciated, the importance of family, etc. And in many ways this information has led to newer and better products for her, new publications that cater specifically to her, new TV content and channels, as well as better offerings at the supermarket and other places where she shops.
However, as the market has evolved (due to shifts in levels of acculturation, immigration policy, and the positive proliferation of media options to name a few) so too have the strategies to win this target over. Historically, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the role of family in how a Latina is uniquely different to other ethnic/racial groups. While this continues to be an important factor in marketing, there are more and more companies having discussions about how their brand(s) can “empower” Hispanic women, and use this as a driving strategic principle.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
1 April 2008
Historically, every time the U.S. economy has taken a downturn the result has been more detrimental for Latin American economies. In 1987 and other tough years for the U.S. economy, Latin America has experienced even rougher times- struggling exports and stock market disappointments to name a few. However, the slowing period in Q1’s U.S. economy has been unusual in that the dollar’s value has also decreased. For many economic sectors in Latin America this has been very bad- like flower exports in Colombia (their income is in the form of a devalued currency, but they have fixed costs in an increasingly valued currency). But for many sectors in LatAm, the weakened U.S. dollar has brought about opportunities. Similarly, some companies in the U.S. are struggling but others (like Wrigley and IBM) are benefiting.
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Posted in
Emerging Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
8 January 2008
You've probably heard of the enormous sales growth of the Prius in 2007, which more than a car has become a badge of sophistication. But the environment isn't a fad- there are many documented examples proving that this particular phenomena has transcended “trendiness” and has become not only a lifestyle choice but also an economic imperative.
Most trends, however, do not have that kind of staying effect and fade away quickly, many times representing a loss for companies that innovate only to see their efforts reach minimal depth. Take the beer industry for example- as Mike Beine described in his Brandweek article from December 3 “A-B, Miller and Coors Craft Image of Being the Little Guy”- the beer industry has gone through multiple trends (“like low-carb, ice, red and dry beers”) and more recently craft beers like Fat Tire.
Not that these fades don’t have returns on investment, but the emergence of new economies (multicultural in the U.S. and emerging markets like Brazil, China, India, Russia, etc.) could represent an opportunity to increase the shelf life of new products and services- in any industry- by having business groups like marketing, product development, innovation and marketing collaborate together to keep social and economic pulses on these economies. If, for example, a new packaging or product could have a cross-over effect and go deep into China, then that would certainly make it a more worthwhile investment.
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Posted in
Emerging Markets
| Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
9 October 2007
Last year at a conference I heard the VP of Innovation and Design at J&J say that “green is the new black.” While I doubt he meant that fashionable people will replace their go-to black clothes with green ones, I do agree that “green” (in the environmental sense) has become cool and is impacting business. Ford has already come out with hybrids for some of their cars like the Escape (Porsche is planning the same); consumer packaged goods are taunting their contributions to the environment; airlines are jumping on the wagon; and importantly, the population is being segmented and analyzed differently because the degree of greenness a consumer has can speak volumes about their perception of brands, what products give them status, and the types of communications that are persuasive to them.
But you probably already knew this. My question is: are there Hispanic market characteristics that suggest Hispanics have a different relationship with the environment than do the mainstream population? I believe there are differences, and that those differences impact the way Hispanics respond to green marketing messaging.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
13 June 2007
I decided to write this as a result of a conversation I had with a client of mine who, like many others I’ve talked to, was growing desperate and impatient with a colleague of hers in Latin America. As most multinational corporations do, her company has offices in just about every Latin American country and dealings between U.S. workers and local, in-country workers is something that happens frequently. These dealings are usually far from smooth. Americans complain that Latin Americans just go around in circles when asked a direct question- “I just get spin from them, no answers” my client said. Conversely, Latin Americans complain that Americans are too succinct, too impersonal, and too impatient.
My wife, who is a licensed attorney in both the U.S. and Latin America, told me something when she was studying at Northwestern Law School which I believe helps to understand the root of this stress and thus alleviate it, but can also help marketers in the U.S. to build more compelling communications aimed at U.S. Hispanics, particularly those less acculturated.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
2 May 2007
Yesterday, a client and I attended the 2nd annual immigration rally in Chicago- we were mainly attracted to it by the fact that there would be 150,000 Hispanics participating, and we believed marching along would be helpful in making some sense of the myriad of quantitative data we had recently garnered on Hispanics. The experience was incredibly educational in that it allowed us to confirm things we knew about the market (albeit it wasn’t exactly a representative picture of the marketplace due to the nature of the rally and given that most of the participants were Hispanic Dominant) and led to the generation of some hypotheses regarding the changing dynamic in the marketplace.
Specifically, I left the rally with the following three thoughts:
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
13 April 2007
It depends on who you ask. There are two schools of thought on this:
1) Many (primarily broadcasters like Univision and Telemundo) contend that although research says Hispanics want educational programming- like documentaries, biographies, etc.- what they really watch are novelas, news and sports programming.
2) On the other hand, there are those who believe there is a Hispanic audience for educational programming, and that the reason Hispanics watch only news, novelas and sports is that this is the only type of programming offered to them, and that past attempts by broadcasters at delivering educational programming has been below par.
Where do you stand?
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
7 February 2007
In 1 BC (one year “Before Census” i.e., the year 2000) there were only a handful of Hispanic TV content providers - Univision, Telemundo, Galavision, and maybe a few more in some markets (all broadcast). Then, after the Census figures were published in 2001 operators (cable and satellite alike) began to expand or create Hispanic tiers within their packaged offerings. Now, there may be a trend towards contraction, or consolidation in the marketplace.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
4 January 2007
On a recent holiday trip to Europe my wife and I experienced a technical glitch aboard one of the Eurail trains, which was handled in a way that ended up reminding me of a conference where I learned how kids can help calibrate our leadership skills.
First of all, I believe the train system in Europe is fairly decent, and I’m not exactly sure what caused the trouble, but as the train came to a stop all of the attendants/operators huddled together and were discussing how to solve the problem. We couldn’t understand all too well, but it was clear that they were trying to organize each other and assign responsibilities. However, they were over-analyzing the problem, to the point where nothing was actually being done to solve the issue. In America, we could refer to this as too many cooks in the kitchen. The problem was finally solved, but it reminded me of something I learned at a forum a few years ago.
Specifically, it reminded me of a leadership forum organized by NAMIC where we learned about leadership from the way kids rationalize certain things. In order to get to this point, the forum leader asked us four questions (that are routinely asked by child psychologists):
1. How do you get a giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you get an elephant into the refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting a huge party for all the Animal Kingdom, and everyone’s invited. But, one animal does not show up- what animal does not show up?
4. There’s a small river that is usually infested by deadly crocodiles, and you need to cross it. How do you get across?
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Etcetera
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
31 October 2006
It is vox populi in the marketing and research industries that Holidays, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas, could bias research results. The reason is that consumers’ attitudes and behaviors during these periods are altered i.e., they may be more/less inclined to purchase certain services and goods based on their need states during these festivities. There may also be increased levels of awareness and effective recall for brands due to Holiday advertising. As such, most researchers try to avoid conducting field during these periods of the year- particularly during the third week of November, and between December 15th and January 5th. However, for certain cases, there is also a strong reason for avoiding data-gathering around Halloween.
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Posted in
Methods & Techniques
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
31 October 2006
I haven’t really applied my studies in economics to Hispanic marketing consulting too much, but here’s a quick story of how this changed last week:
On Friday I was invited to speak at a CIMA (Chicago Interactive Marketing Association) event called “LunchByte.” These events are hosted by CIMA a few times per year and their purpose is to bring together members (mainly online marketers) and share knowledge that could be used for progress/innovation. This “LunchByte” was hosted by Univision.com and my piece, along with Rick Marroquin’s from McDonald’s, was aimed at educating CIMA members about the opportunities- particularly interactive ones- that abound in the Hispanic market. The focus of my presentation was on Hispanic Teens and their contributions to the evolution of the Hispanic market landscape. However, it was a slightly different angle that caught the attention of the 100 or so people there, and one slide in particular that generated most audience questions- the slide about expenditures (of all people, not only Hispanics) in the United States over the course of their lifetime, and the role Hispanics play in this story.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
31 October 2006
I haven’t really applied my studies in economics to Hispanic marketing consulting too much, but here’s a quick story of how this changed last week:
On Friday I was invited to speak at a CIMA (Chicago Interactive Marketing Association) event called “LunchByte.” These events are hosted by CIMA a few times per year and their purpose is to bring together members (mainly online marketers) and share knowledge that could be used for progress/innovation. This “LunchByte” was hosted by Univision.com and my piece, along with Rick Marroquin’s from McDonald’s, was aimed at educating CIMA members about the opportunities- particularly interactive ones- that abound in the Hispanic market. The focus of my presentation was on Hispanic Teens and their contributions to the evolution of the Hispanic market landscape. However, it was a slightly different angle that caught the attention of the 100 or so people there, and one slide in particular that generated most audience questions- the slide about expenditures (of all people, not only Hispanics) in the United States over the course of their lifetime, and the role Hispanics play in this story.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, 0 comments
4 August 2006
In September I will be moderating a session called “Bracing for 2010 and Beyond: Strategic Implications of the Evolving Multicultural Landscape.” The session will be held at the annual NAMIC (National Association for Multiethnicity in Communications) conference in NYC, and the purpose of this session is to engage cable and telecommunications executives in conversations about the future of multicultural marketing. Joining me will be a panel which includes Paxton Baker (GM of BET J), Nusrat Durrani (GM of MTV K), Mauro Panzera (Sr. Director of Multicultural Marketing at Comcast), Eric Sherman (GM of VH1 Soul), and Sandra Weber (VP of Multicultural at Turner).
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
27 June 2006
Many sports consumers, especially Americans, have been commenting on how much more exciting this year’s World Cup has been. In great part this has been due to the fact that the U.S. team has improved a lot over the past ten years, and because there has been a sustainable US soccer league (MLS) for some time now. What few people know is that FIFA (soccer’s governing body) has made two substantial innovations to the game in order to create the level of excitement that is being felt this year.
The first was an innovating change to the design of the ball. This new design introduced in 2006 (called the Teamgeist) has fewer stitches and as a result is much quicker and more difficult to catch when struck. As opposed to older balls like the Buckminster design from 1970, which was purposefully slower and heavier, this new ball creates less friction with the surrounding air and easily swerves past goal keepers when struck from a distance. Now, it seems, many strikers can “bend it like Beckham.” The result of this innovation in soccer ball design has led to more scores, especially from long-range, and has made the World Cup much more exciting to those who favor lots of goal-scoring, like sports consumers in the United States.
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Posted in
Innovation & Design
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
31 May 2006
In less than two weeks, the largest and most widely watched sporting event in the world will literally kick off. This event, known in the U.S. as the soccer World Cup, is organized every four years and this time around it will be hosted by Germany (a former host in 1974 and two-time World Cup champion). If you have worked in the global market for more than four years, you probably know how disruptive this event can be to global operations.
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Posted in
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
25 April 2006
Have you ever heard of a place called Andrés Carne de Res? You probably haven’t because it’s in a little town called Chía in the outskirts of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá (33 degrees North, 95 degrees West). But to those of us who do know the place, its located square in the middle of our hearts. And to marketers, it is a reminder that it is possible to create meaningful experiences that transcend country of origin, ethnicity, age, and gender.
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Posted in
Meaningful Experience
by Miguel Gomez Winebrenner
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