Fresh Perspectives
Executive Vice President
Stephen Palacios joined Cheskin in 2001 to lead the creation and growth of Cheskin’s New York office. He currently oversees the company’s client accounts for all non Tech related business and leads Cheskin’s Hispanic market practice group. He is a frequent national speaker on the U.S. Hispanic Market, including keynoting national conferences. Palacios has been cited in the LA Times, NY Times and has appeared on ABC News Nightline and PBS.
Stephen has over 15 years of business development and consulting experience. Palacios has led marketing initiatives and organizational consulting efforts for global brand leaders such as Nike, Mercedes Benz USA, Sara Lee Corporation, Time Warner, Liz Claiborne Inc, Citibank, Pepsi, Blue Cross/Blue Shield (over 10 states) and AstraZeneca. Stephen's passion lies in finding where companies can create new opportunities and derive new revenue streams by leveraging existing brands or creating new brands.
Previous to Cheskin, Palacios served as Vice President of Business Development for FRCH Design Worldwide, one of the leading retail design consultancies in the country. In that role, Palacios developed new business internationally and in the U.S. with major shopping center developers, retailers and brands such as Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, and Elektra (Mexico).
Previous to FRCH, Palacios served as Director of International Business for Federal News Service (FNS), a privately owned information company. At FNS, Palacios was the exclusive agent in the U.S. for Notimex, the largest Spanish language newswire in the world servicing U.S. Hispanic owned Newspapers, Television stations and Radio stations. Palacios also opened and grew a Moscow bureau for FNS just as the Cold War was ending, pioneering one of the first for profit commercial information businesses in the former Soviet Union.
Palacios holds a B.A. from Saint Joseph's University (PA), where he was Valedictorian and an M.A. from American University, where he was awarded a Fellowship.
21 July 2008
A recent article in Ad Age, “Consumer Chasm: Distance widening between consumer types,” put forth an interesting notion regarding the growing importance of consumer segmentation in the corporate organizational structure:
“The emergence of the title of chief marketing officer elevated the marketing function to a level of importance equal to that of finance and the chief financial officer. Within the C-suite, we may see the creation of a new position under the CMO: consumer-segments communicator.
That person will be the one who keeps everyone in the firm up to speed on the different and fast-changing channels through which each segment of consumers can be most efficiently reached, queried and persuaded.”
Why is this particularly of interest to multicultural marketers? Because it is the encapsulation of the debate on whether separate infrastructures (strategies, departments, and agencies) are required to effectively reach the two largest and fastest growing consumer segments in the United States, namely: Hispanic and African American.
Ironically, without highlighting Hispanic marketing, this article underscores a point of view I’ve been advocating a lot – that multicultural, and specifically Hispanic marketing is now relevant on a much larger corporate scale. The evolution of Hispanic marketing in conjunction with the evolution of the Hispanic market itself (to one of power, influence and acculturation), gives enlightened Hispanic marketers the advantage.
Let’s review why this evolution has created the optimal foundation for segment marketing competence…
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
| Innovation & Design
by Stephen Palacios
26 September 2007
Much comentary has appeared surrounding the recent PBS documentary, Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream. As one of the Hispanic marketing executives featured on the documentary, I appreciate the discourse, and can attest to the fact that the documentarian, Phillip Rodriguez, has a skeptical, if not jaundiced view of the Hispanic marketing paradigm.
I agree with comments made by Gene Bryan, CEO of HispanicAd.com, that Mr. Rodriguez should have made a more interesting commentary on the nature, benefits, and yes, controversies that are all part of our industry (or any industry, for that matter). While the film does not treat this topic with appropriate depth and consideration, I am not sure that Brown is the New Green indicts contemporary Hispanic marketing in a serious manner. I believe this for a number of reasons.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
8 August 2007
Hispanic Business Magazine just ran a typical announcement regarding the appointment of a senior executive to a new position at Countrywide Bank to administer the Community Reinvestment Act [CRA] lending and community development requirements.
The article caught my eye not for the news it reported, but instead because it reflects assumptions that often impact Hispanic marketing programs – basically, that the consumers served by mandated social responsibility initiatives like CRA are often seen as the same as multicultural markets.
There is a significant opportunity to address the ironic contradictions and outright confusion that emanate in the financial service sector regarding multicultural marketing, corporate responsibility, and diversity initiatives. Let me explain.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
2 April 2007
Last week, ABC Nightline profiled Pizza Patron , a Dallas based pizza franchise, to highlight the interesting opportunities and conflicts that come with selling to Hispanics, particularly undocumented Hispanics in the U.S.
Some lessons that marketers can learn from Pizza Patron are:
1.) Innovative payment transactional models can be powerful for certain segments of the U.S. Hispanic market, this case accepting Mexican pesos. We have seen this in other examples, such as accepting partial cash payments in local branch offices;
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
14 February 2007
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal front page story that details Bank of America's decision to issue credit cards to customers without social security numbers or credit histories (i.e. undocumented immigrant, mostly Hispanic) is the continuation of an Alice in Wonderland-like "reality" of immigration in the U.S. today. What is fascinating to me is how convoluted the issues have become, extending the old adage "politics make strange bedfellows" to "politics, economics and global forces make surreal bedfellows.” What do I mean? On the one hand political interests from the left have aligned unintentionally with economic forces on the right and forces like technology and globalization to create a strange combination of outrage, denial and progress all at once. The same can be observed from political forces on the right, aligning with labor interests and isolationist oriented interests. It’s quite a sight to behold, and all the while market reality marches on.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios, 2 comments
14 April 2006
No matter where you stand on the controversy that surrounds the current immigration policy debate, the April 10th massive display of Hispanic demonstrations reinforces some very useful insights for marketers. In particular, the demonstrations provide key lessons for cultural values, the macro trend of globalization, and effective communications tactics.
Cultural Values – on display throughout many of the major U.S. cities last week was the strong notion of Collectivism that permeates Hispanic culture. Hispanics tend to think in terms of group, or collective interest rather than individual interest. When threats to family and community are perceived, the group responds. Thoughts of parents being separated from children, for example, are not tolerable. Lesson: understanding the cultural drivers of your audience is essential to success.
Globalization Macro Trend – as seen in much of the political punditry on the immigration debate, the macro trend of Globalization was on full display last week. For better or worse, depending upon who you are and what your political/economic views may be, a central tenet of the immigration debate relates to international labor flows to meet market demands.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
30 August 2005
Hispanic marketing continues to grow explosively, with new segments and microsegments emerging as the market increasingly becomes more sophisticated and mature. What's the next big opportunity in the U.S. Hispanic market? Business to business offerings to Hispanic small and medium-sized businesses.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios, 0 comments
26 July 2005
From my earlier posts we saw that Hispanics are a growing — and largely untapped — market for health care. You want in. To reach them, you will have to understand the influence their culture has on their behavior and preferences. Entering the Hispanic health care market is straightforward. You can do it in five steps:
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios, 0 comments
23 June 2005
In my two previous posts, we’ve reviewed the census data, and investigated the economic potential of the Hispanic market. We’ve examined changes in regulatory law and government agencies that serve Hispanics. We feel we've established that the Hispanic market represents an undeniable opportunity for US businesses, particularly those in the health care industry, but if you need more evidence of this, we recommend reviewing the extensive sources posted by Juan Guillermo on his Hispanic Trending blog.
For those of you ready to take action, let's look at a cross section of health care companies who recognize the opportunity Hispanics represent:
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios, 2 comments
20 June 2005
Last week I began this blog series about the vast opportunity the Hispanic population represents to US business. Today I'll continue to develop the context of why any sane business, and most notably the health care industry, should invest in this market.
Although Hispanics on the whole still have only a small share of America’s wealth, their participation in the economy is growing. Let’s look at some market projections.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
| Innovation & Design
by Stephen Palacios, 0 comments
9 June 2005
With a population growth of more than 56% over the last decade, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the U.S. Their numbers are not just growing; they're growing at a significantly faster rate than other segments. As they grow in numbers, they are growing in spending power. From $600 billion today, the Hispanic market will become a $1 trillion market by 2008. That’s 40% growth over the next three years.
You’d think industries would be racing to cultivate this market. But for the most part, Hispanics are still under-served and under-addressed — especially in the health care arena. The reasons for this are partly cultural, and partly economic.
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
13 January 2005
I was reading “The Rise of the U.S. Hispanic Market” on my trip to and from Monterrey, Mexico this week. While there are some big questions I have with the author’s perspective many issues, there was one idea that struck home. That idea is the articulation of the North American Cultural Area (NACA) as an emerging market. This idea suggests the Hispanic market in the US is extending beyond political borders, creating a new type of consumer who requires different products and services. It struck home because
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Posted in
Hispanic Markets
by Stephen Palacios
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