The week before last, two Quester delegates attended the New Mainstream Business Summit, a Geoscape conference. The conference was held at the Conrad Hotel on Brickell in Miami and focused on marketing to the Hispanic market and more generally, to the multi-cultural populations making the new mainstream.
At Quester®, we have been preparing for the ever-evolving market realities of a diverse economy with multi-lingual capabilities for our software-based moderator, but also with the addition of several staff members with Spanish and French native languages. We realized that translating, and/or trans-creating marketing materials in Spanish, and doing our homework as researchers on how the New Mainstream translates in terms of marketing and market research studies, was simply scratching the surface. We felt the need to gain additional knowledge and expertise in this arena.
That is exactly what we took away from the Geoscape conference. The case studies that were presented during the conference were enlightening in that they highlighted how companies had made mistakes and how they corrected them. Not only did we hear from the private sector on the subject of multi-cultural consumer segments but also from the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the population of Hispanic entrepreneurs. Networking opportunities were not just there throughout the day, as one would expect; but also in the evening and night with the kind of entertainment that gives you a full flavor of the cultural experience. By the end, you could almost feel part of a fraternity, as attendees and speakers alike joined efforts to raise awareness for today’s multi-cultural America.
Yet, we all know that while it is important to talk the talk, it is really about how you walk the walk. For us, at Quester, we feel that in talking to those clients with global markets, it is essential that we know what they know, in order to continue giving them a competitive edge through the use of our products and services. We are making sure that our deep dive segmentation and path-to-purchase products, among others, can address the new market realities that our clients experience.
