Target takes aim at new ‘core’ customer: young Latinos
“There will always be a part of you that simply doesn’t translate.” That’s the slogan Target is using in a social media campaign with the hashtag #SinTraduccion, or “untranslateable.”
The campaign is aimed at Hispanic millennials, a demographic Target now counts as its core customer group. By one estimate, the buying power of U.S. Latinos overall is three times what it was in the year 2000: $1.5 trillion and counting.
Target spokesperson Luz Varela says the #SinTraduccion campaign hinges on words like ‘arrullo,’ which is often translated as ‘lullaby.’ That’s one meaning, Varela says, “But it’s also used to describe the entire setting and ambience of putting your baby to sleep.”
Varela says Target’s goal here is to deepen the brand’s connection with people like Linda Hernandez, a 29-year-old mother of two at shopping at the Target in Yakima, Washington.
“I’ve been here every day for the past two weeks,” Hernandez says. She even shows me a picture of her shopping cart posted on Instagram, featuring a pile of her favorite stationery, pens, and pencils.
According to marketing researcher Isabel Valdes, Hernandez is in retailers’ sweet spot.
“Latino millennial is the segment to target: if you’re not there, you’re losing,” she says. “That’s where the growth opportunity is—the new family formations, the new people buying cars.”
SinTraduccion is Target’s first campaign designed solely with Latino shoppers in mind. It uses Spanish songs that touch themes like childcare and family meals.
Roberto Siewczynski says that makes perfect sense. Even young Latinos who prefer English, “think of Spanish as the language of the heart,” he says.
Siewczynski manages Hispanic marketing for the firm Catapultvista.
“You have a very large company here that is not only telling Hispanics, ‘Hey, we’ve got great stuff for you to do,’ but it’s telling them, ‘It’s great to be Hispanic,’” he says.
Siewczynski says a second language is like a second path into a consumer’s mind. Will Target get there? Keep an eye out for the hashtag #SinTraduccion.
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