The crowd in attendance at the Pflugerville ISD Administration Building boardroom had been attentive for about the first half-hour of the presentation, but also very quiet.

A few questions had popped up and the presenters for the Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce’s monthly lunchtime seminar had introduced facts and figures in easy to understand form, but a few puzzled expressions remained on some of the faces in the crowd.

The subject seemed simple enough – “Serving the Hispanic Market” – but the crowd was finding out it was more complex than it sounded.

But shouldn’t Hispanics be served just as everyone else? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right? And, with minorities having long pushed for equal rights, didn’t that also mean that they not be given special treatment, in any shape or form?

Well, yes … and no, were basically the answers given by presenters Andy Martinez, Luis Patino and Sebastian Puente.

“We share a common language but the perspectives are different,” noted Martinez, president and CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, who served as moderator for the Pflugerville Chamber’s Pfood for Thought series event April 27.

Martinez went on to explain that the Hispanic community, like the Baby Boomer generation he was also a part of, is a diverse group. You have young, you have old, but you also have those new to the United States, longtime U.S. citizens, Spanish-speaking citizens, Hispanics who only speak English, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, etc., etc.

And the audience of local business people and civic leaders, like Mayor Jeff Coleman, just wanted to know the answer to one question: What do I have to do to get them to buy what I’m selling?

Well, I, as an example, am probably the easiest to target from a business perspective. I’m an English-speaking Hispanic-American, who grew up in Texas. The word “y’all” (if that is actually a word) rolls off my tongue as easily as the word “nombre” (Spanish for “name”).

Show me the Wheaties commercial and I’m likely to react just like any Anglo-American or African-American.

But, as Martinez pointed out, give me the same pitch to sell me on the Boy Scouts that you might give everyone else and I’m quite likely to turn and walk away, as are other Hispanics.

Martinez noted how a typical marketing attempt involving the Boy Scouts might make mention of available grants for college or summer camps only top Scouts might get to attend.

But if worded incorrectly, the message might get misconstrued. Hispanics, who can tend to be prideful, could instead be insulted by the offer of money not earned waved as an incentive in front of them.

By the same token, Hispanics who were part of extended households could be put off by the thought of a stranger wanting to take their loved one to a camp in a far-off place, Martinez noted.

Sebastian Puente, CEO and partner of the Cultural Strategies marketing and advertising firm, noted how many groups will use Mexican flags and similar imagery to attract a Hispanic audience.

“It doesn’t work that well,” Puente noted of such a marketing ploy.

Instead, business leaders should focus on the needs of their customers – subjects that are likely to bring out similarities among all consumers, instead of their differences. Latinos, like most Americans, want to be successful, gain good things for their family and so on, Puente noted.

Unlike the issue in Arizona involving the new bill targeting illegal immigrants, sitting in on the seminar and watching the expressions of the audience member left me with a good feeling. After all, each of the three panelists – Luis Patino, local general manager of Univision was the other one – was Hispanic and the audience members – who each listened intently – were white, black or Hispanic. Race and ethnicity were being trumped by business concerns, so all were equal, which was nice to see.

Patino, who started out in the Spanish language sector in 1997, was later asked why he would go to work for Univision, which some believed would go under shortly afterward. But since then, Univision has gone on to possess the most watched 10 p.m. television news broadcast in Central Texas, Patino said. The Hispanic market has grown into a $9.2 billion industry locally, Martinez added.

“No matter what business you’re in, this is going to affect you,” Patino said.

– Marcial Guajardo