Salsa legend Willie Colon, actress Liz Torres and other Hispanic luminaries and community leaders appear in new Coors Brewing Co. print ads that target Hispanic consumers.
The ads feature 15 people from different segments of a national Hispanic community that includes Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans and others.
“The big brewers are putting focus on the Hispanic market as an area of growth opportunity,” said Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Latinos are now the country’s largest minority, with 42.7 million people. Hispanic Americans are the largest minority, and by 2010, one of every six people living in the U.S. will be of Hispanic origin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Hispanic buying power in 2004 was estimated at $686 billion and is expected to reach $923 billion by 2008, according to a study by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.
The Coors “lideres,” or leaders, ads, will debut in Hispanic publications in Dallas/Fort Worth, New York, Los Angeles and San Diego this month. They feature the Coors logo but don’t focus on Coors’ products.
The company asked nonprofits that it works with to identify community leaders who represent the values of the organizations and communities they serve and focused the advertising on them.
“Our corporate relations department saw a lot of Hispanic leaders who aren’t recognized and wanted to use the strength of its print ads to showcase them,” said Coors spokeswoman Kabira Hatland.
Each of the Spanish-language ads highlights the accomplishments of those who are pictured. Willie Colon, a trombonist and band leader who is a member of the board of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and has been active in other Hispanic organizations, shares ad space with Marcela Poveda, who served as a public policy and housing fellow with the National Puerto Rican Coalition.
In the past, beer companies have ignored differences in the Hispanic population, which is made up of a variety of nationalities, Steinman said.
“A one-size-fits-all approach has been the wrong approach. Hispanics are not a monolithic community. There are big differences between Mexicans, Cubans, etcetera, depending on where you are in the country,” Steinman said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
