Right Place. Right Time

Hispanic marketing takes off By Bob McCarthy, editor of Business to Business Magazine A headline in the May 17 issue of "USA Today" announced the "Nation's minority numbers top 100M." Hispanics remain the largest minority group at 44.3 million, and as they settle in areas where whites are aging and fewer are being born, they're transforming classrooms, workplaces and entire communities and one might add, advertising. Enter Bauza & Associates with offices in the Open Square complex in Holyoke. For Lillian and Hector Bauza, the growth of the Hispanic market has provided them with an opportunity to be in the right place at the right time. Hector Bauza, president and CEO, has spent his career in advertising and media, beginning with direct sales for a radio station while an undergraduate in his native Puerto Rico. After graduation he moved to a small ad agency and later a larger one. "In 1985, I opened my own ad agency," Hector said. "I was in my early twenties and we went from zero to $3 million in billing the first year." The agency's growth caught the attention of Saatchi & Saatchi, an advertising firm heralded as the global leader in shopper marketing, and eventually Hector joined the firm to manage their retail department but, he admits, he spent more time dealing with corporate politics than working with accounts. Over the next few years he worked in Mexico for a Miami-based agency, then moved back to Puerto Rico and finally to Orlando before he and Lillian moved to western Massachusetts where, in 2004, the couple started "El Dialogo," a bi-lingual newspaper, which opened an unexpected door for the Bauzas. "When I began visiting prospects to advertise in the newspaper, they would tell me that it was a good idea but they had no idea of what to put into an ad targeted for the Hispanic community," Hector said. "So they would hire us as marketing consultants." Within a year, Bauza & Associates was up and running. Lillian Bauza stayed with the newspaper until December 2006, when it ceased publishing, then joined the agency as its operations manager. They offer clients a full-service agency. Bauza & Associates can develop a strategic plan with recommendations for the creative steps and how to measure the results. If a client needs to add bi-lingual staff for customer service, they can help with that also. Growth with challenges To the Bauzas, it makes sense to be located in western Massachusetts because the office space and cost of living are lower than Boston or even Hartford. "We have offices in Boston and in New Haven," Hector said, "And I can assure you we pay more for [office space] there and they are smaller than what we have here." The New Haven office opened two years ago and is managed by Wilson Carmelo, an experienced marketer and president of the southern connecticut chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The Boston office is managed by Miguel Chavez. Recently, the agency was a sponsor for the First Annual Ad Club Hispanic Marketing Conference, held in Boston in May. It is that type of exposure that has brought the like the Hospital of Central Connecticut, Health New England and other clients to their door. While the agency continues to grow they anticipate having a dozen staff among the three locations by year's end it is not without its challenges. "One of the problems in [western Massachusetts] is the difficulty finding bi-lingual people with the necessary expertise. It is huge problem for me," Hector said. "We had four interns working here and all of them are moving away." Yet, he adds, the experience a person can get with a small agency like theirs is far richer than they would get in a cubicle with a large company in New York. "Working with us you will learn media placement, media analysis, marketing, strategic planning, research the creative and everything we do. Talent in this area is elusive," he said. Bauza doesn't see his agency limiting itself to any one market segment, or in ways to serve its clients. Recently Bauza & Associates has been hired by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to do the public relations for their Corn Festival in late August. "The Hispanic world market may be opening for Bauza & Associates," Hector said ."We just signed an account that opens the whole United States to us. As we progress, what is going to prevent us from doing business in Spain, for example?"