MARKETING Food industry begins targeting Hispanics

Food processors are slow in expanding selection for Hispanics, experts say.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Aware that Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the United States, grocers nationwide are looking at ways to increase sales by offering more ethnic foods, while food processors are expanding product lines.
Although generally ignored as a consumer group in the past, Hispanics number more than 36 million, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and that is prompting changes.
Some processors are broadly expanding product lines, but others are lagging, partly because they lack the research and cultural understanding to successfully target Hispanics, said Nicholas Sorvillo, senior vice president of the market analysis company ACNielsen.
"Just changing the name of a product doesn't necessarily make it Hispanic-friendly," Sorvillo said.
Some companies are finding new ways to market items that they already produce, such as printing bilingual product labels. Others are learning to sell certain foods in certain cities.
Problems arise, though, when manufacturers approach Hispanics as a single group -- a narrow-minded decision when considering that none of them is the same, Sorvillo said.
For example, Hispanics from Central America and the Caribbean may not buy typical Mexican foods. Also, Sorvillo noted that products that are successful in Los Angeles may not be successful in Chicago.
That may not seem like a revelation, but representatives of the Hispanic food giant, Goya Foods, say many American companies and retailers are unaware of such nuances.
"They are used to thinking about Hispanics as Mexican only," said Francisco Ahummada, general manager in California for Goya.
Goya's core consumers have always been Hispanics. The New Jersey-based company has been selling products such as canned vegetables, rice and salsa for 65 years.
Sara Lee Corp., a food processing giant based in Chicago, is just beginning a project to learn how to market its products to Hispanics. In the next two months, the company will start a campaign in Phoenix and Chicago intended to lure Hispanics to sample its meats, baked goods and other products, sending a chef to experiment with making Hispanic dishes from Sara Lee products and give out recipes.
Cautious approach
Charla Bobbitt, a marketing manager for the company, said it is the first time the company has tried to target Hispanics. Sara Lee has been cautious because "we're trying to start small and determine what exactly we need to do," said Bobbitt.
Not all companies are lagging. Kraft Foods has been selling items in Hispanic countries for about 20 years. It recently added new products such as Jell-O "gelatina" -- a gelatin made with milk that resembles flan, a light dessert.
Sorvillo, Ahummada and Bobbitt, all interviewed Sunday, were in Chicago for the annual convention of the Food Marketing Institute, which runs through Tuesday.