The Marketing Store launches The Marketing Bodega

Posted by Elena del Valle on March 30, 2006

John Burn Marante, managing director, The Marketing Bodega

Photo: The Marketing Bodega

Chicago, Illinois –  The Marketing Store, a Chicago based branding company, launched The Marketing Bodega to reach the Latino consumer market. Basing their concept on the premise that a bodega (Spanish for small store) symbolizes “a unique shopping experience” the company hopes to offer brand managers and marketing directors the opportunity to target the Hispanic and Latino mindset.

“When a Puerto Rican immigrant needs a pound of ground beef, she drops by her local Kroger supermarket. But when she wants some tamarind fruit to make a refreshing beverage on a hot summer afternoon, she heads to a local bodega,” said  John Burn Marante, managing director, The Marketing Bodega. “Similarly, you get unique things from Bodega’s creative approach, which you don’t get from other mass market agencies. It’s about going beyond demographics and making an emotional connection with your Latino consumer mindsets. Customizing your brand essence to fit this unique emotional landscape and avoiding stereotypical mass communication, which leaves the Hispanic consumer saying, ‘they speak my language, but they don’t understand me,’ is at the core of The Marketing Bodega’s strategy.”

“The Hispanic and Latino cultures are not the target but rather the inspiration that provides the strategic creative direction for Bodega. We have been applying this unique approach to our most experienced multicultural clients (Miller Brewing Company, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola) and now will open up to those experienced Hispanic brand marketers,” said Clive Maclean, president U.S. Agency Services, The Marketing Store. “Marketers who understand the importance of going beyond numbers and obtaining substantial results by creating a human connection that The Marketing Bodega’s creative teams will bring to their businesses.”

Burn Marante has spent the majority of his career overseeing and marketing global brands like Heineken and Diageo throughout South and Central America. The Marketing Bodega will be staffed by its own creative and account management teams.

The Marketing Store specializes in Brand Activation™, a process for bringing the spirit of brands to life. A 450-million-dollar global agency headquartered in Chicago and with offices in the UK (London, Leeds and Birmingham), Paris, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Toronto and Sydney, The Marketing Store activates brands for clients such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing, Nissan, General Mills Incorporated, Best Buy and PetSmart.