Building an Effective Case to Latin American and Hispanic Dominant Consumers: The Inverted Triangle Dilemma

Posted by Elena del Valle on June 20, 2007

By Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, senior consultant, Cheskin

Miguel Gomez Winebrenner, senior consultant, Cheskin

Photo: Miguel Gomez Winebrenner

I decided to write this as a result of a conversation I had with a client of mine who, like many others I’ve talked to, was growing desperate and impatient with a colleague of hers in Latin America. As most multinational corporations do, her company has offices in just about every Latin American country and dealings between U.S. workers and local, in-country workers is something that happens frequently. These dealings are usually far from smooth. Americans complain that Latin Americans just go around in circles when asked a direct question- “I just get spin from them, no answers” my client said. Conversely, Latin Americans complain that Americans are too succinct, too impersonal, and too impatient.

My wife, who is a licensed attorney in both the U.S. and Latin America, told me something when she was studying at Northwestern Law School which I believe helps to understand the root of this stress and thus alleviate it, but can also help marketers in the U.S. to build more compelling communications aimed at U.S. Hispanics, particularly those less acculturated.

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Read Miguel’s chapters on “Qualitative and Quantitative Research Strategies” and “Segmentation by Level of Acculturation,” in