Disneyworld: Vacation spent standing in line. All spring, I was dreading having to spend my summer vacation staring at someone’s back for 30 minutes at a time. But I had forgotten about the timing of my trip and the fact that Disneyworld is also a pretty international scene. One week prior to the World Cup, soccer jerseys were everywhere. I did find myself staring at people’s backs, but with famous soccer player names, and numbers. It gave me the perfect subject to open conversation and pass the time.
“Did you see that Guille Franco made the Mexican World Cup team?” I asked the little boy in the English Premier League West Ham jersey waiting in line behind me for the a 3-D Finding Nemo show. He turned and asked me, “Do you think he'll be a starter?,” in his adorable eight-year-old British accent. After all, Franco was the starting forward for the boy’s favorite team. Since I follow Mexican soccer, surely we’d find something in common. The comment started a memorable conversation all the way into the theater, and I made a new friend in Upton Park, London.
The same thing happened while I was in line for a race car ride. “Papa, ¿ves? él le va a Madrid también, como yo!” A Mexican boy anxiously told his Dad that he wasn’t the only one who appreciated Real Madrid, after the Spanish-speaking gringo behind them in line congratulated him on his Ronaldo Jersey. A discussion about coaches, Spain, and the weather in Leon, Mexico ensued, and just like that, I made instant amigos again, this time with a family from Guanajuato.
I repeated similar social maneuvers multiple times, batting 1,000 on soccer related conversation starters. I was reminded how powerful sincere shared interests can be when interacting with different cultures and nationalities. In my experience, it is perhaps the most effective way to overcome cultural borders. Soccer may not be all that big in the U.S., but it is everywhere else, and it is an easy way to connect with the rest of the world.
An oil and gas engineer at a conference I attended several months ago spoke of how she finally learned to do business in Brazil after she started following Formula One and could talk about Ayrton Senna and Felipe Massa. “We all watch NASCAR in the U.S., but open-wheel Ferraris and Maclerans are followed in other countries. When you take a sincere and genuine interest in what they like, you’ll find yourself making connections you never would have before.” Eu concordo.
The lesson applies directly to marketing with the U.S. Hispanic consumer group. As advertisers in the U.S. seek to tap the Hispanic market, they often make the mistake of simply translating, or pushing their brand characteristics on consumers with a Hispanic twist in hopes they’ll adopt it. But a jersey on a spokesperson with a ball in his arms doesn’t cut it. However, understanding your consumer’s lifestyle, and placement of relevant brand messages within it, achieves a deeper connection and gives you credibility to sell your product.
Fortunately in the soccer scene there are variety of unique tactics to put to use to convey that interest and connect with consumers. Consider what your brand can achieve by being featured on a pro team's jersey, field boards, online soccer fantasy league, local soccer league sponsorships or even plain old :30 TV spots in halftime. Then apply a creative message that demonstrates that you're not just a another logo, but a fan of the game. You become one with the consumer as a fellow aficionado when you can accomplish that. Futbol soccer is an important social bridge uniting businesses with consumers, just like it does two people from different hemispheres in line at Disneyworld.
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