ChevronTexaco Global Lubricants has taken note of shifting demographics in the United States. The company announced this month that it has begun labeling and advertising its lubricants for on-road trucking in Spanish as well as English. Officials said the company made the move to try to appeal to Hispanics, who now constitute the nations largest minority.
Offering product literature and other marketing materials in the Spanish language makes it easier for Hispanic customers to learn about our products, Kurt Schulte, commercial automotive specialist for ChevronTexaco, told Lube Report. It allows us to get to know our customers and shows them that we understand their culture.
Officials said it makes perfect sense to try to appeal to Hispanics, given that their numbers in the United States have swelled to 40 million, accounting for approximately 14 percent of the nations population. (Blacks comprise the next-largest minority group, at approximately 13 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.) Moreover, ChevronTexaco added, 15 percent of the truck drivers in the United States are Hispanic.
Of course, not all Hispanics speak Spanish, but ChevronTexaco said that many do, and that it wants to reach them. A spokeswoman said the company has been running Chevron Delo motor oil ads in the Spanish language trucking magazine Transporte Latino for six to eight months. It has also added Spanish version pages to its websites and begun putting bilingual labels on lubricant packages. Within the next couple years, Schulte said, the company plans to have bilingual labels on packages of all major products throughout the country.
ChevronTexaco claims to be the only major lube marketer employing such a program to target Hispanics in the trucking industry, but other types of businesses – from banks to soft drink companies to video stores – already offer services or run advertisements in Spanish. Businesses spent $2.46 billion on Spanish advertisements in the United States in 2002, the company said. Indeed, Schulte noted that other major players in the automotive industry – Detroit Diesel and Cummins – have started advertising in Transporte Latino in the past few months.
Hispanics are a large and growing demographic, he said. These kinds of things are just going to be part of doing business as we go forward.