Will the era of the Tower of Babel be left behind?

THE BEGINNING OF "MARKETING TRANSLATORS" TIMES?

The story of the Tower of Babel is alive in our cultural heritage. Traditionally known as the moment that justified the appearance of languages, it shows us in a couple of lines the enormous difficulties of communication and understanding generated by language barriers.

THE END OF BABEL TIMES?

Technological progress has had a ramified impact on all areas of our lives; in communication, means of transportation, information possibilities, among countless other facets. With a plane trip we can be on the other side of the world in a couple of hours, or live the daily lives of loved ones who live hundreds of mills away through a video call.

The result is the acceleration of cultural exchanges, imbuing other cultures with customs and traditions that were previously the exclusive property of one country or another. This leads us to the multiculturalism we share today: we like Mexican food, we enjoy Korean series and we wear clothes designed by creatives who live in Spain. It seems then that the Planet has become a single place that cries out to be inhabited by all its members equally, giving rise to what we know today as the global village.

Linguistic differences are not left out of this cultural exchange. Not so many years ago, it was understood that in the United States a command of English was considered an exclusion factor, while Spanish, Portuguese or German could only be used in countries whose mother tongue corresponded to those languages.

THE NEW WESTERNIZATION

Following the same line of analysis, it is evident that a concept that could be defined on the basis of typically European cultural descriptions was known as Westernization. We could go a little further; in recent times it has been considered that the United States has been disembarking with its customs and culture in the rest of the countries of the world, reinforcing Western culture in the idiosyncrasy of the countries that received those American influences.

However, today we are witnessing a phenomenon that could be categorized as "back and forth". In other words, the United States has the greatest multiculturalism in the world, that is, the most ethnically and culturally diverse country in the world. However, it is the influences of foreign countries that permeate American culture.

THE IMPACT ON MARKETING

Here lies our challenge and our huge opportunity: in marketing, we have to behave like scientists and artists at the same time. On the one hand, we can handle different tools and platforms that allow us to monitor the marketing actions we carry out and advise our clients. But, on the other hand, we must have at our disposal the creativity that allows us to devise and execute original proposals that generate a connection with the public of each brand and, consequently, a favorable impact.

For this, it is necessary to reduce the barriers of the Tower of Babel, and that this situation allows us to understand the need of each brand and the need of each customer that could be addressed from the brand's value proposition. And for this, it is important to understand the context and culture that surrounds the encounter between brand and customer. An encounter that is tinged by the brand's offer -and the tinge of those who created it- together with the customer's personality, preferences, habits and tastes.

Thus, if brands come from Latin America, they will first tend to cater to the needs of the Latino community in the various U.S. cities, and then give way to promoting the consumption of U.S. natives. The opposite is also true: there are brands -and there are more and more of them- that first catered to the U.S. market and its more native customs, and then began to understand the preponderance and enormous growth of the Latino community in the United States. This situation has led them to reformulate their value propositions and launch them to the U.S. Latino and Hispanic market.

At Four.19 Agency we understand this cultural complexity, both because our team is multicultural and understands the Latin idiosyncrasy, and because our agency headquarters is immersed in Florida, living the daily pulse of a state that is part of the American culture.

We understand the U.S. and Latin American markets. And our team "translates" the needs of brands and clients to make the magic of exchange happen.

If you are looking to land in the United States with your Latin brand, or as an American brand you want to reach the Latin market, Four.19 Agency can help you achieve it.