Carmen's Hispanic Cupones y Consejos

(Culture and Community News) October 27, 2004 - Carmen’s Cupones y Consejos® (Carmen's Coupons, Tips and Advice), the largest Hispanic co-op direct mail program in the United States, continues to bring top ROI to participating advertisers. MoneyGram is proof of the impact the Carmen’s program can have on a business’s share of volume, for as little as 3-1/2 cents per Hispanic household.

Carmen’s Cupones is a segmented co-op direct mail program addressed to highly acculturated Hispanic females, the decision maker in the Hispanic household, and reaches 2.5 million Hispanic homes each mailing in 7 states and in the top 12 US Hispanic markets for as little as 3-1/2 cents per home. It arrives in an attractive 6” x 9” flat oversized envelope with advertisements in both English and Spanish, although bilingual ads are recommended. Participation for the November/Holiday mailer is still open.

Augusto Esclusa, Hispanic Marketing Director for MoneyGram International in the US, states that the results they’ve obtained have been phenomenal, increasing volume by 10-12%. He adds that one of the advantages that Carmen’s offers is that their database is very targeted.

According to two surveys by Draft/Simmons and Media Audit, 72% of Hispanics say they always read their advertising mail, 66% respond to their advertising mail, and 39% say they want to receive more. The typical Hispanic household receives an average of 50 direct mail pieces per year, compared to 500 or so received by the general US population, so there is no mailbox “clutter”. In addition, Hispanic consumers tend to be price conscious and 46% say they “always” or “sometimes” use coupons, particularly those with high acculturation, 75% of which reported using coupons compared to 56% of overall consumers in the US (NCH Marketing Services’ Hispanic Coupon Survey, 2002).

“Very few things surpass the impact that receiving a personalized envelope, full of discount coupons and information in their language, can have on the Hispanic consumer”, says Shayne Walters, Founder and President of Walters Media Group, Inc., launching the program back in 2001. “Our next mailing is in November, just in time for the holidays and we continue to get calls from companies who want to participate. There’s still a short time left to do so, whether or not you have printed materials.” For those advertisers who wish to participate yet do not have existing materials, Carmen’s can also produce an insert in a relatively short period of time through their production partners at PlanetWoot, LLC (www.planetwoot.com).

Carmen’s Cupones y Consejos® is providing many other top advertisers with positive ROI, which is why many will continue to support the program in ‘05. Following are some of the companies Carmen’s has been able to help: AOL, Kraft Foods, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Staples, USPS, Bissell, Blockbuster, GlaxoSmithKline, Walgreens, Vanity Fair, Bally Total Fitness, Danone Water, Scholastic/Disney, Knorr, Sears Portrait Studio and many others.

For more information on the Carmen’s Cupones y Consejos® co-op direct mail program, please contact Shayne Walters of Walters Media Group, Inc., at: 949.768.3390.