The client, a big box retail store, had been struggling to capture the Hispanic market share and looked to Metaphrasis for a better understanding of the impact cultural sensitivities had upon their Hispanic consumer. Metaphrasis was qualified to address this issue because it was one of only 15 nationally awarded recipients of a cultural competency scholarship to train in the field. To address the client’s need, Metaphrasis hosted a cultural competency training session on “Meeting the retail needs of the Hispanic community.”
Prior to the presentation, Metaphrasis determined that some due diligence should be conducted to find out what the customers believed the barriers were. Metaphrasis visited the store and directly spoke to the few Hispanic customers to inquire about why they felt this particular retail store was not meeting their needs. Additionally, the team asked how the store could begin taking strides to retain them as loyal customers.
The responses Metaphrasis received from customers included:
Lack of availability of Spanish goods on the shelves
A gap in communicating with customer service if they were unable to speak English
No access to fresh fruits or vegetables
After compiling information from customer responses and the site survey, Metaphrasis customized its training information to directly address the store’s customer acquisition/retention needs. The two-hour presentation focused on defining cultural competency and how to obtain the background information on the Hispanic community without limitation to geographic number, buying power, gender or religion.
During the training, the audience was introduced to the most popular Spanish holidays, and how to arrange the store for those events. Likewise, Hispanic products such as Fabulosa, tortillas, Jarritos drinks, sauces and more were introduced. The big box store attendees also learned about the four F’s – Friendliness, Family, Flavor and Freshness, which are hot buttons within the Hispanic community. Metaphrasis took this abstract concept and provided specific examples of opportunities that the retailer could capitalize on if the retailer created a friendly environment, incorporated Hispanic food products, bilingual packaging, and offered the availability of having fresh fruits and vegetables.
The giant store was able to identify their weaknesses and implement critical changes, (create a bilingual environment, incorporate Hispanic products on their shelves, run promotions in Spanish and increase availability of fresh goods) that succeeded in drawing in a continually increasing number of Hispanic consumers and significantly boost their share of the market.