Putting the X Factor in Growth

We’re committed to restoring the full impact of marketing for our clients and our industry.

To do that, we’re reorienting business to its true foundation – the lives and needs of customers – and bringing expertise across strategic communications disciplines to unlock hidden opportunities for growth.

One of the biggest of these opportunities is literally hiding in plain sight. It’s large groups of people marketers know about but fail to define, appreciate or understand deeply enough to acquire as customers, let alone lifetime fans.

These individuals represent exponential revenue for business. Not only are they avid consumers, they’re the people others in their community look to. Their advocacy and fandom reduce cost per acquisition and improve lifetime customer value.

We see them in many places, in many forms. For example, within the vast Hispanic community, there are more than 28 MILLION people who are bicultural and bilingual – often called English Latino First or ELFs. ELFs directly or indirectly inform the purchase of $2.0 trillion worth of goods and services by Hispanic consumers. And since ELFs’ sphere of influence extends across our culture, they actually inform much more than that.

Yet marketers miss ELFs for two reasons. First, they assume that since ELFs fall under the Hispanic grouping, they are probably Spanish language dominant (that’s their parents or grandparents). Second, multicultural marketing has emphasized “reaching” people, which is a media play that backfires when you deliver the wrong message in the wrong language. Because our bicultural perspective (I’m an ELF) informs our brand relationships more than our bilingualism, really connecting with us requires speaking our code not merely translating into Spanish.

Similarly, many marketers miscast the rural consumers by looking at geography – when the more powerful influence is people who’ve migrated from the farm to the suburbs and cities. They operate from a unique mindset that shapes brand purchasing as surely as it swings elections.

These are just two of many big opportunities we’re going to explore, define, and help clients capitalize on through a new specialty called Consumer X.

Launching today, Consumer X will be led by Maria Twena, a pioneer in multicultural marketing who has joined Gravity as a partner. Maria has made a career of delivering marketing programs for major brands such as Microsoft, HR Block and Verizon Wireless that connect “affectively” with powerful audiences they’ve overlooked. She ran GlobalHue Latino, created MRM/McCann’s direct marketing business targeting second-generation Hispanics online, and served as CMO of media companies Entravision and Pulpo Media. Along the way, she won the AdColor Award for Innovation for her work in segmenting Hispanic audiences by nativity.

Maria and her group will work with our teams throughout our offices and across our clients to find ways to move businesses forward in every area that determines growth. Their mandate is to help our clients connect with Consumer X in code throughout marketing, from product development to all forms of communication.

Businesses can grow exponentially by making the right investments with these overlooked customers. Not just because there are a lot of them, or because it’s the “right thing to do.” Because it’s smarter business.

Consumer X represents our first significant investment in systematically unlocking hidden opportunities for businesses. And we’re just getting started. One by one, we’re going to show you a whole new world.