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Brave New Media

"Knowing that I had access to technology was the main reason that I felt confident in starting a business" Aquiles Luna

New technology & Latino business

Aquiles Luna chuckles about the fact that he has business relationships with so many people that he’s never met in person. As president of Luntar Marketing, a firm he started two years ago, he designs print ads for clients. Those ads run in magazines, billboards, direct mail, brochures and other print products.

By using subcontractors for printing, the firm can market itself as a full-service agency. After an ad is designed, it is uploaded and sent to printers via servers and the FTP process. He uses multiple printers as subcontractors, depending on who is the best for a certain job. They are based all over the western U.S. and he’s never met most of them in person.

“Knowing that I had access to technology was the main reason that I  felt confident in starting a business,” says Luna, who started his shop two years ago after 12 years working at The Arizona Republic. “I knew that I would be able to compete. Without it, I’m at a tremendous disadvantage.”

Like the rest of society, Latina/o business owners are using technology to be more competitive in their respective industries. But perhaps more than others, they are also using it to erase competitive advantages of other more established and larger firms. With the help of technology, they can offer high quality products and services and reach more potential customers without the accompanying large workforce.

“It’s easier on my books and helps us stay alive in a competitive environment,” says Luna, whose only other full-time employee is his wife.

Texting y mas – more
than just the Internet

Some Latino entrepreneurs are early adopters of the latest technologies while others take a slower but no less deliberate approach to incorporating it into their work processes. They are accessing social media, using the latest software programs, automating a manufacturing process, creating better interoffice communications or using the Internet to market their services and products.

They can be characterized by an overriding determination not to be left behind in the digital revolution. They are willing to make the investment of time, money and brainpower to stay digitally connected.

As an entrepreneur, Luna also pursues other ventures. For example he’s also vice president of Hispanic marketing for a firm he has partial ownership in. The firm offers marketing and advertising opportunities in the text messaging environment. Called permission-based marketing, the firm creates interactive marketing campaigns aimed at users of text messaging.

One example of how it works: People at a music concert are urged to text message their name in to a number so they have a chance to meet the artist back stage or even during the concert. They are charged for the text message – usually between 75 cents and a dollar – and receive some “wallpaper” for their phone as part of the charge.

It creates another revenue stream for the concert promoter and others involved in the promotion.

“This is the wave of the future,” says Luna. “Text messaging is the whole reason American Idol works.”

Technology only goes so far – you still need a good business plan.

Rob Stearns, a marketing expert and professor at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, agrees that the Internet has opened up new avenues for marketing strategies aimed at the burgeoning Latino community.

But that doesn’t offset the need to make sure you are really delivering the products and services they want, he added.

“The internet gives you another distribution channel for marketing messages but aside from interactivity and intimacy. It does not dilute the need for the essentials of block and tackle marketing.”

New technologies and how they work

Internet: What distinguishes Internet marketing from traditional advertising is its interactivity. It’s not just listening to a commercial. You are being asked to do something, enter a contest or get a free ringtone for answering a question or filling out a survey.

But simply having a Web site and email is rarely enough anymore. Increasingly, companies are using “viral” Internet marketing to reach out to Latinos – for istance, the new video “webisodes” (short dramatic skits for Internet distribution only) being used by BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona to reach out to our communities. Such “viral” video marketing is increasing in popularity, concurrent with the rise of video websites such as YouTube and Funnyordie.

Social networking sites are also becoming essential for the tech-savvy business-owner looking to reach Latinos. Websites like MiGente.com cater specifically to Latinos, while MySpace reaches out to youth, and Facebook and Linkedin have a somewhat more professional appeal. The goal of all these groups is to connect people to other people – and prospective clients.

Handheld devices: The technology wave of the future also seems to be all manner electronic media such as cell phones, iPods, BlackBerries, laptops and similar devices. While generally thought of as the domain of Generation Y (Seven- to 32-year-olds) the reality is that many Latino professionals are embracing the technology as well.

Viral videos are being sent through this technology as well as the Internet. Comedian George Lopez recently signed a deal with a cell phone company to develop three-minute “movies” exclusively for distribution on cell phones.

The new mobile phone technology, typified by Apple, Inc.’s iPhone, is spreading quickly as companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple push their researchers to come up with widgets and concepts that work with the mobile phone industry. Alerts and feeds are all part of the mix, allowing consumers to target just the type of news and information they are interested in, whether it be sports or celebrity sightings.

Pervasive at every level of business

Reliance on new technology is something Luis Garcia has used to give him more options as a high-tech staffing recruiter. He’s a principle in the Scottsdale firm Straightline, which offers IT solutions. The company’s five practice areas include staffing, enterprise management, business intelligence, productivity solutions and integrated solutions.

Garcia manages the staffing area and has turned to LinkedIn to help him find talent.

“It’s a network that two years ago wasn’t as popular,” says Garcia, who was president of a firm called G2 Partners before it merged with Straightline last year.
The phenomenon of social networking sites has implications for many Latino professionals and entrepreneurs. Longtime marketing professional Lorenzo Sierra says the sites have changed the “way you can present yourself and connect with people.”

As a LinkedIn user, he’s already been asked to make a virtual introduction from one job-seeking user to a person Sierra knows in a large company. He’s also written recommendations for others in his network and connected with people he probably would have never met face to face.
“I’m a connector,” he says. “Now you can get to know a person two steps away and connect with them virtually.”

Competitive edge through technology

Virtual connections are not top of the mind for Teresa Ornelas, owner president and CEO of ¡Great Impact! Inc., a Tempe-based imprinting company. But her company thrives based on technology in numerous other ways. It could be the monthly electronic newsletter that goes out to her top clients, who voluntarily agree to get the newsletter, or the new web store her shop has developed that is displayed on a client’s web site.

Her firm also uses software to keep track of inventory, provide strong graphic design options and make it easier for clients to send her the imprints they want on a product through JPEG files.

“In this business, the first and most important thing is to have the best quality product,” she says. “We always ask, ‘how can we put the best image on that space?’”

It’s amazing how much technology is used to accomplish that task. And without it, her company’s ability to compete would be severely hamstrung.
Last month, her company opened a web store that it had been working on for a year. The web store is actually integrated into a client’s web site. It was created to help employees of that company choose branding opportunities that are consistent across the company rather than going out and getting imprints on products in a more haphazard manner from different outside vendors.

Although it is too early to see the results, Ornelas said she expects the web store to be offered to all their clients.

“To compete, you have to be more efficient,” she says. “Through technology, it’s a way to be efficient and handle more things at once.”

Even seemingly low-tech industries such as construction, business owners have found ways to be innovative. During Armando Tarazon’s tenure as co-owner of D&A Pipelines, he came up with a detailed program to make accurate bids on projects using an Excel spreadsheet.

So accurate was it that he never bothered buying some of the bidding software programs that firms tried to sell him. They could never match the accuracy of the program he developed.

“A lot of those programs used unit price to bid on projects,” he said. “I used a spread sheet with formulas in each cell. When you used 20 different components in each cell, you know exactly how much you will spend.”

Now he’s vice president of the firm, which was sold to some Detroit investors last September, just before the real slowdown in the residential housing market hit.


(Jonathan Higuera is a former business writer for The Arizona Republic.)