Sarah Lattimer Irvin is, simply put, a multicultural marketing rock star.

Walking into the Metrics Marketing office, Sarah greets me with a big smile and an inviting tone that authentically welcomes me to her award-winning advertising shop. As CEO of Metrics Marketing, formerly Lattimer Communications, she leads her business with a cool, calm sensibility and has curated a team of brilliantly talented brand consultants.

If you’ve been following EnergyWire recently, you know we’ve been busy researching and writing about multicultural marketing. KSV and Metrics Marketing are part of a network called MAGNET Energy. We are a group of ad agencies that believe we are stronger together than we are alone. “Sarah and her team have over 20 years’ experience working in multicultural marketing. Who better to collaborate with on our research?” 

This week over 60 million Americans across the Northeast faced heat warnings or advisories from the National Weather Service as record temperatures swept the region. News headlines called the weather “deadly” and “dangerous”, while experts gave consumers advice on how to keep safe.

New Video on How Energy Marketers Can and Should Respond.

Authenticity is in. For marketers, it’s one of the most important demands consumers have of companies. People want to be able to connect to the people and stories portrayed in the advertisements they see. Authenticity dictates the success of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry—think Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever—across food, home care items and basically any other product that enters the home.

In recent weeks, we’ve written about our research on Hispanic customers. Internally, we’ve labeled this as our “hard-to-reach” work. Throughout the energy industry (and many others), this is a common label used to refer to a group of people who have historically shown lower levels of engagement with programs, services, and/or products.

However, through this research focus, we realized that labeling an entire group of people “hard to reach” is simply wrong.

A marketer’s job is to create connections for people—with brands, with products, and with campaigns that inspire, awe, and make the cash register ring. What are the most meaningful connections energy marketers can create with Hispanic consumers?

Like others, our research found a strong commitment to both immediate and extended family members to be a core decision driver for the Hispanic and Latino community. But as Forbes recently warned, we must avoid the predictable trap of affirming generic insights about the importance of family and an undying love for soccer.