NewsTaco

Paul Kurkulis is betting that a brand of mineral-enhanced bottled water for Latinos living in the United States is not only a good idea, but a profitable one at that. His brand of bottled water, Las Oleadas, is the first of what he hopes will be several products in the marketplace that are both healthy and eco-friendly and coveted by Latino consumers. In the past three years Kukulis, who spent time in Spain as a child and speaks Spanish, went from watching Latinos in his community drinking sugar-saturated drinks to researching Latino bottled water to marketing his own brand now being sold in four states.

“I thought of it more than anything as a niche idea,” he told News Taco. But when he began to research the idea, he found otherwise. “My area is 40% Hispanic population and in general market stores where Hispanic shop, there was not a single healthy, environmentally-friendly bottled water in Spanish for these customers.”

Las Oleadas’ labels are bilingual and the product is currently being sold in Colorado, California, Nevada and Arizona with two more states coming soon, Kukulis told News Taco. He believes his product will be successful not only because of the marketing, but for the fact that 25% of Latino parents, compared to 8% of white parents, feed their children bottled water.

Which brings up an important question Kurkulis noted, if Latinos are such big consumers of bottled water, where have the big water brands been all this time? The emphasis up to now has been on volume — selling lots of bottles for a low price — rather than branding or quality, he told News Taco.

Kurkulis hopes Las Oleadas can offer quality, in a 100% recycled materials bottle that’s good for the environment, and allow Latino consumers a chance to make their own choices when it comes to water consumption. The product is currently being produced in California and sold out of Las Oleadas’ Colorado offices.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD.

So a lot of hype came up recently when news that a Latino was set to purchase the Atlanta Hawks NBA team.

Alex Meruelo is the son of Cuban immigrants and now a businessman with investments in everything from real estate to pizza to wind turbines. He’s also set to purchase the basketball team, becoming the first Latino NBA owner in history, if the deal goes through. Oh, and he’s loved basketball since he’s a kid.

And I think it’s this last part that is the most important to think about here.

We’ve reported for a while now that the NBA is actively hoping to expand its Latino audience in order to expand its profits. This is being done largely via the Los Angeles Lakers and their huge Latino fan base, with Latino fan nights for example, but the NBA as a whole launched a marketing campaign specific to Latinos back in February.

Enter Meruelo.

As a Latino owner, who also happens to be a basketball lover and a successful businessman, I’d bet Meruelo would not only be able to capitalize on the NBA’s current outreach efforts, but enhance them as well. So while it’s exciting that Meruelo would be the first Latino NBA owner, it’s also important to consider that the NBA as a whole would stand to benefit from his ownership as the league moves forward in search of new fans.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD.

A new campaign aims to help save Latino children, who tend to die more often during car crashes. The Buckle Up For Life, or Abróchate a la Vida campaign is funded in part by Toyota and was created by medical trauma specialists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to help Latino families become more educated on vehicle safety. A press release notes:

The program is designed to educate Hispanic families on the importance of keeping their families safe while driving.

“We were seeing a disproportionate number of Hispanic children coming into the hospital with severe crash-related injuries and we knew we had to do something about it,” said Dr. Rebeccah L. Brown, Associate Director, Trauma Services at Cincinnati Children’s.

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Latino beer drinkers in the U.S. still haven’t placed their loyalties when it comes to beer brands, according to a new report from AdAge. The report notes that, while Latinos tend to drink about 75% domestic brands, the rest of the pie has yet to be fully divided.

It’s interesting to note that, while we’ve written about the coming of age for Latino youth as they become a formidable voting bloc, in the beer world this also means that Latinos will become a big market of beer consumers. AdAge notes:

The percentage of drinking-age adults who are Hispanic is expected to grow from 16% in 2010 to 23% in 2030 and 30% by 2050, according to Census data cited by Crown. And beer is by far the alcoholic beverage of choice of marketers. But beer is different. Unlike soft drinks, for instance, where American brands have mass international appeal, beer is still a local product in many places, with brands linked to cultures, traditions and even patriotism. (Consider that Coke has a 24.6% international market share, while Snow — the world’s biggest beer brand though sold solely in China — commands only 4.5% of the global market, according to Euromonitor International.)

In the States, American beer brands control roughly 75% of the Hispanic market, leveraging their size and massive ad spending, according to brewers. Still, imports overindex with the demographic, commanding about a 25% share, compared with 13% among non-Hispanics, according to Nielsen data…

The gist: Latinos mean big money. Check out what else AdAge reported about beer companies:

• Anheuser-Busch spent $56 million, 10% of its media, on Latino marketing last year
• MillerCoors spent $45 million, or 11.4% of its total media on the same

The upshot is that these companies want to gain the brand loyalty of the $1 trillion-plus Latino market in the U.S. as soon as possible to begin cashing in not only on the emerging youth, but to retain that brand loyalty for future generations.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By DeusXFlorida]