This is the first of a series of posts featuring interesting thought leaders in the Hispanic community. We talked to Hispanic Trending’s Juan Tornoe as a follow up to our recent post on the state of the Hispanic marketing blogging community. If you have suggestions on thought leaders, would love to hear from you.
Juan Tornoe is tireless. Four years ago he followed a friend’s suggestion that his collection of research and clippings on the Hispanic market could be enough material for a blog, and after taking him up and building Hispanic Trending, he has not stopped since. That is a little more than 1,400 days– and counting– of diligently sharing the information he gathers. A quality he chalks up to being a little OCD. And we thank him for that.
His search for information originated from a very individual business need. As an advertising executive, he went to countless meetings were the same information about the demographic was recycled, and many assumptions started to sound the same. Himself a professional from Guatemala now living in Austin, he did not self-identify with many of those assumptions. ’My hypothesis is that you have to fully understand the (Hispanic) market to market to them’, he told me. I could not a agree more.
Tornoe views his blog as a piece to puzzle and he considers himself a content aggregator. He gets numerous feeds a day and evaluates stories to post those he finds the most compelling. And more than 1,400 readers appreciate his work and follow it. Tornoe says he receives messages from many industry leaders thanking him for the relevant information he selects and posts.
His influence is strong and undeniable. Recently, Tornoe conducted an e-mail interview with democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The comments poured in– his readers let him know their presence, including staffers from other campaigns. Now, he plans to conduct other such interviews soon. Visit his blog for more.
As we were wrapping up our very enjoyable chat, I asked Tornoe what were the two Hispanic trends that he thinks are most interesting. His answer: mujer power and the influence of the U.S. born. ’Latinas look after their businesses as an extension of their family,’ he says, and states how Latina-owned businesses continue on a growing streak, cementing the female influence in the market even further. This is truly a fascinating topic and one we will soon explore further (though it makes enough for a book). And on the topic of the U.S. born, simply put and to summarize the essence of the market: ’we are a moving target’.
Juan, thanks for your time, and here’s to many more years…and blog postings…to come.
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