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Garcia: Latino pride or Latino marketing?

17:41 H | Topics: California - Dominicans - Marketing - Sports

The Sacramento Kings are all giddy about the latest addition to their team. "We've finally got a Spanish speaker!", they proclaim. Some California Latinos are fired up with cultural pride, and it seems the Kings have dollar signs in their eyes. The headline from the Sacramento Bee's article on the matter seems to say the same thing: "García is Kings' ticket into Latino market".

What's weird to me is that Garcia is a Dominican from New York. Not exactly the market anyone is trying to court out here in California. But then again, to marketers, if your name is Garcia it doesn't matter if you are from Mexico or Minnesota.

García is a pioneer, of sorts. In two decades in Sacramento, the team has never had a native Spanish speaker, Brown said.

And the team has never made it a priority to sell itself to thousands of Latino fans whose sports passions have traditionally focused on soccer and baseball.

It's hard to put a dollar figure on what the Kings could gain by courting the Latino market. With few season tickets available, there's little the team could gain in direct revenue.

They are already talking Latino dollars and Garcia just joined the team. They are using the terms "native Spanish speaker" like he were some sort of rare animal species, with the careful tone of "some of my best friends are black". I can't wait to see how they try to Mexicanize him when they realize he's not "Latino" enough for THIS Latino market. Pobrecito.

Via/ The Sacramento Bee

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