There’s a proverb that the shoemaker’s kids
go barefoot. It’s true for agencies too, spending their energy thinking about
client brands and neglecting their own. We challenged ourselves to relaunch
Zubi and it’s been the most rewarding assignment of my career. In Hispanic
advertising, the overall brand positioning is usually devised by others. This
time, we got to do it for ourselves.
As a student of history and advertising, this
job really excited me. Our Founder, Tere Zubizarreta†, is an AAF Hall-of-Famer,
alongside greats like David Ogilvy. Using other brands that were successfully
reimagined as our example, we realized the key to our future must lie in our
past. So, we distilled the things that made Tere who she was, into a business
philosophy and culture that can live on.
In December, we used what’s normally “down
time” to put it all together and felt we were onto something big, judging from
the reactions of key people along the way.
The end result is that, on the business
side, Zubi is broadening to add new multicultural, lifestyle, behavioral and
geographic segments to our Hispanic expertise. We think so-called total market approaches
are incapable of tapping into the opportunities such segments represent. Culturally,
it boils down to two words: Fearless
Champions, shorthand for living up to Tere’s example.
The response to the new Zubi is
overwhelmingly positive. Thanks to those contributed, including colleagues, mentors
and my predecessor. If Zubi is a rocket ship, poised for takeoff, they all helped
build it.
By
Henry Gómez
Director, Planning,
Research & Analytics
Zubi