HispanicBusiness

In its first collaboration with a real-world corporation, DePaul University's new multicultural marketing program teamed with Hormel Foods to help the company, best known for its canned and cured meat products, extend its reach into the Hispanic market.

A dozen students from DePaul's recently launched "Multicultural Marketing – Hispanic Marketplace" curriculum were invited to analyze 12 Hormel brands "that are not currently active in the Hispanic market," according to a release, "and determine the growth opportunities that exist for them."

A daylong session capped the exercise in which students individually presented their findings to account directors with Hormel's Hispanic advertising agency of record, The San Jose Group (SJG), and members of DePaul's marketing department.

"Together with SJG, we easily could have assigned this project to an established research company, but we wanted to see what these promising students could discover with their own talents." said Hormel Foods' Mark Mayer. "We are proud to be the first corporation to work with DePaul's multicultural marketing program in this capacity."

Chicago-based DePaul launched its Multicultural Marketing – Hispanic Marketplace program, the first such program in the Midwest, last fall.

"Having the opportunity for our students to work on Hormel's brands has been invaluable," said Loida Rosario, director of partner relations for the multicultural marketing program at DePaul, in a release. "It is important for us to continue partnering with corporations to provide real-world experiences like this to ensure our students are better prepared for careers in advertising and marketing."

In addition to its participation in the project, The San Jose Group – also based in Chicago – plans to offer internships to two of the students that best fulfilled the assignment. SJG has been handling several of Hormel's brands since 2000, launching a Spanish-language campaign for Spam last year

Although Hormel's most widely known brands are mainstream supermarket staples such as Spam, Dinty Moore stew, Stagg chili and Herb-Ox bullion cubes, the company has a line of "ethnic" foods that include Mexican lines such as Bufalo, Chi-Chi's, Dona Maria, El Torito and Herdez.