6/20/2005
Research Expert Had Early Focus on Hispanic
Market
By Shelly Garcia
San Fernando Valley Business Journal Staff
Back when Carlos Garcia first formed the Hispanic market research
firm that bears his name, he had a long string of clients.
That was the bad news.
The field was so new, and clients were so ambivalent about
spending money to market to Hispanics, years could pass between
projects, and when clients did throw the firm some business,
the jobs tended to be small and short-lived.
Today, Hispanic advertising has become a $4 billion industry,
with a growth rate that far outpaces the general market. And
Garcia Research Associates Inc., with a client roster that includes
some of the biggest names in packaged goods marketing, will
see its revenues grow by 40 percent this year.
But, Garcia bluntly concedes, "Most people would not have
waited.
"If I looked at these books like a business person I would
have closed the doors 10 years ago," Garcia said. "It
was never a question of we're not profitable enough. (In lean
years) I would pay myself a minimal salary and move forward.
Sometimes it takes that kind of patience."
In many respects, Garcia is an unlikely entrepreneur. He started
his business, not so much because he wanted to be his own boss,
but because he didn't much like the other bosses he encountered.
He readily admits he is not a good salesman. And his goals have
been less about building a business and more about creating
an environment where he could do the kind of work he enjoyed.
"I wanted a jerk-free zone," Garcia said. "I
wanted a crew of people who were pulling together, rowing in
the same direction, helping each other out. What I really wanted
was a truly Latino-style environment, where the focus is on
the work and not on anyone's ego."
That work environment is finally paying off. This year, Burbank-based
Garcia Research Associates will bill somewhat more than $3 million,
thanks in part to new clients who have tapped the company for
its skill at everything from moderating focus groups to advertising
copy testing and discerning the cultural differences within
the Latino community.
"We of course liked his experience, and his resume and
his presentation. And he really took to the project and did
a tremendous job with it," said Brenda Croy, director of
business development for Health Net of California. "He
was able to structure the discussion in a very easy way so that
we got some great input from the participants."
Educated at Pomona College, UC Berkeley and the Universite
de Paris III, "The New Sorbonne," mostly in film and
theater, (he ultimately got an MBA from National University),
Garcia stumbled into his current field when he returned to the
U.S. and started beating the bushes for a job.
He landed work as the first full time employee of a small Hispanic
market research firm. A son of Mexican immigrants, Garcia liked
the opportunity to study Hispanics and the attention to detail
market research required, and over the next 10 years, he continued
to work in the field, moving through several companies until
the last agency where he was employed was sold to an Anglo with
no background in the Hispanic market.
"I guess I owe a huge debt of gratitude to this individual
who was such a jerk, because he forced me to take a huge risk,"
Garcia said.
©2005 San Fernando Valley Business Journal Associates
