-By Armando Martin

The famed quinceanera party is the most expensive birthday celebration an average Hispanic American family will plan and carry out. Imagine parents spending from $10,000 all the way up to $80,000, to see that their daughter's 15th birthday is the social event of the year, and you've got an idea of the significance of this event in Hispanic social life.

Indeed, for some families this can easily become a financial hardship, so extended family members pitch in to assure that the party is inolvidable--an unforgettable success. Not surprisingly, there's a potential key role for grocers in this celebration as well, since food is central to the quinceanera. It's a prime opportunity to develop your Hispanic strategy beyond the Cinco de Mayo basics.

The quinceanera was a pre-Columbian practice originating in central Mexico, designed to celebrate the passage of a girl into young womanhood. The Spanish colonizers adopted the celebration, and in time it spread throughout Latin America.

Currently, in the United States, quinceanera is celebrated from coast to coast, including in cities that aren't widely considered large Hispanic population centers, such as Yakima, Wash.; Fresno, Calif., Omaha, Neb.; Tulsa, Okla.; Atlanta; and Las Vegas. What's more, these parties are also catching on with non-Hispanic teens and their families.

Essential ingredients for the quinceanera include stretch Humvees, rented reception halls, formal wear, live music with a DJ (or mariachis, if you're Mexican), friends and family, possibly a church service--and, of course, plenty of food and beverages.

The centerpiece of the party is the cake, and not just any cake. In Los Angeles, for example, some mainstream grocery stores sell the quinceanera cake for up to $750. It's a great ticket for a grocer, but the icing on the cake, so to speak, is the cross-shopping that benefits the store with other purchases such as meat, dairy, beverages, produce, paper products, party favors, and even invitations.

As a consequence, the competition for this party-related business boom is fierce, and ranges from supercenters to mercados. The exciting thing for grocers is that the quinceanera is only one of numerous events that offer potential opportunities to connect to the Hispanic customer.

Wal-Mart alone has identified 1,300 of its stores as Hispanic, according to c.e.o. Lee Scott, and the retailer markets and merchandises them accordingly. But whether you have one Hispanic store or 1,300, acknowledging Hispanic customers merely twice a year at Cinco de Mayo and Hispanic Heritage Month probably doesn't measure up to the opportunity at hand. It would be difficult to build a sustainable Hispanic franchise if the commitment were isolated to only a few annual events.

Hispanic strategy for retailers should be twofold: how to increase spending of non-Hispanics who are crazy for Latino food, and Mexican food in particular, and how to maximize the basket size of Latino shoppers.

360-degree integration

Marketers are famous for touting fully integrated, 360-degree programs, so let's start talking about Hispanics 365 days a year, and that would definitely constitute 360-degree integration. Management would no longer consider the 4th of July and Thanksgiving Day as the only two promotional time periods. Otherwise the calendar would look a little empty, as would the store.

Big players have recognized the opportunities at hand in connecting with the Hispanic customer, and they're investing millions to do so. For example, Wal-Mart has added a Pollo Campero foodservice format to the mix, and HEB, Kroger, and Publix operate Hispanic concepts Mi Tienda, Mercado, and Sabor, respectively. Additionally, Hispanic format specialists such as Rancho Liborio and Gigante are executing major expansions.

These aggressive initiatives reach far beyond ethnic aisles, and are shining examples for the rest of the industry. Sooner or later, executive management everywhere will be faced with the need to have clear and definitive rationale and justification to pursue the Hispanic shopper--and why not?