Carl’s Jr. to Begin TV Ads in Spanish

The Carl’s Jr. smiling star will soon greet guests in Spanish.

A new Spanish-language TV campaign will be launched this week to reach Latinos, primarily in Southern California. Even the chain’s founder, Carl N. Karcher, will test his Spanish skills in the ads, when he signs off with: “Los esperamos. “ Translation: “We’re waiting for you.”

Certainly, Carl’s Jr. waited a long time before aiming directly at the Latino market. This marks the first time the Anaheim-based fast-food chain has targeted Latinos in TV ads, even though Latinos account for more than 40% of its business. Rival chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King--which have much larger ad budgets--have advertised in Spanish for years.

“We couldn’t afford to advertise to this market until now,” said Bob Wisely, group vice president of marketing at Carl’s Jr. Now, the company has discovered, it can no longer afford not to.

The chain, which is owned by Carl Karcher Enterprises, will spend about $800,000 on the Spanish-language campaign this year--a fraction of its $20-million ad budget.

But ads on Spanish TV stations are relatively inexpensive, Wisely said. The TV ads, which generally feature families eating at Carl’s Jr. restaurants, will appear locally on stations KMEX-Channel 34 and KVEA-Channel 52.

Meanwhile, workers at about one-third of the chain’s 540 units will soon be wearing smiling-star buttons that say: “Bienvenidos a la estrella.” That means “Welcome to the star.”

Menu boards at many locations also will be translated into Spanish.

More than half the chain’s hourly workers are Latino, but none of its officers or board members are, Wisely said. “That’s obviously something we need to work on,” he said.

Marketing experts generally say that Carl’s Jr. is making a good, albeit tardy, move.

“Their competition has been at it for a while,” said Ray Durazo, partner at Moya, Villanueva & Durazo, a Los Angeles research firm specializing in the Latino market. “But if their campaign is unique enough, they might be in a position to rise above the background noise.” One recent survey indicates that Latinos in Southern California are very aware of Carl’s Jr. Some 200 heads of Latino households were recently asked to name their favorite fast-food restaurant. A total of 70% named McDonald’s, but the same number that named Burger King--8%--also named Carl’s Jr. “Considering they haven’t been advertising to Hispanics,” said Roger Sennott, general manager at the San Diego research firm Market Development Inc., “that’s pretty remarkable.”