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After years of being ignored, the Hispanic community is at the front and center of many telecommunications companies' marketing efforts.
These companies are offering the Hispanic population everything from cheap long-distance calling plans to wireless phone service to even free magazine subscriptions.
One such company is Del Mar-based Genesis Communications International, Inc.
The 4-year-old firm provides long-distance and local-telecommunications services to the Hispanic community. Genesis founder and CEO Derek Gietzen saw the need for such services long before many other telecommunications companies even entered the Hispanic market.
"We founded Genesis because we thought there was an opportunity to provide a product to the Hispanic community that really wasn't being served by other long-distance providers," Gietzen said.
And, servicing the Hispanic community means more than just offering cheap calling rates to Mexico, he said.
"The customers don't (care) whether we're a penny cheaper to Mexico City than somebody else. Our strategy was to say, 'Hey, let's have a competitive rate but let's find some things that we can do that the big three (Sprint, AT&T and MCI) won't be able to do.' They have to be everything to everybody. We don't have to be everything to everybody."
Genesis customer perks can be found in the firm's Hispanic Advantage Program, which not only provides discounted long-distance services but also offers things like a free magazine subscription to a Spanish-language publication, and discounts on cellular, pager, legal and travel services.
Each month, a portion of the service charges from each Hispanic Advantage Program customer goes into the Hispanic Advantage Fund, a charitable foundation created by Genesis late last year.
Customers get to suggest where to send the donated money. Last December, money generated from the fund went to Casa Eudes, a Tijuana orphanage for teen-age girls from abusive families.
Why does Genesis make such a big deal about the fund? To Gietzen, the answer is simple: Customers appreciate it.
"The Hispanic community is a very generous group," he said. "A lot of them are very charitable people."
While Genesis primarily serves the residential market, the company recently launched a program targeting Hispanic-owned businesses. Genesis has nearly 60,000 long-distance customers and 10,000 who have long-distance and local service.
Genesis currently has customers in California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, New...