Boom Times in the Permian Basin Bring Unexpected Marketing Challenges

As the song says… “Warm winds blowing. Heating blue sky. And a road that goes forever.” That’s what most people think of when they envision rural west Texas. True. The roads are long and the sky goes on forever, but there is so much more to this part of the world than meets the eye.

West Texas, and primarily the Odessa-Midland DMA, is vibrant, if not booming - a virtual economic powerhouse. According to data culled from Texas A&M’s Real Estate Center, Odessa’s economic growth and impressive expansion would be the envy of any city in the U.S. 

Here’s a taste of what I’m talking about. Medical Center Health System, the region’s only full-service health network (and a CultureSpan client) has been in expansion mode for three years running. They’ve built a new maternity hospital, an awesome health and wellness center, are currently constructing a new VA center and have plans to build two multi-facility primary care centers. The University of Texas of the Permian Basin (Go Falcons!), which played a leading roll in opening the very cool state-of-the-art Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center has announced plans to build new housing to make room for its growing student body. Petrochemical company REXtac is constructing a new $680 million plant, which promises to bring hundreds of jobs to the local economy. Throw in names like Halliburton, Schlumberger and Black Gold (all of which have new developments in the works) and you start to get the picture of what’s happening out in dusty west Texas.

But with all of this growth come some pretty interesting challenges, especially in the realm of employee recruitment and retention. I’m simplifying things here, but the way I see it there’s an inverse relationship that occurs between employers once the oil fields get pumping. When the crude is flowing, a major portion of the local population goes to work in the fields. When the wells are capped, they go back to work everywhere else.

Sounds simple, but the impact that this “transitory” workforce has on the local economy can present lots of challenges for our clients. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention… or in this example, ingenuity.

One of my former clients in the Permian Basin (one of the country’s leading small market co-ops at the time), was on the receiving end of this challenge a few years back. Employees were being lured away from the nationwide fast food company in the hopes of making more cash in the fields. This required some interesting maneuvering from a marketing perspective. We not only had to fill the seats in the dining room but behind the counter as well. In the company's true fashion, we went all out. Job fairs with radio remotes in the parking lots, a steady stream of radio ads (not to sell burgers but to cultivate a new crop of employees), a new microsite to expedite the application process, job fair sponsorships, a branded shuttle pick-up service for employees… it was all hands on deck.

Then, as often happens when living on the frontier, came a solution from a completely unexpected source. She was affectionately known as Granny… and that she certainly was. Granny, who was well into her 70s at the time, is all that and a bag of fries. She punched in at the crack of dawn (just the way she liked it) and her sole focus was to make the parfaits and salads for the day. By mid-morning she was well on her way to enjoying the rest of her day.

Richard Rodriguez, the operations manager, saw a unique opportunity in Granny and called me up. The idea: Highlight Granny on the senior living segment on the local Univision affiliate. Granny knew just enough Spanish to get her point across to the Spanish-language viewers (as is often the case in this part of the country). The segment was aired and the push was on. We flipped the burger flippin' company's employee stereotype on its head and gave a big shout out to an untapped and very experienced, reliable and dedicated group of potential employees from La Tercera Edad. The message: You can stay active and keep earning on your schedule. It gave new meaning to our recruitment tag line, “You can earn some cash and still have time to be you.”

Yes, west Texas is happening – in a big way – and, I’m happy to say, CultureSpan Marketing has been fortunate enough to be part of it for years now. We love the market and the bicultural aspects of it. In fact, most of the campaigns we’ve developed for our clients in that area have been transcreated to reach the fast-growing and economically influential Hispanic audience.

So, now when I have to make that quick 572-mile round trip to the Permian Basin (just down the road in west Texas terms), I do so happily. There certainly is big sky and wide-open roads out here. And more often than not, they lead to some pretty cool business opportunities for us.

Do you have a company in an area that’s experiencing a rapid population growth in Hispanics of Mexican descent or have you been meaning to develop a Spanish-language marketing campaign for your business? If so, give us a call at (915)581-7900 or shoot an email to gabe.acuna@culturespanmarketing.com.