"Targeting" Hispanics

Recently, my friend and partner Joshua Stevens asked about my opinion on a question made to him by a TV sales rep. The question was:

"With the rapid growth of the Hispanic population, which do you feel is the best way to target them without homogenizing the ads?"

Felt compelled to share my answer with you:

Reaching the heterogeneous Hispanic population in the U.S. can be as simple or intricate as the advertiser’s budget and strategy allows us, as well as the size of the market we are trying to reach (a city, state, region, or the whole country). We could be trying to reach a Spanish-dominant, fully bilingual, or English-Dominant audience; fully acculturated, bi-cultural, or non-acculturated customer; people descending from various countries or mostly from one country; different socio-economic levels, etc.

It could go from a simple reference [in English], which only someone with a Hispanic heritage would get, on your regular, English-language media to an ad in Spanish, on Spanish media that specifically addresses Latinos…

There isn't a simple turnkey solution to effectively reach "Hispanics"; it all depends on the specifics of EACH situation. It is the job of the advertiser and its advertising/marketing consultant to see the business real and approach the situation in the best way possible.

Comments

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I agree that there is not "a single turn-key solution to effectively reach" Hispanic audiences. "Reaching" really has to a bilateral conversation with the various Hispanic segments. And this dialogue should be based more on cultural relevancy than on language or "acculturation".

Marketing models that target Hispanics based on acculturation are flawed for two primary reasons.

First, the assumption is that Spanish language marketing is the way to reach most of the market. But language is just one part of the cultural definition of the U.S. Hispanic-market. The English speaking, Hispanic market is a culturally diverse segment that.

The other false assumption is that Hispanics are language static. But a Pew Study found that while only 23% of first generation Hispanics are English fluent, the number almost quadruples by the second generation to 88% and to 94% by the third.

Hispanics are language and culturally' fluid.