Is Your Hispanic Message Lost in Translation?
Heinrich Marketing
The U.S. Hispanic market isn’t just exploding – it’s evolving. Is your marketing strategy keeping up?
Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing minority group in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. People of Hispanic origin make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population; and that ratio is expected to grow to 30 percent by 2050. But here’s the real truth in these numbers: The market is now so substantial that it’s also much more diverse — and many marketers are getting left in the dust because they’re still working from old models and assumptions.
We asked Heinrich Hispanidad Account Director Rafael Rodriguez for insight on these seismic shifts in the Hispanic market, and how you can make your campaigns more relevant to Hispanic audiences.
Q. What's the biggest mistake you see marketers make when targeting Hispanic customers?
A. Viewing the market in a stereotypical fashion. Many are still defining Hispanic marketing simply as marketing in Spanish, and many base their campaigns on outdated traditional values.
For example, a financial services brand may assume Hispanics are an “unbanked” segment — meaning they can’t qualify for traditional monetary tools like credit cards. But the majority of Hispanics are not unbanked. You have to approach Hispanics with a more sophisticated message, not just assume an entry-level product is right for them.
Some companies certainly are doing the research on Hispanic customers’ decision-making influences. But there are still a lot of marketers simply translating marketing materials into Spanish — then wondering why that doesn’t work.
Q. What’s the best way to tap into the Hispanic market opportunity and generate new business?
Look beyond the numbers. Just like in the general marketplace, you have to look at “Who am I targeting? What are their decision-making influences? How does my brand and value proposition resonate? What can I do to make it resonate?”
Marketers invest all kinds of resources into qualitative and quantitative data to better target the general U.S. population. You have Baby Boomers, young adults … you market to them differently based on all kinds of factors including their media consumption patterns. The same kinds of segments exist in the Hispanic market. Make sure you understand which segment your value proposition fits with. You may have a different media-buy strategy, a different communication strategy, a different message …
What's the smartest thing you've seen a brand do to connect meaningfully with Hispanic U.S. customers?
Colorado Ski Country U.S.A.’s campaign to the Hispanic market stands out. Skiing is a pastime that’s been historically foreign to Hispanic markets. Individual resorts had tried simply translating marketing messages into Spanish, but we could see that recent arrivals to the U.S. weren’t the best target segment. The ski resorts weren’t set up to serve those customers; they had no Spanish-speaking ticket agents or lift attendants, for example, and no Spanish-language signage.
Instead, we targeted two other Hispanic demographics: acculturated families and acculturated singles. And we looked at it psycho graphically to reveal the motivating factors that make the ski industry’s value proposition more relevant to each target segment’s lifestyle.
It wasn’t about explaining why skiing is such a great leisure activity. The message was that to participate in skiing, they don’t have to go outside of what they normally do with their leisure time.
The families tended to spend their leisure time doing family activities together, such as sports events. Our marketing strategy was to position skiing as a family activity.
For the younger, single Hispanics who tended to spend more leisure time going to clubs, we showed that they can do that in a setting that’s more dynamic — at a ski resort. We took a concept that might otherwise be foreign to them and made it resonate.
This segmented campaign generated a lot of excitement within the Hispanic community – after so many years, the ski industry had finally decided to target and welcome them. If you speak to them correctly, they’re going to go up there and make skiing a part of their lifestyle.
Use of social media sites among English-preferring Hispanics is double the usage rate among whites. How can marketers leverage this insight?
It doesn’t surprise me that English speaking Hispanics over-index for use of social media. Traditional media hasn’t been providing for us effectively. Latino TV, for example, tends to be a limiting cultural outlet as it predominantly targets Spanish-dominant Hispanics and recent arrivals by emphasizing novelas (soap operas) and variety shows. For an acculturated Hispanic, this type of programming isn’t as relevant to their bicultural experience.
Social media is more relevant to their specific culture, language preferences and media consumption patterns. It offers a sense of ownership; you make it what you want and communicate in the languages you prefer. A Hispanic may speak or write in Spanish or English and listen to Shakira and Britney Spears on the same playlist. If there isn’t a traditional media outlet that speaks to you, through social media you can find other people who have the same acculturation as you do. You’re not out there in the world on your own.
Another reason Hispanics gravitate toward social media is that they prioritize family and a sense of community. Social media expands on that, letting them stay more connected with family and friends both here and abroad.
Many Hispanics also seek out a balance between the traditions of their heritage and the contemporary culture they’ve adopted in this country. In my social media accounts, I have friends in Columbia where my father is from, Dominican Republic where my mother is from, and friends in the U.S. I can be on the fence in terms of language, references … It depends on what I’m feeling on that particular day, who it’s relevant to or who I think is going to be reading it.
Social media will continue to play a growing role in integrated marketing campaigns to Hispanic market segments. It’s one more way that marketers need to update their thinking and bring their Hispanic marketing strategies into the 21st century.
Contact Heinrich Hispanidad for help getting your Hispanic marketing program up to speed with the changing picture of the Hispanic market.