The 2010 Census will likely show that Hispanics are the largest minority – at 16% of the US population surpassing African Americans who are estimated to have grown to roughly 13.5%. Now, some of this may be attributed to changes in accountability (ethnicity rather than race) so the growth may not indeed be true growth but rather a re-classification, of sorts. Nonetheless, marketers have a new challenge: How to reach nearly 50 million US Hispanics.
In 2009, marketing giants such as Proctor and Gamble, Verizon, General Mills, and Johnson & Johnson reportedly invested heavily in the Latino market– in spite of the fact that Hispanic unemployment stood at 11.4%, nearly 3 percentage points higher than the general US population. (BusinessWeek, U.S. Marketers Say Hola! to Hispanic Consumers, by Ronald Grover). These companies have and are willing to dedicate the resources to capture this market. This write-up is not for them.
For everyone else, here are 8 reasons why you will likely have trouble reaching me:
1. Immigration Reform
Yes, immigration reform. This is not personal – it is business. Regardless of how an individual feels about immigration law, votes against illegal immigrants may be perceived as prejudicial and met with outrage by the collective group known as “Hispanics.” Changes to census questions will likely reveal that there are quite a few extra Hispanics “sleeping on the couch”; an attack on them could insult their legal hosts.
As a marketer, you should not underestimate the ease with which we can determine the degrees of separation between your product and the elected official voting against illegal immigrants nor how tied in we are with organizations such as LULAC.
2. 1st to 3rd Generation and beyond
To appeal to Hispanics, marketers must recognize how the Hispanic family values work – and the differences between 1st generation Hispanics and each generation thereafter.
This is not a new concept – take Irish Americans and all other immigrant groups for that matter. As marketers, can we apply what we have learned from other immigrant groups? How different or similar are the ties between generations of Hispanics? Unlike, European immigrants who had to cross an ocean to get to America, how does proximity to “the native land” change, postpone, or delay the melting pot inevitability?
How do we know who is counted in the 50M? Take Matt Diaz – a major league baseball player born in Portland, Oregon who pronounces his name (Dye – az) not (Dee-ahz); teen actor Selena Gomez, named after the famous Tejano singer, was born to a Mexican father and a mother of Italian decent, yet is listed as American in Wikipedia; and so forth.
3. Socioeconomic Status
While the population boom began long ago with Hispanic laborers, the middle class is strong. The Hispanic professional workforce is no longer insignificant, even if Hispanic corporate leadership is virtually non-existent. So, whom do you market to: hard working laborers, hard working middle class, or the scant, hard working Latino executives?
You can follow the money, but many of those in the hard- working middle class category are there because of the hard-working laborers before them. And, since Hispanics value family and trust, and this population is both growing and getting younger, should the dollars follow the painters, roofers, and field workers, or their X-box, Wii playing kids?
4. Language
Similar to immigration reform, language represents a challenge for marketers. English as a second language is a barrier to advancement not much different from the 19th century Irish immigrants’ arrival to America. Accents, improper use of the language, and erroneous translation of the written word, are unfortunate disadvantages in a cutthroat business world and likely causing prejudices in other areas as well. Therefore, it is no revelation to Hispanics that we need to “clean up our act” if we want to get ahead.
I am currently enrolled in a Parenting course called "Love and Logic" and one of the principles they espouse is to not remind a child why they were sent to their room, for it is insulting and demeaning and says to them: “You’re not smart enough to figure it out on your own.” Telling Hispanics that we need to speak English while we are in the US is insulting and demeaning, and suggests that we are not smart enough to figure it out on our own. Hispanic families understand the need to be conversant in English – and often we just do not have the resources.
Then, what about reaching us in our native language? Ok for TV, but please note that simply translating a web site from English to Spanish does not constitute a commitment to Hispanics. In some cases, it comes across as an insult, tantamount to humorlessly adding an “o” at the end of an English word. Beware.
5. Sub-cultures
Unlike Irish Americans, Hispanics have a real problem. We are disorganized as a collective group. (Reference comments by Mr. William Frey at the Brooking Institute, captured in the January 7 edition of The Economist, titled “Power in Numbers.”) Over 60% of the US Hispanic population is of Mexican descent. Seems like a good place to start. Or you could try to find the connections.
What are the differences between the top three groups - Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans? How do Central Americans feel about South Americans, and are we not all Latin Americans? Which countries have a sour taste for each other? Let’s have some fun with this: If you believe Tony Montana in the 1980’s film Scarface, there was/is mistrust between the Cubans and the Columbians. How do Boricuas, Puerto Ricans from the island, feel about our brothers - the Nuyoricans (Puerto Ricans born and raised in New York)? And, why does everyone think I know the difference between a burrito and an enchilada? A friend once said to me, you are not Hispanic, you’re Puerto Rican.
Mr. Arturo Vargas is the executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) – and of no relations to me. He points out that Hispanics respond best to anger and fear. In other words, unless the entire Hispanic populace is angered or fearful about an issue, you likely do not have our collective attention.
6. Identity Crisis: Hispanic or Latino?
Chances are good you refer to us as one or the other. Chances are also good that if you and a colleague are in a meeting one of you will refer to us as “Hispanic,” and the other as “Latino.” According to a Pew Hispanic Center survey posted on Target Latino blog, 35 percent of us prefer to be called "Hispanic", while 14 percent prefer to be called "Latino".
Ask 10 people to either define or explain the difference and you would likely get ten different answers. So, how can you market to us when you/we don’t even have agreement on how to define our group?
7. Need to Assimilate versus Nationalistic Pride
Hispanics have pride, “orgullo.” We are hard working and we do not take any opportunity for granted. We recognize that we will need to work harder (refer to the section on language), and we know that the road to the top will be disproportionately difficult (refer to the section on socioeconomic status) – but we do not let either stop us. We know that we need to assimilate – to look and feel like the rest of America. However, we have strong ethnic and nationalistic pride. Your message cannot say – “You are one of us now, and this is what ‘we’ buy.” Nor can it say, “We understand you are away from home, so here are products you are accustomed to, and they are all together, towards the back of the store, on Aisle 16, 3rd shelf down.”
8. Politics
This is a wild card issue. While in the business world, the number of Hispanic executives is paltry, the influence of Hispanics in politics is immense. Not only are more Latinos elected to government positions, but we are much more influential as a voting group as evidenced by the past three presidential elections. As the political landscape evolves, and red and blue states turn purple, we as marketers will have yet another data point to suggest the time to figure out this growing segment we call “Latinos” is now.
Monday, February 22, 2010
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