Individualism vs. Collectivism.

Geert Hofstede conducted surveys using IBM employees as the participants. The surveys were conducted between 1967 and 1973 with over 116,000 employees from 72 countries. This study focuses on work related values and has four dimensions, but this paper will only consider one of the four dimensions which is individualism/collectivism.

In individualistic countries people are concerned for themselves and their families, rather than others. The individual is important, and each person’s rights are highly valued. Individualistic countries behaviors provide outcomes for only the individual. People think of outcomes in terms of what are the consequences to themselves. Rewards and punishment are given to the individual. This makes people from individualistic countries very competitive because of the need to be recognized. The individualistic countries include all the English speaking countries (United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) and Central and Eastern Europe.

In collectivistic countries the individual gives up their individual needs for the benefit of the group. Being part of the group is so important that there are clear expectations of how people should behave. Collectivists treat ingroup and outgroup members differently. “An ingroup member is someone with whom a persons has an affective relationship, usually a family member, friend, colleague, neighbor, or classmate. An outgroup member is a person with whom there is no recognized relationship with.” Most countries in the world are collectivists including Asia, Arabic countries, Latin America, and Portugal

Hispanics come from collectivistic countries but are living in a country which is very individualistic. Hispanics have a very large ingroup of people and if they meet new people they can reach the ingroup status in a short period of time. Americans have a small ingroup and it takes years for a person to allow new people to become part of their ingroup.

In collectivistic countries, like all Latin countries, people look after each other in exchange for loyalty, they emphasize belonging, and decisions are made as a group. Marketing to Hispanics, therefore, can be different than marketing to Americans. In American families the parents make purchasing decisions. So marketers make commercials and promotions targeted towards adults. In Hispanic families the whole family, including grandparents or children, may be part of the purchasing decision, so marketers have to target different segments of a household. As a Hispanic when I was younger I remember the whole family used to go shopping to the super market together, and many times us kids made decisions of what products to get. So marketers trying to reach collectivistic Hispanics have to make commercials information for different members of the family. For example they can make a cereal commercial for kids with animation and include that the cereal has a prize, then mention that the cereal has vitamins and fibers which will get a group decision to buy the product.
Hispanic families who make decisions as a whole are more close to their collectivistic country of origin; while Hispanic families which the parents make decisions are being influenced by the individualistic country in which they live in. Marketers have to understand to which degree Hispanic families are individualistic or collectivistic and which products require more individualistic or collectivistic decisions.

Ursula Kiener
Florida State University