Yankelovich & Cheskin To Study Hispanics.

Yankelovich announced a new partnership with top multicultural experts at the strategic research and consulting firm Cheskin to produce the 2002 Hispanic MONITOR study. Now in its seventh wave, this study takes an in-depth look at the values, attitudes and marketplace patterns of U.S. Hispanic consumers.

“We’re very excited about this new partnership with Cheskin,” said J. Walker Smith, President of Yankelovich. “The 2002 Yankelovich/Cheskin Hispanic MONITOR study will combine the multicultural expertise of Cheskin with the marketing intelligence of Yankelovich to produce a research tool that will help ethnic marketers with their targeting, positioning, brand strategies, messaging…virtually any marketing decision critical to success in the Hispanic market.”

“This is a breakthrough study particularly now that the U.S. Hispanic population has surpassed 35 million,” said Cheskin Principal and Co-Founder Felipe Korzenny, who reports that the release of new data about this rapidly growing ethnic group from the 2000 Census has spurred a great deal of interest in the implications for ethnic marketing. “This is an unprecedented time for marketers to improve their success rate with this diverse market. Our goal with this study is to help them do so with better targeting and more productive and cost-effective marketing.”

“The new partnership with Cheskin has already had a significant impact on the improvement of this study,” reports Smith. Some new developments include:

Geographic expansion. Conducted in the top Hispanic populations across the country, the 2002 Hispanic MONITOR will further ensure a nationally representative sample by adding three more cities – Atlanta, Denver and Seattle – to the current roster of New York, Miami, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Los Angeles and San Francisco/San Jose. According to Dr. Korzenny of Cheskin, “Adding these cities will better represent emerging US Hispanic markets and consequently will broaden applicability of the study.”

Questionnaire enhancement. The 2002 study questionnaire was enhanced to provide greater comparability with African-Americans and the total U.S. population through other Yankelovich MONITOR research. Says Mr. Smith of Yankelovich, “Our clients have told us this aspect of Hispanic MONITOR is vitally important to their understanding of this group in context with the larger marketplace. The 2002 study will continue to track important emerging trends among Hispanics, but will also be more comparative to other consumer groups in our country.”

Segmentation analysis. The 2002 Hispanic MONITOR will also feature a complete segmentation study of Hispanics through Yankelovich’s new division, The Segmentation Company, as well as proprietary analyses provided by Cheskin. “These powerful analysis tools will provide deeper insight to the Hispanic consumer mindset, enabling marketers to dig deeper into the underlying attitudes, values and motivations driving their behavior in the marketplace. Then marketers will be prepared to make smarter decisions that will improve their success in this market,” reports Korzenny.

“Cheskin has contributed a significant amount of expertise to our approach, questionnaire content and cultural adaptation accuracy, and will also provide crucial input to the interpretation of the data to provide a level of Hispanic consumer insight not previously available,” said Cathy VonFange, Yankelovich’s research director of the 2002 study.

The 2002 study will use bi-lingual interviewers to talk in-person with over 1,000 Hispanic adults, age sixteen and over, using the language of their choice. The study will be fielded in the first quarter of 2002, with results published in the Fall. Sponsors can also receive an in-person presentation of results with implications for their business.