High and Low Involvement Product Decisions: Hispanics and Reference Groups.

“The key to social influence is identification.” (Korzenny, 63) This holds even truer when considering how to more effectively advertise to certain cultural and ethnic groups, more specifically, Hispanics. As a result, Hispanic Marketing Managers must identify which reference groups are most useful with which specific product types in order to create successful advertising campaigns.

The results of interviews I held with Hispanic consumers showed a tendency for these consumers to use different reference groups depending on whether the product or service was of high or low-involvement. Although with low-involvement products, consumers generally look towards other Hispanics that they consider homophilous with their attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs for advice, in decisions about high-involvement products, Hispanics often turn to their Anglo-American counterparts as opinion leaders and role models.

In making decisions about everyday products that Hispanic consumers use in their homes, I found there was an inclination for Hispanics to seek out advice from those people with which they had strong ties. One can assume that this is largely due to the fact that when dealing with people who have strong ties, the exchange of information is usually more effective than in situations where the people communicating have very little in common.

Within “strong tie” communication, members of the social network tend to be quite similar in terms of socioeconomic status, education, and beliefs and consequently have less difficulty communicating ideas. Essentially, due to the lack of vast differences between these individuals, they “speak the same language,” making for relatively easy and effective communication. However, since most people who have strong ties are similar, there is little new information which enters the social network. Take the example of people at a cocktail party. Although generally these events are designed to broaden people’s social networks, usually guests regroup with others whom they already know and talk about things they have already experienced. Very little new information is exchanged. This allows me to draw the conclusion that often times when Hispanic consumers seek advice on low-involvement products from people with whom they have strong ties, they might be very well looking to validate their preexisting ideas on a product or service rather than analyze totally new perspectives.

However, contrary to the Nissan/Acento case discussed in the book, (Korzenny, 64) I found through my interviews that when it came to high-involvement products-such as automobiles, homes, and investments-Hispanics were more likely to seek out advice from Anglo coworkers, neighbors, and friends rather than other Hispanics. I feel that this is largely linked to the perception that Anglo-Americans often have higher disposable incomes than their Hispanic equivalents and therefore Hispanics may look to them as role-models for achieving success and the “American dream.” Additionally, recent immigrants may feel that they themselves and people in their closest social network aren’t knowledgeable enough on these types of products to give them credible advice.

Throughout these interviews, I found that the Hispanics I spoke to were very sure of their own identity. However, factors such as whether the person has grown up in the U.S. or recently emigrated, income levels, and education resulted in an array of responses regarding questions about whether consumers felt they were Latino or Hispanic. Younger, second and third-generation immigrants felt that the term “Hispanic” attempted to box them into a racial group, and consequently associated stigma with that term. Others, however, expressed that the term “Latino” was linked with Hispanics who were born outside the U.S. In each case, a consistent response among consumers was that seeing other Hispanics in commercials and advertisements could relate to them more, but depending on the product or service being advertised, using Hispanics in an ad produced different results in consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Generally speaking, Hispanic consumers articulated that being Hispanic most influenced their purchasing behaviors in that they habitually took more time than other cultural groups to decide on a purchase-the reason for this largely stemming from many Hispanics’ lack of experience with consumer products. If Hispanics feel they don’t know enough about a product or service to make a thought out decision to adopt or reject that product, they will seek out information from those around them in order to appease uncertainty.

Hispanic consumers differ from other cultural groups in the U.S. because many times, Hispanics feel ties to not only their country of origin, but also to the American way of life. While some may feel that the U.S. is still somewhat foreign to them, others have integrated completely. This makes for quite an enigma that Hispanic Marketing Managers must work through. Understanding self identification “may be the key to their (Hispanics’) motivation, and the foundation for building a successful campaign.” (Korzenny, 77) Depending on whether the product is of high or low-involvement, marketers can begin to distinguish the different reference groups and role models that Hispanics use regarding different products and create intelligent, successful marketing campaigns accordingly.

By Leslie de Lepine
Multicultural Marketing Communication
Student
Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication
Florida State University