Cheskin ‘Nuestro Futuro: Hispanic Teens in Their Own Words.

Hispanic teens may be the single most important segment for future-oriented marketers to understand. They provide rich insights into the influence of ethnicity and culture in the larger U.S. consumer market. And with a current spending power of $20 billion and a projected growth rate six times higher than the rest of the teen market, Hispanic teens are a force in and of themselves.

To empower companies and marketers, the innovation consulting firm Cheskin has today released Nuestro Futuro: Hispanic Teens In Their Own Words, an unprecedented video profile of U.S. Hispanic teen lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors. Produced from over 30 hours of in-depth at-home interviews with more than 30 bicultural Hispanic teens, ages 13 to 19 across the U.S., the profile illuminates key issues in the words of teens themselves. Hearing and seeing them in their homes through the lenses of Snippies video journalists provides an emotive and realistic context for understanding.

“Currently, many marketing programs correctly focus on multicultural markets, celebrating distinct cultures for targeted products, services and communications. With youth, we believe the trend is toward ‘intraculturalism’ — the combining, sharing, and recreating of multiple ethnic identity influences,” says Stephen Palacios, Cheskin executive vice president. “Studying this phenomenon in Hispanic teens can provide insights into not only this segment, but how this ethnic variable is playing a greater role for teens generally.”

“Intraculturism” is a new term used to define the ease with which America’s youth adopts and adapts aspects of a diversity of cultures into their identity. As opposed to multiculturalism, which celebrates distinct cultures unto themselves, intraculturalism is a fluid process of identity formation that continually borrows from a diversity of traditions and attitudes.

For instance, a young girl of Hispanic descent may combine hip-hop fashion with Mehndi-stained hands when she goes out dancing to her favorite Reggaeton artists. The next morning she sits down with her grandmother to watch a telenovela before logging onto MySpace.com to catch up on her diverse network of friends.

Why is this important?

As a dominant trend among American teens, which is driven by an increase in the diversity of peer groups and social permissibility, intraculturalism is bound to shape this country’s future cultural landscape.

The trend is most prominent among Hispanic youth, a demographic that is growing six times faster than other market segments and, by 2020, will account for 24% of the population aged five to 19 years. They currently control $20 billion in spending power and influence over $200 billion in household spending. Hispanic teen culture and attitudes are influencing “mainstream” American values through their growing presence and intraculturalism – shouldn’t we have a picture of what that means?

Nuestro Futuro dimensionalizes three major themes including:

The multiple levels of teen and ethnic complexity that define their self identity,

The influence they wield at home and in their external networks,

And their optimism expressed through their ambition and vitality.

To view video CLICK below:

http://www.meaningfulexperience.com/assets/HispanicTeenStudy06Promo.wmv