How Language Effects Hispanic Marketing.

Two overarching ideas have permeated the readings for the subject of whether or not, and how, the Spanish language affects the way Hispanics think and behave and how this affects Hispanic marketing strategies. Those ideas are that first, the English and Spanish languages, as well as marketing principles and practices, are continuing to evolve as we have an increasing number of interactions between cultures and as new ideas and studies are conducted and as the acculturation process takes place in America. The second, directly related to the first, is that the notion of language impacting the way people think and behave is extremely complex and controversial and is not a subject easily dissected. One could write a dissertation on this subject but for the scope of this assignment I will discuss an overview of findings regarding marketing to Hispanics in English and/or Spanish, code switching, the Sapir-Whorf hypotheses and what current and future marketers will need to consider to be successful.

First, because of the growing numbers of Hispanics in the United States, the US Hispanic market has been the subject of increasing marketing attention and the source of great confusion as well. How does one market to a group of individuals from many different countries of origin, with numerous arrays of Spanish dialects and “slang”, with varying degrees of comfortability and desire for English, successfully across the board? Traditionally, the Korzenny and Korzenny text tells us, the majority of Hispanic marketing and media industries have reasonably argued that using Spanish is the best way of reaching US Hispanics. The US Census Bureau and many other sources consulted in my readings shows that about 80% of US Hispanics say that they speak at least some Spanish at home. Thus, the reasoning has been that if Hispanic consumers largely speak Spanish at home, then the language in which they should be marketed to should also be Spanish. The reasons given in the Korzenny’s book are many. First, it is assumed that because Spanish is the language of the home and heart, it reaches emotional cords that English could not tap into (or at least not as well). Additionally, Hispanics take great pride in the Spanish and data tells us that it has become increasingly “cool” to be Hispanic (as well as bilingual!) Thus, Spanish has become more than a means of communication: it is also a symbol of culture and pride and so marketers fear that ignoring this, they will miss out on appropriately targeting their Hispanic audience.

There are also practical reasons to market in English. Numerous online marketing sites discuss the cost efficiency of marketing in Spanish. Spanish-language TV is a very economical way (relatively speaking) of reaching large numbers of Hispanics, especially those concentrated in the large urban markets discusses in the Synovate text. Even members of households who prefer to speak English watch some Spanish-language TV along with family members. It seems this would be an optimal time, too, for family members to discuss product decisions, especially of large purchases. However, it is important to note that when advertising in Spanish, a company should not simply translate a commercial from English to Spanish. Rather, the marketer should begin with a clean slate and design a commercial directly aimed at Hispanics, for cultural nuances could be missed if the original message is aimed at, for example, Anglo women. Priorities, interests, and product knowledge could and probably is significantly different. Thus, your target audience for that segment should be carefully considered otherwise time and money could be wasted.

Having said all of this, it is incredibly important to note, especially as the younger generation of Hispanics (average age in the 20’s rather than 38, as is the national average) ages, is that the assumption that Hispanics are best, only, and primarily reached in Spanish should be thoroughly examined. The reasoning behind this is that research shows even those whose first language is Spanish or who say they speak Spanish mostly at home still say they watch about half of their weekly TV in English (Cheskin 2003). Furthermore, the 2004 Census data shows us that 70% of those who say they speak Spanish mostly or only at home ALSO understand English well or very well and when considering all percentages in sum, one can conclude from the Census data that roughly 76% of all US Hispanics may be reachable in English. Thus, while reaching specific subgroups of Hispanics in Spanish will continue to be an important part of any marketing plan, marketing personnel need to start thinking outside of the box. Additionally, with the proliferation of Hispanics across the country, most especially in small media markets, there may only or mostly be English media offerings and so special consideration of marketing techniques ought to be made. If done correctly, it seems the dividends could prove lucrative. Furthermore, to combine that which I have to this point discussed, there appears to be a great deal of room for cross-language strategies, as we have learned that within many Hispanic families there are a diverse array of language preferences and bilingual ability. For example, the grandfather in the home may speak Spanish only, the mother more Spanish than English, the father more English than Spanish due to his business ties, and the children nearly all English. To market to this group as a single unit, then, cross-language techniques could (and probably should) be employed. The most important thing to remember on this subject seems to be that communication to Hispanics in any language (as is the same with any other group) must have cultural relevance to the lives they lead. Thus, as we have been talking about all semester, culture must be taken into serious consideration.

This brings me to the subject of code switching. An article written by Richard Skiba discusses the intricacies of such an effort. He says, “code or language switching occurs when an individual who is bilingual alternates between two languages during his/her speech with another bilingual person” (Skiba). Code switching occurs often amongst bilinguals, I have witnessed it many times between two of my Mexican-American friends, and may take a number of different forms such as alteration of sentences, phrases from both languages succeeding each other and switching during a long story. The experience I have had with code switching is that, for example, within English there are some words that are used to describe the American culture or a technical or educational subject that just are not as succinct or apparent in the Spanish language and vice versa. Thus, by knowing two languages well, a person can choose to call upon a word that is most precise in explaining the concept about which they are speaking. For example, if two bilingual individuals from Cuba are discussing American politics, it will often be easier to describe the political landscape in English, especially where differences lie between the American and Cuban governments. One could see, conversely how if the conversation continued to a favorite Cuban dish, English would probably not have a succinct word to describe the flavors, spices, and name. It is not to say that either language could not be used to describe the dish or the politics with much explanation (i.e. a three sentence description of what it means to be a Senator or a four sentence description about what is in a famous Cuban dish) but by being able to draw upon a shared experience/knowledge (enthymeme), the bilingual speakers are able to communicate much more succinctly.

The Korzenny and Korzenny text gives other reasons for code switching, including the idea that language users acquire vocabularies relevant to specific situations or contexts, namely they use Spanish to speak about personal home life activities, including food, home, family emotions, pets, etc while the language spoken and learned at work and/or school, including experiences specific to their American environments, such as computer programming language, peer relationships with Anglos or African Americans, general pop culture, etc, may be discussed in English more often than not. Additionally, the text discusses the idea that many Hispanics who come to the United States do so for economic opportunity and have had little formal education, be it in Spanish or English and thus communicating in either language is equally as difficult, thus the blending of words takes place (i.e. “truck” becomes troca). This code switching also occurs among Hispanics who have had higher education and experience speaking English, thus it becomes just as easy to pull either language from their “repositories of neural mass”, so given the state of their mind (i.e. tired, who they are speaking with, what they have just been doing/talking to, etc) may result in a different amount of English or Spanish. Young Hispanics have a similar result in that they may speak Spanish at home but English at school and so both become easily accessible.

The problem with code switching for marketers appears to be numerous, however. First, one must know their target audience, for many do not appreciate the idea of code switching, especially those Hispanics who have had the most education. They lean towards preservation of the Hispanic language into its pure state. I could completely understand how the mixing of the languages may seem to many as a breakdown of their culture, for our individual languages and dialects largely serve, or at least represent, that which our culture embodies. To see English and Spanish spoken together in the same sentence, to many then, would be seen almost as a further insult or takeover of US culture on the pride of the individuals heritage, whatever the country of origin. Thus, marketers need to be aware of whom they are targeting – higher luxury items, it seems, would best be done in Spanish as those with higher education levels tend towards the purity standpoint.

Another problem with code switching is that there is not a firm set of rules as to when to use English or when to use Spanish. What might seem like a good idea to a marketer (or to one Hispanic, even) may make others feel uncomfortable. Thus, it would seem a very good and necessary idea to put together your commercial for your target audience and run focus groups as to the selection of certain words in each language. Additionally, taking education levels, age, and potential targeted buyers into consideration would be very important when attempting a commercial that features code switching techniques.

Another idea that is often brought up when discussing the role of language in marketing is that of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. After researching the meaning and context of this hypothesis, it seems it can be broken down into two basic principles: that of linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. Linguistic determinism, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis#Criticism, refers to the idea that the language we use to some extent determines the way in which we view and think about the world around us. It has generally been divided into two separate groups: “strong” determinism and “weak” determinism. The former is largely unsupported and the latter widely accepted. Strong determinism states that language actually determines thought and that language and thought are identical. This has been largely disproved through studies with various indigenous tribes and logic. Weak determinism, though, says that thought is merely affected by or influenced by our language, whatever that language might be and it is this idea that marketers must consider when conducting an ad campaign, as language certainly does influence our way of thinking and description of how the world works. Furthermore, a second prong of this theory is that of linguistic relativity, which states that distinctions encoded in one language are unique to that language alone. An example given by many sources on the subject discussed the color spectrum/continuum, where each color blends into another and there are no sharp boundaries. In English (and other languages), we impose boundaries; for example, we talk of red, orange and yellow. Obviously, these boundaries are arbitrary and other languages then, create different boundaries. It does not, though, alter the colors anyone sees, rather the words used to describe him or her. This example demonstrates that the language we use divides not only the color spectrum but also our whole reality into completely arbitrary components. It is these boundaries that marketers should concern themselves with, for a simple translated description of products may very well not result in the same meaning (or any meaning) for Hispanics. It takes understanding the boundaries, understanding the cultural nuances, and imposing those symbols into the ads to be successful. In other words, we know that there is a huge overlap between language and culture.

To reiterate the point, there is a growing importance to market to Hispanics in English, although Spanish language commercials will also continue to be important. Cultural relevance is expected to remain one of the most important determiners to build trust beyond language. As Hispanic households in the United States increasingly become functionally bilingual, opportunities to target these families in various ways, including Spanish-only, English-only and by utilizing code switching techniques, can and should be employed after careful research and testing with targeted demographics (and by those skilled in formulating such information). Equally important in consideration is the ability to stay on message with your campaign when running in different languages and with different TV stations – otherwise, the consumer may be left confused and feel as though they are being tricked. Marketing strategies that address these issues will have important implication son the future of Hispanic Marketing in the US and for cross cultural marketing everywhere. It will be exciting to see how marketers choose to embrace, or run from, these issues in the future.

By Jennifer Kilinski
Florida State University

References:
Hispanic Marketing, Korzenny and Korzenny (2005).
2004 US Hispanic Market Report, Synovate 2004).
www.cheskin.com
www.aber.ac.uk/media/students/njp0001.html
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sapir-whorf_hypthesis#criticism
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Skiba-CodeSwitching.html
www.census.gov