Language and Its Affects on Advertising.

Language and advertising have a very strong relationship that should be carefully examined by marketing companies in the United States. For most individuals the language they speak shapes who they are and often how others perceive them. The Hispanic language explains many ideas about the culture, attitudes and beliefs. It is beneficial to marketers to understand the Hispanic culture and use their advertising to effectively target this growing segment. By familiarizing themselves and their companies with the Hispanic language, their advertising can reflect the ideals and beliefs of Hispanic individuals, making them feel more comfortable when making purchasing decisions. However, before marketers invest large amounts of time and money into this technique, it is important to determine the effectiveness of advertising in Spanish.

For most, language is the primary means of communication with family and friends. Language takes on a particular meaning within each particular culture. For this reason simply translating an advertisement from English to Spanish causes some of the meaning of the message to be lost. It is difficult for a translation to do justice to an original message because the cultural elements in the original communication were not designed with a second culture in mind (Korzenny 88). Therefore, the translation from English to Spanish will not be as powerful and culturally significant to the Hispanic population.
According to scientists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, the relationship between language and each individual’s thought process is very closely related. In the early twentieth century Sapir and Whorf developed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which argues that an individual’s language determines his/her beliefs and perceptions of the world. Therefore, the experiences of each different linguistic group would be unlike any other cultural group (Korzenny 93, Sapir-Whorf). This controversial hypothesis explains the reason why Hispanics might prefer advertisements that are originally produced in the Spanish language.

As the Hispanic population continues to grow, the Spanish language increasingly dominates over sixty percent of Hispanic households in Los Angeles, Miami and New York (2004 U.S. 167). Because the majority of Hispanics speak mostly Spanish, advertisements in the Spanish language will convey a more powerful meaning than that of a translated advertisement (2004 U.S. 166). In fact, a recent survey reported that fifty-two percent of Hispanics preferred advertising in Spanish (“Hispanic Opinion”). Although recent studies suggest that using the Spanish language in advertisements may be the best option, there are also other alternatives.

Spanglish and code switching have been offered as other methods of reach out to the Spanish speaking culture. When languages are mixed within individual words the result is Spanglish. Code switching refers to works and sentences of two languages that are mixed together (Korzenny 98). Both are widely used among Hispanics in the United States because different languages are used in different settings. For example, the Spanish language might be used when talking to family members at home, but English may be used at work and school. As new vocabulary words are introduced into each language the two languages become mixed into one. Because of the use of these new developments in language that are used by Hispanics in the United States, this group is generally easier to target.

The geographic location of Spanish speaking Hispanics makes this group easier to target because those who strictly or mostly rely on the Spanish language tend to concentrate in the same neighborhoods so they can rely on and help one another (Korzenny 102). This concentration makes it easier for marketers to develop target areas that reach out to their audience. However, for the estimated 700,000 undocumented immigrants that enter the United States each your, marketers have a difficult time targeting this group effectively because they consist of mostly immigrants who come from Hispanic backgrounds, have very little formal education and speak only their native Spanish language (Thornburgh). With limited information, Hispanics who possess similar characteristics are more appealing to marketers who are striving to reach this group through their advertisements.

Because language carries the cultural power of tradition, loyalty and emotions of pride and success marketers who are attempting to understand the growing Hispanic population must keep this in mind when selecting advertisements to communicate with this group (Korzenny 117). By utilizing the native language of Hispanics who share a unique and important background through their language advertisements targeted to this segment become more meaningful to Hispanics and resonate with them more effectively. However, targeting this rapidly changing and growing group can prove a very difficult task unless marketers are dedicated to learning about the unique background of this population.

By John Ferraro
JR******@*ol.com
Hispanic Marketing Communication
Florida Sate University

Work Cited

Korzenny, Betty Ann and Felipe Korzenny. Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Inc., 2005.

2004 U.S. Hispanic Market Report. Synovate, 2004.

Thornburgh, Nathan. “Inside the Life of the Migrants Next Door.” Time 6 Feb. 2006: 34-45.

“Hispanic Opinion Tracker Study Finds Hispanics Holding to Cultural Identity While Pursuing
American Dream; Wide Issue Differences Between Hispanics and Non-Hispanics.”
On-line. Internet. 31 Jan. 2006. Available WWW:http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/
news/newsbyid.asp?id=7784.

“Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.” On-line. Internet. 4 Feb. 2006. Available WWW:http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis.