What other factors, besides generation and length of time in the US account for differences in consumer behavior? [INSIGHT]

All Marketing is Discourse
All Discourse is Cultural
All Marketing is Cultural

In addition to generation and length of time in the US, many factors account for the differences in consumer behavior.  Language and culture influence consumer behavior on the interpersonal and public level.  The effectiveness of an ad is directly related to the interaction of two things, language and cultural. Because ‘all marketing is cultural’ if marketing communication fails to articulate a shared set of cultural awareness than an ad neither in Spanish or English will be effective.  
 
For Marketers, language proficiency and cultural influence indicate the communication practices within the household.  Dr.’s Korzenny and Korzenny, authors of Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer, assess that effective marketing to Latinos is not linguistically bound for “when the family gets together to discuss purchase decisions in input they bring to the “table” should be compatible regardless of whether the input was in English or Spanish” (Korzenny & Korzenny, p.131). To make a purchase decision, A Latino household may employ code switching between Spanish and English.  

Marketing communication used to target Hispanics, may be more successful in Spanish or English, depending upon the level of fluency and specific situation.   According to a 2011 Pew Research Center Report, Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 37% of Hispanics, 18 years of age or older, stated that they spoke English ‘very well’.  Yet, 41% of Hispanics consider their spoken English language ability to be less than ‘very well’ (Pew Research Center, 2011). Within some Hispanic households, some areas of life, school or work, are practiced solely using the English language. Spoken language affects a shared experience and the sharing of experience.

Expression of a shared ancestry, value system, moral code, and religion may provide the cultural framework marketers need to reach Latinos.  Not all Hispanics speak Spanish or English as a native language, some may speak, Zapotec, Maya, or other native languages to Mexico, Latin and Central America (Korzenny & Korzenny, p.135).  Amongst those that ‘speak English very well,’ only 21% are living in ‘English only’ households. (Pew Research Center, 2011.)  For those that are adapting to a new life in the US, a brand that positions itself as accepting of immigrant values and culture can affect consumer behavior. Awareness of a group’s core beliefs, framework of understanding, and moral code provides the tools marketers need to culturally identify with the consumer and manipulate consumer behavior.  

Language is a necessary element of the internal dialogue of consumers. Language is used to conceptualize seemingly new experiences against a cultural framework which affects consumer behavior. Hayden White, a cultural rhetorician and author of Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism suggests that all communication is discourse and that all discourse is tropological. A trope is a rhetorical device similar to a metaphor.  A trope “generates figures of speech or thought by their variation from what is ‘normally’ expected and by the associations they establish between concepts normally felt not to be related or to be related in ways different from that suggested” (White, p.2)  The twists and turns from logical to metaphorical is where key consumer insight lies.

Understanding cultural trends enables marketers to better understand and predict Hispanic consumer behavior. Korzenny and Korzenny define culture as ‘the set of designs for living that human groups pass on from generation to generation” (Korzenny & Korzenny, p.161) The difficulty in defining what part of consumer behavior is cultural is not knowing the culture.  The comfort of a marketers own culture may inhibit a clear point of view of the consumer or “it is a lot harder to market to a different culture than to the one you are part of” (Korzenny and Korzenny, p.180). Through the cultural lens of a one’s own, a marketer may understand some Latino behavior as illogical, forgoing the importance of the Latino’s emotional reaction to a stimulus.

Marketers should note the shift of meaning as a discursive practice.  Korzenny and Korzenny define ‘ethnic marketing’ as “the understanding of the culture and the contextual issues surrounding it.” (Korzenny and Korzenny, p.180). Cultural insight is a product of discourse. Discourse, meaning flipping back and forth within one’s own mind between a logical and figurative understanding of a stimulus.

Groups of people who share a culture pass an ad or new idea through a similar cultural framework. The idea of using cultural insight effectively is promotion of  multiculturalism over segmentation. Effective use of cultural insight that will promote Hispanic consumer inclusivity in a new culture.  Hispanic consumers will culturally encode a new idea in various ways. A marketers ability to generate cultural relevance within a consumer affects internal and  public dialogue as well as consumer behavior.

By Angelene Cicero – Student at Florida State University

Works Cited:
Korzenny, Felipe, and Betty Ann Korzenny. Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States. Rep. N.p.: Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, 2011. Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Pew Research Center. Web. Oct. 2013.

White, Hayden V. Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978. Print.